First off, the chip doesn’t contain any medical information, something that was missed by many accounts, especially on television. It contains a 16-digit code that can be read by a $650 scanner—something that a health care provider may or may not have. These scanners are hooked into software that can pull up medical information, as specified by the patient.

Based on the actual information provided to the care giver, the RFID product is much the same as lower-tech and vastly-cheaper products such as alert bracelets or plastic cards that inform emergency personnel to contact an information center. While the chip may be able to provide information faster, the speed only comes if medical providers have all the right equipment in working order. The other systems are almost universally accessible, and again, they cost much less.

Getting the chip inserted costs between $150 and $200, according a report. After that, the Global VeriChip Subscriber Registry service costs $9.95 a month, billed to a subscriber’s credit card. Subscriptions for similar low-tech services cost less than a third of this price.

As far as I can tell, the VeriChip service suffers from the exact same problem that the low tech versions do: patients will be unwilling to pay for them, and providers won’t trust that patients will update their information.” (Yahoo! News)