How much does an MRI of the knee cost in the US?

Across 1,191 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $567, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $304 and $1,462. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $1,754 across the 915 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.

Why do Knee MRI prices vary so much?

Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 10.4 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $198 in Puerto Rico to $3,009 in South Dakota.

Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?

Sometimes. At 221 of the 915 hospitals that list a cash price (24%), it is lower than that hospital's own median negotiated rate. If you have a high deductible, ask the hospital for its self-pay price before you book.

What is the Medicare rate shown here?

$244 is the CMS national outpatient (OPPS) payment rate for this service (July 2026). We show it as a government baseline: the national median negotiated rate is 2.3 times it.

All procedures / Knee MRI

Knee MRI Cost in the US (2026): What 1,191 Hospitals NegotiatedNPI VERIFIED

Across 1,191 US hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate for an MRI of the knee is $567 — 2.3× the Medicare outpatient rate of $244. The middle half of hospitals negotiated between $304 and $1,462; the priciest tenth negotiated more than $2,442, 10.4× the cheapest tenth (under $234). Hospitals that list a self-pay price ask a median of $1,754 (915 hospitals).

Code CPT 73721 · Source: hospital machine-readable files (45 CFR §180), file dates 2022-11-12 to 2026-09-28 (median 2026-04-01) · Medicare baseline: CMS OPPS Addendum B, July 2026 · Data extracted 2026-10-06 · Page updated 2026-10-07

National median

$567

all plan types · 1,191 hospitals

Middle half

$304–$1,462

25th–75th percentile of hospitals

Median cash price

$1,754

self-pay · 915 hospitals list one

Medicare baseline

$244

CMS OPPS national · July 2026

1,191 hospitals, one bar per price band

median $567Medicare $244

$0$2,500$5,000

Each bar counts hospitals whose median rate falls in that price band; the last, dashed bar holds the 4 at $5,000 or more. The cheapest tenth negotiated under $234, the priciest tenth over $2,442 — 10.4× apart for the same procedure.

These are contract reference rates, not your bill. A median across hospitals is not a quote for your plan or network. Your out-of-pocket cost depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network status.

This is the hospital's facility fee. The radiologist who reads the images bills separately.

Coverage: 1,191 of the 5,419 hospitals in the CMS roster have an identity-verified price file with this procedure in our data. It is not a random sample, and a hospital missing here has not been judged non-compliant — we may simply not have its file yet. 87 of these 1,191 hospital files were more than 12 months old at extraction — hospitals must update yearly; we keep the figures and say so rather than hide them.

By insurance type

Insurance type	Hospitals	Median	Middle half	× Medicare
Commercial (plan type not stated)	734	$1,453	$586 – $2,567	6.0×
PPO	777	$1,276	$657 – $2,582	5.2×
HMO	528	$923	$529 – $1,988	3.8×
EPO	127	$1,314	$509 – $2,771	5.4×
POS	70	$1,249	$518 – $2,966	5.1×
ACA Marketplace	466	$550	$365 – $1,196	2.3×
Medicare Advantage	691	$274	$236 – $950	1.1×
Medicare (as listed)	667	$255	$236 – $436	1.0×
Medicaid	760	$505	$272 – $1,102	2.1×
Federal employees (FEP)	22	$1,469	$1,467 – $2,670	6.0×
Workers' comp	132	$1,176	$501 – $2,499	4.8×

Plan types are grouped from each hospital's plan names. Each figure is a median of hospital-level medians; types with fewer than 20 hospitals are left out.

