How Much Does an MRI Lumbar Spine Cost in Rhode Island?
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 Rhode Island averages $197.
- ✓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
Rhode Island Medicare physician rate (2026)
+2.7% 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 Rhode Island
Enter a ZIP code for your part of Rhode Island, whether Providence and Pawtucket, Warwick and Cranston, Newport, or the South County shore towns.
What MRI lumbar spine costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in Rhode Island 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 02801.
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 Rhode Island the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $127.22.
National vs Rhode Island
Where Rhode Island ranks for this CPT
MRI Lumbar Spine and how Rhode Island is priced
Rhode Island, the smallest state, is unsurprisingly a single payment locality, with geographic adjustments above the national average in line with southern New England's cost structure. Providence and the shoreline towns publish identical Medicare-approved amounts, and no point in the state is more than an hour from its main hospitals. The compact geography makes locality subdivision pointless. Pricing here reads as a slightly discounted echo of neighboring Boston's market.
Providence dominates Rhode Island care, with the state's teaching hospitals and academic affiliation concentrated there, and consolidation has left a small number of systems running most beds. Many Rhode Islanders, particularly in the northeast corner, use Boston hospitals for complex or specialized procedures, accepting metro Boston pricing when they do. South County residents have fewer local options and often travel to Providence.
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 Rhode Island
MRI Lumbar Spine in other states
MRI Lumbar Spine in Rhode Island: 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 Rhode Island averages $197. Rhode Island is a single Medicare locality, so the physician rate is the same statewide.
Not on the physician fee schedule. Rhode Island 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 $39 for the office physician line or $14 for the hospital physician line in Rhode Island. 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, $196.90 is Medicare's full rate in Rhode Island, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $69.68) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to up to about $312. Rhode Island ranks #39 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (3% above the national office rate of $191.72).