It wasn’t a medical emergency. He visited his Primary Care physician, who recommended an MRI, which was performed at a hospital. In the U.S. it’s possible (but

It wasn’t a medical emergency. He visited his Primary Care physician, who recommended an MRI, which was performed at a hospital. In the U.S. it’s possible (but not widely known) that you can shop around for medical imaging like MRIs. (My wife has saved thousands of dollars doing this.) Hospitals often run these as profit centers so the markup is quite steep.