By state

State	Hospitals	Median	Middle half	× Medicare	Median cash
Alabama	13	$218	$213 – $226	0.9×	$1,356
Arizona	12	$861	$439 – $1,139	3.5×	$623
Arkansas	9	$289	$257 – $706	1.2×	$1,344
California	42	$371	$305 – $866	1.5×	$1,124
Colorado	6	$1,252	$497 – $2,091	5.1×	$1,250
Florida	47	$395	$272 – $504	1.6×	$2,761
Georgia	31	$407	$360 – $1,182	1.7×	$1,713
Hawaii	7	$301	$238 – $568	1.2×	$1,360
Idaho	12	$1,347	$1,046 – $1,679	5.5×	$1,624
Illinois	47	$1,314	$444 – $1,951	5.4×	$2,552
Indiana	27	$505	$495 – $1,037	2.1×	$1,238
Iowa	48	$1,332	$802 – $1,764	5.5×	$1,876
Kansas	47	$950	$657 – $1,404	3.9×	$1,251
Kentucky	48	$780	$633 – $1,072	3.2×	$2,434
Louisiana	24	$437	$305 – $597	1.8×	$883
Maine	9	$992	$310 – $1,725	4.1×	$996
Maryland	9	$243	$160 – $469	1.0×	$238
Massachusetts	9	$536	$338 – $1,233	2.2×	$2,446
Michigan	28	$264	$236 – $428	1.1×	$1,308
Minnesota	30	$1,352	$853 – $2,209	5.5×	$2,123
Mississippi	21	$221	$209 – $340	0.9×	$1,371
Missouri	29	$322	$240 – $958	1.3×	$1,646
Montana	17	$1,317	$395 – $1,804	5.4×	$1,720
Nebraska	31	$1,604	$489 – $2,534	6.6×	$2,598
Nevada	9	$388	$388 – $1,040	1.6×	$5,115
New Hampshire	6	$995	$408 – $1,355	4.1×	$5,650
New Jersey	22	$414	$346 – $414	1.7×	$1,011
New Mexico	17	$926	$413 – $2,000	3.8×	$1,520
New York	38	$375	$323 – $569	1.5×	$1,065
North Carolina	22	$517	$246 – $1,093	2.1×	$1,629
North Dakota	12	$1,920	$1,496 – $2,763	7.9×	$2,006
Ohio	58	$363	$243 – $619	1.5×	$1,888
Oklahoma	34	$404	$228 – $843	1.7×	$1,663
Oregon	22	$421	$337 – $807	1.7×	$1,776
Pennsylvania	59	$835	$294 – $1,622	3.4×	$2,037
Puerto Rico	10	$198	$198 – $228	0.8×	$750
Rhode Island	5	$275	$271 – $307	1.1×	$1,403
South Carolina	27	$240	$235 – $464	1.0×	$2,239
South Dakota	12	$3,009	$2,744 – $3,618	12.3×	$3,692
Tennessee	23	$339	$232 – $495	1.4×	$947
Texas	97	$798	$324 – $1,484	3.3×	$1,599
Utah	21	$2,442	$2,404 – $2,650	10.0×	$2,598
Vermont	8	$2,259	$1,585 – $2,734	9.3×	$2,951
Virginia	19	$679	$407 – $1,405	2.8×	$1,353
Washington	16	$1,206	$746 – $1,728	4.9×	$2,178
West Virginia	8	$1,884	$244 – $2,900	7.7×	$2,547
Wisconsin	27	$1,029	$542 – $1,525	4.2×	$2,110
Wyoming	8	$2,178	$1,742 – $2,311	8.9×	$1,936

middle half of hospitalsstate medianMedicare rate · a dotted end means the range runs past $2,500

States with at least 5 hospitals in our data (48 states). 3 smaller states are counted in the national figures but not listed — a median of two or three hospitals says more about those hospitals than about the state.

Get the data

Hospital-level and insurer-level rates for this procedure are in the full dataset. A free three-procedure sample (brain MRI, head CT, diagnostic colonoscopy) is open under CC BY 4.0: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23199844 · Kaggle.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an MRI of the knee cost in the US?: Across 1,191 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $567, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $304 and $1,462. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $1,754 across the 915 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.
Why do Knee MRI prices vary so much?: Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 10.4 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $198 in Puerto Rico to $3,009 in South Dakota.
Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?: Sometimes. At 221 of the 915 hospitals that list a cash price (24%), it is lower than that hospital's own median negotiated rate. If you have a high deductible, ask the hospital for its self-pay price before you book.
What is the Medicare rate shown here?: $244 is the CMS national outpatient (OPPS) payment rate for this service (July 2026). We show it as a government baseline: the national median negotiated rate is 2.3 times it.

Other imaging prices

Brain MRI

median $799 · 1,185 hospitals

Lower Back MRI

median $528 · 1,186 hospitals

Neck MRI

median $533 · 1,177 hospitals

Head CT Scan

median $303 · 1,227 hospitals

Chest CT Scan

median $448 · 1,215 hospitals

Abdomen & Pelvis CT Scan

median $676 · 1,225 hospitals

Sinus CT Scan

median $296 · 1,215 hospitals

Abdominal Ultrasound

median $217 · 1,213 hospitals

Chest X-Ray

median $112 · 1,210 hospitals

Lower Back X-Ray

median $157 · 1,206 hospitals

See all 30 procedures →