PDI Dayton in 2009 bought the Dayton Open MRI location at 2591 Miamisburg Centerville Road in Miami Twp., which had been operating at the site since 1996, according to area manager Michael Dean.
That location at the corner of 725 and Mad River Road, which Dean referred to as “a landmark of the Dayton community,” was damaged in a flood last December when pipes burst on the facility’s third floor.
“It was quite the fiasco,” he said. “The open MRI is in the basement, so all of the water came down to us and ... it was almost up to my kneecaps. The whole building got condemned and everything was damaged. We’re hoping to fix the magnet, but that won’t happen until next year.”
In the meantime, the business introduced a mobile MRI, which helped it continue to see patients until the new Washington Twp. location could open this week.
Dean said PDI knew it needed to get a new brick-and-mortar MRI center. In the Far Hills location, it found a place previously occupied by Kettering Brain & Spine, one that already had an MRI there.
“That was almost like a turnkey operation where the MRI suite was already built out, so all we had to do is drop a magnet in there and get it hooked up and properly calibrated to start operating,” he said. “It was very beneficial. It made it move a lot faster, because otherwise we would have had to build an MRI suite and shield it.”
PDI, which is non-physician owned and independent, was founded in 2004 by CEO and owner Jack Cornell. Besides Washington Twp., it has five locations in the Cleveland metropolitan area and one in Toledo. Cornell said it prides itself on offering “the most affordable MRI service in the Miami Valley.”
An MRI costs $375 and includes a radiologist report, Dean said. A scan with contrast costs $475, he said.
Major health network have patients pay for the radiologist report and MRI images, with bills that can range from somewhere between $1,100 to $2,500 for regular MRIs and as much as $3,000 for those with contrast, Dean said.
In addition, PDI offers global billing, “so when you pay the bill with us, that’s one bill and you’re done,” Dean said.
Also, PDI’s tax ID is Medicare-approved and it is in-network with all the commercial insurances, Dean said.
“So our goodwill list, we take all the major health insurances, and then the average contracted rate with all the commercial insurances like Anthem, Cigna, Medical Mutual, Aetna, is right around $400, and that’s the total cost,” Dean said.
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