Smart Choice MRI chain plans expansion to Chicago

Smart Choice MRI, a low-cost MRI chain, plans to open four standalone imaging centers in the Chicago area in 2016, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Rich Anderson, CEO of the Milwaukee-based company, said Smart Choice's $600-per-scan MRI is considerably less expensive than other magnetic resonance imaging providers, citing an average cost of nearly $3,000 at a Wisconsin hospital, according to the report.

The small size of Smart Choice facilities enables it to offer low prices. Each facility is only about 1,500 square feet and physicians are not employed, though patients need an order from a physician to receive an MRI. Scans are taken and read on the same day by radiologists at the Cleveland Clinic through the clinic's eRadiology program, Mr. Anderson told the Tribune. Cleveland Clinic's The Section of eRadiology serves as a portal through which physicians and patients around the world can access the Cleveland Clinic's Imaging Institute's expertise, according to its website.


Smart Choice runs six centers in Wisconsin, but it has raised $6.5 million from investors to expand outside of the state. The four MRI centers opening in April in the Chicago area will be in Schaumburg, Glenview, Skokie and Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, according to the report. The new Chicagoland clinics will accept Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance.

The choice to expand the company is driven by increasing rates of higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs to consumers, which motivate them to search for more affordable medical services, Mr. Anderson told the Tribune.

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