By Caresse Jackman, InvestigateTV and Jamie Grey, InvestigateTV

July 10, 2025

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<br /> <span class="byline">Caresse Jackman, InvestigateTV and Jamie Grey, InvestigateTV</span></p> <p>Kelli Reardon undergoes an MRI twice a year to screen for breast cancer, a measure she said she must take to protect her health. Her mother died of the disease at age 48, putting Reardon at higher risk, and Reardon has dense breast tissue, which makes it harder to detect a growth through a mammogram.</p> <p>When Reardon moved from Alabama to North Carolina, she had little choice but to switch from having the screening done at an imaging center to having it done at a hospital.</p> <p>Then she saw how much higher the charges were. At first, Reardon thought it was an error: “They made a mistake with billing,” she said. “They accidentally added a zero.”</p> <p>It wasn’t a mistake.</p> <p>In this installment of InvestigateTV and KFF Health News’ “Costly Care” series, Caresse Jackman, InvestigateTV’s national consumer investigative reporter, and Jamie Grey, director of investigations, explore how the type of medical facility where a patient seeks care can affect the cost of that care — particularly when that facility is a hospital.</p> <p>
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