How much does an MRI of the lower back (lumbar spine) cost in the US?

Across 1,186 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $528, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $285 and $1,453. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $1,776 across the 931 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.

Why do Lower Back MRI prices vary so much?

Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 11.0 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $188 in Puerto Rico to $3,266 in South Dakota.

Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?

Sometimes. At 218 of the 931 hospitals that list a cash price (23%), 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 2.2 times it.

All procedures / Lower Back MRI

Lower Back MRI Cost in the US (2026): What 1,186 Hospitals NegotiatedNPI VERIFIED

Across 1,186 US hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate for an MRI of the lower back (lumbar spine) is $528 — 2.2× the Medicare outpatient rate of $244. The middle half of hospitals negotiated between $285 and $1,453; the priciest tenth negotiated more than $2,544, 11.0× the cheapest tenth (under $232). Hospitals that list a self-pay price ask a median of $1,776 (931 hospitals).

Code CPT 72148 · 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

$528

all plan types · 1,186 hospitals

Middle half

$285–$1,453

25th–75th percentile of hospitals

Median cash price

$1,776

self-pay · 931 hospitals list one

Medicare baseline

$244

CMS OPPS national · July 2026

1,186 hospitals, one bar per price band

median $528Medicare $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 $232, the priciest tenth over $2,544 — 11.0× 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: 1,186 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. 88 of these 1,186 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)	728	$1,422	$583 – $2,582	5.8×
PPO	765	$1,318	$660 – $2,521	5.4×
HMO	516	$895	$502 – $1,974	3.7×
EPO	126	$1,292	$502 – $3,052	5.3×
POS	59	$888	$463 – $2,037	3.6×
ACA Marketplace	472	$518	$361 – $1,172	2.1×
Medicare Advantage	676	$266	$236 – $979	1.1×
Medicare (as listed)	668	$252	$236 – $435	1.0×
Medicaid	755	$458	$265 – $1,109	1.9×
Federal employees (FEP)	22	$1,750	$1,331 – $2,981	7.2×
Workers' comp	132	$1,345	$492 – $2,631	5.5×

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	$216	$213 – $223	0.9×	$1,349
Arizona	12	$271	$264 – $673	1.1×	$726
Arkansas	10	$342	$234 – $737	1.4×	$1,596
California	43	$351	$305 – $866	1.4×	$1,906
Colorado	7	$1,389	$367 – $1,520	5.7×	$1,000
Florida	47	$398	$272 – $504	1.6×	$2,482
Georgia	31	$402	$339 – $1,436	1.6×	$1,805
Hawaii	7	$294	$238 – $623	1.2×	$1,375
Idaho	12	$1,504	$990 – $1,766	6.2×	$1,706
Illinois	46	$1,163	$351 – $2,043	4.8×	$2,317
Indiana	27	$505	$458 – $976	2.1×	$1,718
Iowa	47	$1,463	$845 – $2,176	6.0×	$2,030
Kansas	45	$950	$645 – $1,394	3.9×	$1,180
Kentucky	39	$648	$372 – $950	2.7×	$1,560
Louisiana	25	$453	$289 – $838	1.9×	$1,314
Maine	9	$992	$526 – $1,725	4.1×	$1,004
Maryland	9	$532	$415 – $699	2.2×	$521
Massachusetts	9	$536	$338 – $1,233	2.2×	$2,365
Michigan	29	$256	$236 – $428	1.1×	$1,448
Minnesota	30	$1,775	$863 – $2,170	7.3×	$2,123
Mississippi	21	$221	$209 – $296	0.9×	$1,414
Missouri	29	$287	$239 – $787	1.2×	$1,873
Montana	17	$1,345	$351 – $1,749	5.5×	$1,753
Nebraska	31	$2,003	$489 – $3,295	8.2×	$3,299
Nevada	8	$396	$396 – $1,127	1.6×	$3,923
New Hampshire	6	$703	$385 – $1,114	2.9×	$5,330
New Jersey	22	$414	$285 – $414	1.7×	$609
New Mexico	16	$1,028	$394 – $1,734	4.2×	$1,740
New York	38	$350	$314 – $539	1.4×	$1,104
North Carolina	22	$544	$244 – $1,144	2.2×	$1,681
North Dakota	13	$2,173	$1,354 – $2,545	8.9×	$1,828
Ohio	58	$363	$246 – $617	1.5×	$1,840
Oklahoma	34	$333	$215 – $827	1.4×	$1,492
Oregon	22	$414	$319 – $710	1.7×	$1,776
Pennsylvania	59	$338	$261 – $936	1.4×	$1,656
Puerto Rico	10	$188	$188 – $216	0.8×	$750
Rhode Island	5	$365	$358 – $397	1.5×	$1,403
South Carolina	27	$240	$235 – $474	1.0×	$2,325
South Dakota	11	$3,266	$2,936 – $3,732	13.4×	$3,808
Tennessee	23	$235	$232 – $438	1.0×	$728
Texas	101	$800	$324 – $1,484	3.3×	$1,642
Utah	21	$2,909	$2,631 – $2,981	11.9×	$3,095
Vermont	8	$2,296	$1,283 – $2,821	9.4×	$3,217
Virginia	19	$679	$407 – $1,333	2.8×	$1,255
Washington	17	$1,393	$737 – $1,857	5.7×	$2,240
West Virginia	7	$1,712	$197 – $2,425	7.0×	$1,802
Wisconsin	27	$1,074	$508 – $1,499	4.4×	$2,077
Wyoming	9	$1,658	$1,560 – $2,275	6.8×	$1,386

middle half of hospitalsstate medianMedicare rate · a dotted end means the range runs past $5,000

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 lower back (lumbar spine) cost in the US?: Across 1,186 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $528, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $285 and $1,453. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $1,776 across the 931 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.
Why do Lower Back MRI prices vary so much?: Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 11.0 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $188 in Puerto Rico to $3,266 in South Dakota.
Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?: Sometimes. At 218 of the 931 hospitals that list a cash price (23%), 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 2.2 times it.

Other imaging prices

Brain MRI

median $799 · 1,185 hospitals

Knee MRI

median $567 · 1,191 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 →