How Much Does an MRI Shoulder Cost in North Dakota?
Mri joint upr extrem w/o dye
$307Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, an MRI shoulder costs up to about $307 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 $203.
- ✓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)
-0.9% 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 shoulder 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 $141.56.
National vs North Dakota
Where North Dakota ranks for this CPT
MRI Shoulder 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 shoulder MRI without contrast (the upper extremity joint MRI code) images the rotator cuff tendons, labrum, and cartilage that X-rays cannot see, making it the key test for suspected rotator cuff tears and persistent shoulder pain. You lie still with the arm positioned at your side inside the scanner for 20 to 40 minutes. It is painless, though holding a sore shoulder motionless is the hardest part for many patients.
What Is MRI Shoulder?
A shoulder MRI without contrast (the upper extremity joint MRI code) images the rotator cuff tendons, labrum, and cartilage that X-rays cannot see, making it the key test for suspected rotator cuff tears and persistent shoulder pain. You lie still with the arm positioned at your side inside the scanner for 20 to 40 minutes. It is painless, though holding a sore shoulder motionless is the hardest part for many patients.
What Affects the Cost
- –Freestanding imaging centers price this scan dramatically below hospital outpatient departments.
- –Suspected labral tears sometimes require an MR arthrogram instead, where dye is injected directly into the joint first, adding an injection procedure and a different code.
- –Insurers frequently require completed X-rays and weeks of conservative care before approving, so those upstream costs are part of the pathway.
- –A positive finding often leads to orthopedic consultation, injections, or arthroscopic surgery, each a new spending episode.
- –The radiologist's reading fee is a separate component of the total.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Does my insurer require X-rays and therapy first, and does my record show them?
- 2.Do you suspect a labral tear needing an arthrogram, and how much more does that cost?
- 3.What is the price at a freestanding center versus the hospital?
- 4.Will the surgeon you might refer me to accept this facility's images, or would I face a rescan?
- 5.Is the radiologist fee included in the quote?
Other featured procedures in North Dakota
MRI Shoulder in other states
MRI Shoulder in North Dakota: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, an MRI shoulder costs up to about $307 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 $203. 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 $41 for the office physician line or $12 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, $203.30 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 $61.74) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to up to about $307. North Dakota ranks #32 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (within 2% of the national office rate of $205.08).