MRA Cost: MR Angiography Pricing in 2026, UK & US
MR angiography images arteries (and MRV images veins) without ionising radiation. Costs are higher than standard MRI because the protocols are longer and contrast administration adds time and material. UK providers quote MRA individually per site rather than publishing national prices, and no US operator we checked publishes an MRA cash rate either, so this page quotes Medicare's published valuation and tells you where to find a specific facility's own price rather than inventing a range.
MRA at a Glance
How MRA pricing breaks down by region
MRA cost varies more by anatomical region than by patient insurance status. The two most common MRA studies are head MRA (typically for suspected intracranial aneurysm) and neck MRA (typically for suspected carotid or vertebral dissection). These are sometimes ordered together as a combined head-and-neck MRA, which costs less than the sum of two separate studies because the protocol runs in a single sitting.
Renal MRA is increasingly used in workup of resistant hypertension to evaluate for renal artery stenosis; it is contrast-enhanced and takes 30 to 40 minutes scanner time. Abdominal MRA is the largest-volume MRA in absolute terms because it can include the aorta, mesenteric vessels, and renal arteries in a single contrast-enhanced acquisition; it is used in vascular surgery planning, suspected mesenteric ischaemia, and pre-transplant donor evaluation.
Peripheral MRA (lower or upper extremity) is used in suspected peripheral arterial disease where ultrasound is non-diagnostic and as alternative to CT angiography in patients where contrast iodine load is a concern.
UK MRA pricing: how it actually works
No major UK private provider publishes a national MRA price list. Nuffield Health, Spire, Bupa and Welbeck quote per hospital once a referral is in place; even Vista Health, which publishes flat national pricing for standard MRI (£249), full body, cardiac and prostate studies (June 2026), does not list MRA as a published line item. Vascular protocols vary too much by indication for a single sticker price.
The practical route to a real UK number: get the referral first (MRA is a specialist study and most providers will not run it on self-referral), then ask two or three imaging providers for a quote naming the exact study (for example "TOF head MRA without contrast" or "contrast-enhanced renal MRA") and confirming whether the radiologist report and any contrast are included. Quotes obtained this way are directly comparable; a generic "MRI price" is not.
For UK NHS patients, MRA is free with a referral. Suspected acute carotid or vertebral dissection is scanned within 24 hours via stroke or vascular emergency pathways. Suspected acute aneurysm rupture is a neurosurgical emergency and CT angiography is usually the first-line study (faster, no contraindications to gadolinium); MRA is used for follow-up surveillance of treated aneurysms.
US MRA pricing
MRA is a genuinely opaque corner of US imaging pricing: no freestanding operator we checked publishes a rate card for it, and we have not yet parsed an MRA code from hospital price files. Rather than estimate, here is what is published. Medicare values head MRA without contrast (CPT 70544) at $457 in a hospital outpatient department, patient pays $90, against $345 at an ambulatory surgical centre, patient pays $68. Neck MRA without contrast (CPT 70547) carries the identical rates. For a hospital's actual cash price, the one place it exists is that hospital's own transparency file, which it must publish under 45 CFR 180 and which you can read before you book. One published data point for scale: HonorHealth's own pricing sheet lists an average total of $7,354 for a chest MRA with and without contrast, the highest line in that document.
Abdominal MRA (CPT 74185) has no entry in Medicare's public Procedure Price Lookup at all, so there is no national reference figure for it and we publish none. Renal MRA is priced like abdominal MRA because the renal arteries are typically imaged as part of the abdominal MRA protocol. For either, the only checkable number is the individual facility's own published cash price, so ask for it in writing and name the code.
For US insurance patients, pre-authorisation is essentially always required for MRA because of the cost. Skipping pre-auth is the leading reason MRA claims are denied. The negotiated in-network rate is typically 30 to 50 percent below cash-pay at the same facility, but cash-pay at an independent centre may still beat in-network insurance at a hospital, particularly before deductible is met.
Sources used on this page
- CMS Physician Fee Schedule, 2026
- Medicare Procedure Price Lookup, CPT 70544 and 70547 ($457 hospital outpatient, $345 ambulatory surgical centre); CPT 74185 has no entry in the tool. Checked 16 September 2026
- HonorHealth published average pricing sheet (chest MRA with and without contrast, $7,354 average total), checked 16 September 2026
- ACR Appropriateness Criteria, cerebrovascular and abdominal vascular indications
- Vista Health published national pricing, verified June 2026 (no MRA line item); Nuffield, Spire, Bupa and Welbeck quote vascular studies per hospital
Frequently Asked Questions
MRA stands for magnetic resonance angiography, an MRI protocol designed specifically to image blood vessels. It can be performed with or without IV gadolinium contrast (time-of-flight MRA does not need contrast; contrast-enhanced MRA produces sharper images). In the UK, no major private provider publishes a national MRA price list; vascular studies are quoted individually per site and protocol, so request a quote naming the exact study and body region. In the US, no operator we checked publishes a cash rate for MRA, so the usable public anchor is Medicare's own valuation: head MRA without contrast (CPT 70544) is $457 at a hospital outpatient department and $345 at an ambulatory surgical centre, with the patient paying $90 or $68 of that under Original Medicare after the Part B deductible. Cash prices for the same study are set by the facility and are not published; ask for the cash price naming the exact CPT code.
MRA is a specialist study ordered for specific vascular questions. Whether you need it is a clinical decision for a qualified physician.
Related cost pages
MRI With Contrast Cost
MRA is usually contrast-enhanced.
Brain MRI Cost
Head MRA often pairs with brain MRI.
Abdominal MRI Cost
Abdominal MRA often part of abdominal MRI protocol.
MRI vs CT Scan Cost
CT angiography vs MRA cost trade-offs.
3T MRI Cost
Higher-field MRA produces sharper vessel images.
US MRI Cost Guide
Full US insurance and cash-pay reference.