How much does an X-ray of the lower back cost in the US?

Across 1,206 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $157, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $106 and $306. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $359 across the 957 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.

Why do Lower Back X-Ray prices vary so much?

Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 5.8 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $38.00 in Puerto Rico to $658 in Vermont.

Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?

Sometimes. At 252 of the 957 hospitals that list a cash price (26%), 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?

$107 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 1.5 times it.

All procedures / Lower Back X-Ray

Lower Back X-Ray Cost in the US (2026): What 1,206 Hospitals NegotiatedNPI VERIFIED

Across 1,206 US hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate for an X-ray of the lower back is $157 — 1.5× the Medicare outpatient rate of $107. The middle half of hospitals negotiated between $106 and $306; the priciest tenth negotiated more than $536, 5.8× the cheapest tenth (under $93). Hospitals that list a self-pay price ask a median of $359 (957 hospitals).

Code CPT 72110 · 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

$157

all plan types · 1,206 hospitals

Middle half

$106–$306

25th–75th percentile of hospitals

Median cash price

$359

self-pay · 957 hospitals list one

Medicare baseline

$107

CMS OPPS national · July 2026

1,206 hospitals, one bar per price band

median $157Medicare $107

$0$500$1,000

Each bar counts hospitals whose median rate falls in that price band; the last, dashed bar holds the 14 at $1,000 or more. The cheapest tenth negotiated under $93, the priciest tenth over $536 — 5.8× 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: 1,206 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. 91 of these 1,206 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)	735	$298	$178 – $527	2.8×
PPO	773	$333	$188 – $526	3.1×
HMO	516	$262	$151 – $432	2.5×
EPO	124	$357	$189 – $587	3.3×
POS	56	$256	$88 – $462	2.4×
ACA Marketplace	471	$188	$147 – $299	1.8×
Medicare Advantage	695	$113	$102 – $195	1.1×
Medicare (as listed)	684	$109	$102 – $134	1.0×
Medicaid	762	$102	$53 – $208	1.0×
Federal employees (FEP)	22	$382	$272 – $536	3.6×
Workers' comp	135	$221	$139 – $463	2.1×

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	15	$94	$93 – $96	0.9×	$344
Arizona	12	$119	$113 – $209	1.1×	$208
Arkansas	15	$151	$106 – $174	1.4×	$336
California	42	$136	$130 – $171	1.3×	$420
Colorado	8	$230	$148 – $527	2.2×	$393
Florida	49	$147	$117 – $195	1.4×	$599
Georgia	33	$116	$109 – $196	1.1×	$370
Hawaii	8	$104	$82 – $111	1.0×	$399
Idaho	11	$353	$218 – $360	3.3×	$441
Illinois	45	$225	$119 – $501	2.1×	$491
Indiana	26	$221	$169 – $378	2.1×	$400
Iowa	47	$192	$116 – $269	1.8×	$276
Kansas	45	$361	$188 – $477	3.4×	$390
Kentucky	37	$220	$105 – $340	2.1×	$317
Louisiana	26	$122	$97 – $209	1.1×	$263
Maine	9	$122	$103 – $207	1.1×	$290
Maryland	10	$338	$293 – $438	3.2×	$332
Massachusetts	9	$218	$129 – $296	2.0×	$670
Michigan	32	$104	$102 – $131	1.0×	$195
Minnesota	29	$226	$119 – $380	2.1×	$354
Mississippi	23	$93	$85 – $98	0.9×	$200
Missouri	29	$108	$103 – $172	1.0×	$438
Montana	19	$264	$120 – $442	2.5×	$322
Nebraska	30	$329	$118 – $513	3.1×	$504
Nevada	8	$102	$102 – $274	1.0×	$984
New Hampshire	6	$271	$160 – $357	2.5×	$1,039
New Jersey	23	$177	$123 – $177	1.7×	$170
New Mexico	18	$387	$128 – $468	3.6×	$286
New York	39	$130	$119 – $137	1.2×	$240
North Carolina	23	$106	$102 – $181	1.0×	$298
North Dakota	13	$254	$186 – $359	2.4×	$229
Ohio	57	$159	$101 – $253	1.5×	$477
Oklahoma	37	$131	$94 – $231	1.2×	$289
Oregon	22	$163	$137 – $192	1.5×	$360
Pennsylvania	58	$119	$106 – $169	1.1×	$285
Puerto Rico	12	$38.00	$35.87 – $39.00	0.4×	$55
Rhode Island	5	$193	$144 – $215	1.8×	$316
South Carolina	27	$101	$100 – $109	0.9×	$614
South Dakota	11	$579	$497 – $654	5.4×	$642
Tennessee	23	$102	$99 – $107	1.0×	$129
Texas	100	$171	$107 – $309	1.6×	$325
Utah	21	$445	$439 – $536	4.2×	$463
Vermont	8	$658	$597 – $927	6.2×	$754
Virginia	19	$288	$123 – $434	2.7×	$439
Washington	16	$291	$197 – $385	2.7×	$487
West Virginia	7	$273	$74 – $457	2.6×	$402
Wisconsin	27	$184	$115 – $356	1.7×	$360
Wyoming	9	$491	$230 – $797	4.6×	$548

middle half of hospitalsstate medianMedicare rate · a dotted end means the range runs past $1,000

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 X-ray of the lower back cost in the US?: Across 1,206 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $157, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $106 and $306. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $359 across the 957 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.
Why do Lower Back X-Ray prices vary so much?: Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 5.8 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $38.00 in Puerto Rico to $658 in Vermont.
Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?: Sometimes. At 252 of the 957 hospitals that list a cash price (26%), 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?: $107 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 1.5 times it.

Other imaging prices

Brain MRI

median $799 · 1,185 hospitals

Knee MRI

median $567 · 1,191 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

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