MRI Cervical Spine Cost
Mri neck spine w/o dye
$312Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, an MRI cervical spine costs up to about $312 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility. Outside a hospital, one global fee of about $191 covers the whole test, and a ZIP code adjusts every figure to your area.
- ✓Your ZIP's wage-adjusted hospital and surgery center rates
- ✓Five nearby hospitals by name, with CMS star ratings
- ✓The add-on codes that typically land on the bill
- ✓A word-for-word script for asking for a good-faith estimate
- ✓A private link you can reopen and share
- ✓Everything in the Premium report
- ✓15 nearby hospitals instead of five
- ✓Filled good-faith-estimate request letter
- ✓Bill-negotiation letter
- ✓Printable PDF download
National Medicare physician rate (2026)
What the whole procedure costs
The office rate above is what an imaging center, lab or office is paid for the whole test. In a hospital, the facility bills its own fee and the physician bills only the reading. These are 2026 national Medicare amounts.
Medicare may pay the facility separately for this code or package it into another service on the same day, so treat the facility share as an upper bound. For a test like this the physician in a hospital bills only the reading (the professional component); outside a hospital one global fee covers the whole test, shown in the office rate above. Medicare allowed amounts are not what an uninsured patient is charged, and not a quote. Private plans typically allow more.
Get the rate for your ZIP
CMS adjusts this CPT by locality. A five-digit ZIP is enough: no account, no insurance card.
What MRI cervical spine costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in your area moves the bill more than anything else you control.
Rates for your ZIP, 5 named hospitals with CMS ratings, the add-on codes, and the scheduler script.
For example 90001.
One-off payment, no account and no subscription. You get a private link and an email. No medical records and no insurance card, ever.
What these numbers are
Every figure on this page is a 2026 Medicare allowed amount: the physician line comes from the Physician Fee Schedule adjusted by geographic practice-cost indices, and the facility totals come from the CMS hospital outpatient (OPPS) and ambulatory surgery center rates. None of them is a hospital chargemaster price, your insurer's contracted rate, or a quote. Anesthesia, pathology, imaging reads and follow-up care are billed under their own codes when they apply, and an inpatient stay is paid a different way again. For this code the office and hospital physician lines differ by $122.58.
How CMS prices CPT 72141
Work is about 25% of the office total RVU; practice expense is about 73%. Localities with a high PE GPCI move this code more when practice expense is a large share.
Office vs hospital for this code
Office (non-facility) physician rate: $190.72. Hospital (facility) physician rate: $68.14.
Medicare patients typically owe 20% of the allowed amount after the Part B deductible, about $38 for the office physician fee, before any Medigap coverage. That coinsurance does not include a hospital facility fee.
Labeled private-plan and cash ranges on this page are arithmetic multiples of Medicare, not negotiated quotes. Ask the billing office for the CPT code, the site of service, and a good-faith estimate.
MRI Cervical Spine cost by state
2026 Medicare non-hospital rate for CPT 72141, averaged across each state's localities. Open a state for its locality table and full cost breakdown.
What Is MRI Cervical Spine?
A cervical spine MRI without contrast images the neck portion of the spine, showing discs, nerve roots, and the spinal cord itself. It is the standard test for neck pain radiating into the arm, numb or weak hands, or suspected spinal cord compression. You lie on your back with your head in a cradle for 20 to 40 minutes of loud scanning; holding still is essential because neck images blur easily with swallowing and motion.
What Affects the Cost
- –The spread between hospital and freestanding center prices for spine MRI is among the widest in outpatient imaging.
- –If arm symptoms suggest a problem beyond the neck, a shoulder MRI or nerve conduction study may be ordered too, each fully billed.
- –Motion-degraded images sometimes force repeat sequences or a rescan, which can generate additional charges at some facilities.
- –Contrast is added for suspected infection, tumor, or after spine surgery, converting the study to a pricier code.
- –The radiologist's professional fee is a separate component from the scan itself.
How It Is Billed
CPT 72141 covers the non-contrast cervical study; post-surgical or tumor protocols with gadolinium bill under different codes at higher rates. Hospitals bill technical and professional components separately, and if your doctor also ordered a lumbar MRI for the same symptoms, that is a second full study with its own charges, not an add-on. Multiple spine regions scanned the same day are each billed independently.
Insurance & Coverage Notes
Commercial plans nearly always require prior authorization for spine MRI and commonly deny first requests for neck pain without documented weeks of conservative treatment or neurological deficits like arm weakness. The insurer's imaging program may also redirect you to a contracted freestanding center. Medicare imposes no authorization but standard Part B cost sharing applies; workers compensation claims for neck injuries follow entirely separate authorization tracks.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Has prior authorization been approved, and did my chart document the conservative care my insurer requires?
- 2.What does this scan cost at the freestanding centers my plan prefers?
- 3.Is there any chance you will also want a lumbar or shoulder MRI, and can they be authorized together?
- 4.Is contrast needed for my situation, and how would that change the price?
- 5.Is the radiologist reading included in the quoted amount?
MRI Cervical Spine (CPT 72141): questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, an MRI cervical spine costs up to about $312 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility. Outside a hospital, one global fee of about $191 covers the whole test, and a ZIP code adjusts every figure to your area.
Outside a hospital, one global fee pays for the equipment, the staff and the doctor's reading, so the office or imaging center rate for CPT 72141 is $190.72. In a hospital the physician bills only the reading, about $68.14, and the hospital is paid for the rest on its own claim.
A cervical spine MRI without contrast images the neck portion of the spine, showing discs, nerve roots, and the spinal cord itself. It is the standard test for neck pain radiating into the arm, numb or weak hands, or suspected spinal cord compression. You lie on your back with your head in a cradle for 20 to 40 minutes of loud scanning; holding still is essential because neck images blur easily with swallowing and motion. CMS bills it as “Mri neck spine w/o dye.”
It depends on the setting. At an independent imaging center, lab or office, $190.72 is Medicare's full national rate, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $68.14) and the hospital is paid separately, which takes the total to about $312. Private-plan allowed amounts are often higher than Medicare; your deductible and coinsurance still apply.
For cash-pay surgery shopping, use this CPT as the Medicare floor when you compare written quotes. How cash-price shopping works.