XRay, MRI scan copies to keep with ourselves

I was wondering if the doctors in Taiwan let us have digital copies of our X-Ray scans or MRI scans (for free or for a fee). Does anyone know this?

Yes, you can ask. I’m not sure about the fee, but I took an x ray and MRI of my knee to a physcio and chiropractor before.

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Thanks. Is it like a jpeg file or something else?

Yeah, me too, no charge or anything, but mine were in a weird format.
A friend converted them to JPG for me.

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I got the actual copy they put on the lighted whiteboard for the x ray. I think the MRI was on a CD. Along with a write up of what was the issue interpreted from the doctor. Might be good to have if your chinese isn’t great.

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I always ask for a copy of any CT or MRI scans. They come in DICOM format (a high resolution format) and there is usually DICOM reader software that comes along with the disk so you and your 2nd opinion doctor can easily read them.

My experience has been limited to NTUH, CGMH Linkou and VGH Taipei. You have to ask for it and my impression is that they cannot deny you. And based on my experience with NTUH, they do not have to treat you nicely, friendly or professionally when you ask them for it.

I always ask because my brother is neuroradiologist. I upload the entire disk to Dropbox and he has never had any problems setting things up on his end, reading them, and explaining to me what’s what.

How much does the MRI cost if you have NHI?

Nominal fee, perhaps even free - I think I paid a few hundred NT the day I had an MRI earlier this year, but I’m not sure if that was specifically for the MRI, or if it was simply because I went to the hospital.

But I suspect you need a referral from a doctor (which I had).

Thanks! This is a relief.

I plan to visit a doctor’s clinic in a few days and I want to come prepared. I feared it would cost upwards of 5,000 NTD so I was putting it off.

Just for information - it costs a small fee to get XRAY/MRI on CD. The fees differes from hospital to hospital. Like may be 100 NT in small hospital, 400 NT in a big hospital (dont remember the exact numbers but had to pay in this range for two different hospitals).

As an aside, the big hospital also asked me to pay extra for printing my blood test reports, whereas in small hospital the doctors were happy to give me a printout of reports from their own printer for free.

For a fee, yes. Same goes for lab results and medical records.

My doc at a big hospital just prints the results for me for free in the office. From what I understand you are supposed to go downstairs to the records office and this hospital charges $100 for the copy but usually in my case the doctors are happy enough giving it to me for free.

How much was your MRI ?

I got CTscan instead based on doctors advise. It costed around NT 600.

What did you injure?

nothing, just backache