How Much Does an MRI Brain Cost in California?
Mri brain stem w/o & w/dye
$462Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, an MRI brain costs up to about $462 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). Outside a hospital, at an independent imaging center, lab or office, Medicare's full rate in California averages $361, from $339 in Chico to $428 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (San Benito Cnty).
- ✓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
California Medicare physician rate (2026)
+13.8% vs nationalAverage of 29 localities. Office range $338.53–$427.51.
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.
Your ZIP in California
A ZIP-level lookup matters more in California than in any other state; compare your area, whether that is the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, the Central Valley, or the rural north.
What MRI brain costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in California 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. In California the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $249.93.
National vs California
Where California ranks for this CPT
CPT 70553 by California locality
| Locality | Office |
|---|---|
| san jose-sunnyvale-santa clara (san benito cnty) | $427.51 |
| san jose-sunnyvale-santa clara (santa clara cnty) | $426.76 |
| san francisco-oakland-berkeley (marin cnty) | $418.39 |
| san francisco-oakland-berkeley (san francisco/san mateo/alameda/contra costa cnty) | $418.21 |
| napa | $394.45 |
| vallejo | $394.19 |
| santa rosa-petaluma | $370.80 |
| santa cruz-watsonville | $367.05 |
| san diego-chula vista-carlsbad | $363.24 |
| los angeles-long beach-anaheim (los angeles/orange cnty) | $361.63 |
| oxnard-thousand oaks-ventura | $360.21 |
| santa maria-santa barbara | $355.95 |
| sacramento-roseville-folsom | $355.83 |
| salinas | $354.51 |
| san luis obispo-paso robles | $348.72 |
| riverside-san bernardino-ontario | $340.30 |
| bakersfield | $339.07 |
| el centro | $338.55 |
| chico | $338.53 |
| fresno | $338.53 |
| hanford-corcoran | $338.53 |
| madera | $338.53 |
| merced | $338.53 |
| modesto | $338.53 |
| redding | $338.53 |
| stockton | $338.53 |
| visalia | $338.53 |
| yuba city | $338.53 |
| rest of california | $338.53 |
PE GPCI ranges from 1.096 to 1.442 in California. That index is why the same CPT is not one price statewide.
MRI Brain and how California is priced
California is the most finely divided state in the Medicare fee schedule, with roughly thirty payment localities drawn around metropolitan statistical areas after CMS reformed the state's locality map. The San Francisco Bay Area carries some of the highest geographic adjustments in the nation, with San Francisco, San Jose, and the East Bay each priced separately, while Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and Sacramento have their own localities at somewhat lower levels. Rural and inland counties fall into lower-cost localities, so the same procedure can carry meaningfully different Medicare-approved amounts within a single day's drive. No other state shows this much in-state variation on the fee schedule itself.
California's markets differ sharply: the Bay Area combines high wages with heavily consolidated hospital systems, Los Angeles offers enormous choice across a sprawling region, and the Central Valley and far north face genuine access shortages. Where you are treated within the state matters more here than almost anywhere else in the country. Academic medical centers in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sacramento handle much of the complex referral care.
This procedure: This is the most complete brain MRI protocol: the scanner first takes a full set of images without dye, then repeats key sequences after an IV gadolinium injection, letting the radiologist compare the two. It is the standard workup for suspected brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, pituitary problems, and infection. Plan for 45 to 60 minutes in the scanner with an IV in your arm, making it the longest and most expensive of the three brain MRI codes.
What Is MRI Brain?
This is the most complete brain MRI protocol: the scanner first takes a full set of images without dye, then repeats key sequences after an IV gadolinium injection, letting the radiologist compare the two. It is the standard workup for suspected brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, pituitary problems, and infection. Plan for 45 to 60 minutes in the scanner with an IV in your arm, making it the longest and most expensive of the three brain MRI codes.
What Affects the Cost
- –As the combined protocol, 70553 carries the highest base price of the brain MRI family, before facility markup differences.
- –Hospital imaging departments charge far more than independent centers for this long scan.
- –The gadolinium dose is a separate supply charge on top of the imaging codes.
- –Longer scanner time means claustrophobia or movement problems are more likely to require sedation or a rescan, each adding cost.
- –Follow-up MRIs to track a finding over time repeat the full cost at each interval, so the surveillance schedule matters as much as the single-scan price.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Was the full without-and-with-contrast protocol authorized, or only a plain MRI?
- 2.What is your global price for this study at a freestanding center?
- 3.How many follow-up scans is my condition likely to need, and at what interval?
- 4.Are the contrast agent and radiologist reading included in the quoted price?
- 5.If my insurer pushes back, will my doctor do a peer-to-peer review to defend this protocol?
Other featured procedures in California
MRI Brain in other states
MRI Brain in California: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, an MRI brain costs up to about $462 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). Outside a hospital, at an independent imaging center, lab or office, Medicare's full rate in California averages $361, from $339 in Chico to $428 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (San Benito Cnty). Enter a ZIP for the exact California locality.
Yes. CMS splits California into 29 payment localities. For this CPT the office physician fee spans $88.98 from the lowest to highest locality. A ZIP-level lookup matters more in California than in any other state; compare your area, whether that is the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, the Central Valley, or the rural north.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $72 for the office physician line or $22 for the hospital physician line in California. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.
It depends on where the test is done. At an independent imaging center, lab or office, $360.66 is Medicare's full rate in California, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $110.73) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to up to about $462. California ranks #49 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (14% above the national office rate of $316.97).