Hospital Price Lookup

MRI of the Lower Back (Lumbar Spine): cost by metro

Imaging & scans · outpatient (same-day) · billed as CPT 72148 · priced across 28 metros

What does a MRI of the Lower Back (Lumbar Spine) cost? Across 28 major U.S. metros, the typical insurer-negotiated price for a Lumbar MRI (CPT 72148) ranges from about $209 to $3,151 by metro, based on hospitals' own price-transparency files. Self-pay cash prices, where hospitals publish them, are often lower. Pick your metro for the local range and a hospital-by-hospital breakdown. These are price references from public data — not a quote, a bill, or medical or financial advice.

Lumbar MRI price by metro

The typical insurer-negotiated price for a Lumbar MRI, by metro — lowest first. Open a metro for the full three-level breakdown and every hospital.

Metro Typical negotiated Range Cash
Indianapolis, IN $209 $168–$262 $583
Phoenix, AZ $308 $258–$1,411 $309
Tampa, FL $334 $220–$411 —
Sacramento, CA $339 $267–$339 $3,282
San Francisco, CA $339 $339–$1,392 $3,282
Riverside, CA $342 $186–$1,682 $2,382
Memphis, TN $356 $356 $679
St. Louis, MO $383 $351–$401 $1,763
Nashville, TN $480 $397–$619 —
New York, NY $493 $302–$570 $510
Seattle, WA $509 $230–$2,718 $808
Milwaukee, WI $518 $235–$3,314 $2,067
Birmingham, AL $525 $49–$2,441 $1,136
Jacksonville, FL $525 $525 $1,136
Houston, TX $648 $518–$1,590 —
Detroit, MI $695 $75–$1,591 $1,452
Kansas City, MO $711 $517–$7,488 —
Denver, CO $808 $528–$1,349 $2,627
Philadelphia, PA $948 $479–$949 $2,180
Hartford, CT $962 $289–$1,219 —
Cleveland, OH $976 $224–$1,059 $1,084
Dallas, TX $1,007 $217–$1,859 $2,028
Pittsburgh, PA $1,428 $187–$2,848 $3,963
Austin, TX $1,515 $309–$1,753 $1,144
Virginia Beach, VA $1,567 $1,553–$5,370 —
Chicago, IL $2,513 $1,742–$2,829 $1,700
San Jose, CA $2,612 $339–$4,970 —
San Antonio, TX $3,151 $220–$3,742 —

Source: hospitals' own machine-readable Standard Charges files, published under the U.S. Hospital Price Transparency rule (45 CFR §180.50). Most recent hospital file in this dataset: July 2026. Prices are references, not quotes or bills, and never medical or financial advice — where a hospital reports no price, nothing is shown rather than a guess.

About Lumbar MRI pricing

A Lumbar MRI is billed as CPT 72148 and is usually a outpatient (same-day) service. Prices vary widely by metro and by hospital, which is why every figure here is tied to a specific hospital's own published file. 20 of these 28 metros have at least one hospital publishing a self-pay cash price.

The chargemaster (list) price is the hospital's undiscounted sticker rate. Almost no one actually pays it — insurers negotiate it down and self-pay patients are usually offered the cash price — but it shows how large the discount off list can be.

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