How Much Does an MRI Brain Cost in Illinois?
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 Illinois averages $314, from $299 in Rest of Illinois to $328 in Suburban Chicago.
- ✓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
Illinois Medicare physician rate (2026)
-0.9% vs nationalAverage of 4 localities. Office range $299.35–$328.02.
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 Illinois
Enter a ZIP code to see which Illinois locality applies to you, whether Chicago proper, the suburban collar counties, the Metro East near St. Louis, or downstate cities like Springfield, Peoria, and Champaign.
What MRI brain costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in Illinois 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 60001.
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 Illinois the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $205.56.
National vs Illinois
Where Illinois ranks for this CPT
CPT 70553 by Illinois locality
| Locality | Office |
|---|---|
| suburban chicago | $328.02 |
| chicago | $325.60 |
| east st. louis | $303.42 |
| rest of illinois | $299.35 |
PE GPCI ranges from 0.913 to 1.027 in Illinois. That index is why the same CPT is not one price statewide.
MRI Brain and how Illinois is priced
Illinois uses one of the more detailed locality maps in the Midwest: Chicago has its own locality, the suburban collar counties are priced separately, the East St. Louis area carries its own locality tied to the St. Louis market, and the rest of the state shares a fourth. Approved amounts step down noticeably from the city and suburbs to downstate, so the same procedure prices differently in Chicago, Naperville, Belleville, and Springfield. This four-way split makes Illinois one of the states where a ZIP-level check genuinely changes the answer. Downstate rates align more closely with neighboring rural states than with Chicagoland.
Chicago is one of the country's great medical hubs, with multiple academic medical centers and deep specialist supply, and its suburbs support large competing systems of their own. Downstate Illinois is a different market: smaller cities like Peoria, Springfield, and Champaign serve wide rural areas, and the Metro East suburbs orient toward St. Louis providers. Where you sit on that map shapes both price and choice.
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 Illinois
MRI Brain in other states
MRI Brain in Illinois: 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 Illinois averages $314, from $299 in Rest of Illinois to $328 in Suburban Chicago. Enter a ZIP for the exact Illinois locality.
Yes. CMS splits Illinois into 4 payment localities. For this CPT the office physician fee spans $28.67 from the lowest to highest locality. Enter a ZIP code to see which Illinois locality applies to you, whether Chicago proper, the suburban collar counties, the Metro East near St. Louis, or downstate cities like Springfield, Peoria, and Champaign.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $63 for the office physician line or $22 for the hospital physician line in Illinois. 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, $314.10 is Medicare's full rate in Illinois, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $108.54) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to up to about $462. Illinois ranks #32 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (within 2% of the national office rate of $316.97).