Hospital Adds $20,000 Scan That Informs Patient Whether They Have Feet

CHICAGO—In an effort to expand the facility’s diagnostic testing capabilities, Mount Sinai Medical Center announced Thursday it had begun offering a $20,000 scan that hospital administrators described as “a vital tool” to help physicians detect whether a patient has feet. “With the addition of our new lower-extremity imaging service, we hope to provide our doctors with important insights into the human foot, specifically its presence or absence in a given person’s anatomy,” said Sinai Health System CEO Karen Teitelbaum, noting that in the future, the technology used to perform the $20,000 scan might be able to determine not only if an individual has feet, but also how big they are. “After waiting a few days for the test to come back, a provider will discuss its results with the patient and create a treatment plan based on whether or not they possess this physiological feature, which studies have shown is key to normative short-range mobility. An additional, similarly priced test may then be ordered to determine the total number of feet the patient has.” Teitelbaum added that while the $20,000 scan was not yet covered by insurers, it would be conducted automatically on all incoming patients who do not request, fill out, and submit a form asking to opt out of it.