How Much Does an MRI Lumbar Spine Cost in North Dakota?
Mri lumbar spine w/o dye
$312Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, an MRI lumbar spine costs up to about $312 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 North Dakota averages $190.
- ✓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
North Dakota Medicare physician rate (2026)
-1.0% vs nationalSingle statewide locality.
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 North Dakota
Enter a ZIP code for your part of North Dakota, whether Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, Minot, or the farm and oil country in between.
What MRI lumbar spine costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in North Dakota 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 58001.
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 North Dakota the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $122.86.
National vs North Dakota
Where North Dakota ranks for this CPT
MRI Lumbar Spine and how North Dakota is priced
North Dakota's entire fee schedule flows through one statewide locality whose geographic indices sit near the national floor, lifted partly by the work index floor CMS applies to low-cost states. Fargo and a prairie town on the Canadian border publish identical Medicare-approved amounts. With no metro large enough to justify its own locality, the state is among the most straightforward in the country for Medicare pricing. Oil-patch growth in the west changed local economies but not the fee schedule structure.
Fargo and Bismarck are the state's two care anchors, each dominated by large regional systems that also reach into Minnesota, South Dakota, and Montana, with Grand Forks and Minot serving their own areas. Much of rural North Dakota depends on critical access hospitals, and winter travel adds a genuine planning constraint. Some eastern residents cross into Minnesota for care, particularly toward Fargo-Moorhead's twin market.
This procedure: A lumbar spine MRI without contrast images the lower back, the region responsible for most back pain and sciatica, showing discs, nerve roots, and the spinal canal. It is the definitive test before considering injections or surgery for a suspected herniated disc or spinal stenosis. You lie on your back in the scanner for 20 to 40 minutes; it is painless but the flat position can be uncomfortable if lying down aggravates your pain.
What Is MRI Lumbar Spine?
A lumbar spine MRI without contrast images the lower back, the region responsible for most back pain and sciatica, showing discs, nerve roots, and the spinal canal. It is the definitive test before considering injections or surgery for a suspected herniated disc or spinal stenosis. You lie on your back in the scanner for 20 to 40 minutes; it is painless but the flat position can be uncomfortable if lying down aggravates your pain.
What Affects the Cost
- –This is one of the most shopped scans in America, and prices between hospitals and independent centers commonly differ several-fold.
- –Insurer rules pushing six weeks of conservative care first mean therapy visit costs often precede the scan.
- –Findings frequently lead to epidural injections or surgical consultations, so the MRI is often the gateway to a much larger episode of spending.
- –Contrast is only added for specific concerns like prior surgery or infection, at a higher-code price.
- –Open or wide-bore scanners for larger or claustrophobic patients can carry different pricing at specialty centers.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Do I meet my insurer's criteria yet, or will this be denied for lack of conservative treatment first?
- 2.What is the cash or negotiated price at nearby freestanding imaging centers?
- 3.Is my scan authorized at the specific location I am booked at?
- 4.Given my history, does the radiologist need contrast, and what would that add?
- 5.If the MRI shows a disc problem, what are the typical next-step costs I should anticipate?
Other featured procedures in North Dakota
MRI Lumbar Spine in other states
MRI Lumbar Spine in North Dakota: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, an MRI lumbar spine costs up to about $312 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 North Dakota averages $190. North Dakota is a single Medicare locality, so the physician rate is the same statewide.
Not on the physician fee schedule. North Dakota uses one locality, so the Medicare physician rate is the same from one end of the state to the other. What still changes is site of service (office vs hospital) and any facility fee the hospital bills on its own claim.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $38 for the office physician line or $13 for the hospital physician line in North Dakota. 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, $189.74 is Medicare's full rate in North Dakota, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $66.88) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to up to about $312. North Dakota ranks #30 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (within 2% of the national office rate of $191.72).