Melissa Rodriguez takes a chest x-ray of a COVID-19 patient at Roseland Community Hospital on Dec. 15, 2020, in Chicago. (Scott Olson/Getty Images/TNS) I recently saw a patient complaining of shortness of breath and a persistent cough. Worried he was developing pneumonia, I ordered a chest X-ray - a standard diagnostic tool. He refused. He hadn't met his $3,000 deductible yet, and so his insurance would have required him to pay much or all of the cost for that scan.