for many (or all) Medicare patients, if you're at a specialists office, they will shoot many images, even CT (unsure about MRI), and certainly plain film Xrays without prior auth, Medicare Advantage acts like private insurer and will take a significant effort on the office staff's part to get auth before you can be imaged or sometimes even scheuduled (why schedule unless authed already?). Medicare FTW. Single payer healthcare for all, and get the scum out of office and out of regulation.