MRI in Houston: What It Actually Costs (2026)
Houston is home to the world's largest medical centre, and to the widest MRI price spread we have verified in any US city: the same brain scan is listed at $230.91 by one hospital and $20,243.66 by another. Here is every Houston price we could verify as actually published, and how to use it.
Key insight: Published cash rates at Houston imaging programmes start around $263. The big-name hospitals list $1,312 to $2,783 cash for a brain MRI, and some HCA campuses list five-figure prices. Same scan, 75x spread.
Published Cash Prices in Houston
These are the only Houston imaging-centre prices we found actually published with figures, verified 3 August 2026. Rates below are through the RadiologyAssist scheduling programme at its participating Houston centres, all-inclusive with the radiologist report; programme terms apply.
| Exam | Published cash price |
|---|---|
| MRI Cervical Spine (no contrast) | $263.22 |
| MRI Lumbar Spine (no contrast) | $264.10 |
| MRI Abdomen (no contrast) | $270.30 |
| MRI Brain (no contrast) | $270.76 |
| MRI Knee (no contrast) | $279.38 |
Source: radiologyassist.com Houston MRI rates page, retrieved 3 August 2026. Contrast scans cost more; the page publishes without-contrast rates only.
West of the city, Mason Imaging in Katy advertises MRI from $250 (self-pay, per its published rates page, retrieved 3 August 2026)[mason-imaging.com]. It does not publish a per-body-part price list; call for the exact figure on your scan.
Houston Hospital Cash Prices: Brain MRI (CPT 70551)
Under the federal Hospital Price Transparency rule, every hospital must publish its cash prices in a machine-readable file. We parsed each hospital's own file directly. The figures below are the discounted cash prices those files publish, from files dated 25 June 2025 (Harris Health) through 14 May 2026 (HCA), retrieved August 2026.
| Hospital system | Listed cash price | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Harris Health (public system) | $230.91 | Lowest listed cash price in the metro |
| Memorial Hermann (by campus) | $1,312.32–$1,667.36 | Range across locations |
| Houston Methodist | $1,335.50 | |
| Baylor St Luke's Medical | $1,647.80 | |
| Texas Children's | $2,782.51 | |
| HCA Houston hospitals (by campus) | $5,597.19–$20,243.66 | HCA Northwest lists the metro's highest figure |
Source: each hospital's own machine-readable file published under the federal Hospital Price Transparency rule, parsed directly by us and retrieved August 2026. File dates (last_updated_on): Harris Health 25 June 2025; Memorial Hermann and Houston Methodist 1 April 2026; Baylor St Luke's 28 February 2026; Texas Children's 5 March 2026; HCA campuses 1 March and 14 May 2026. List prices change; treat these as the published spread, not a quote. Lumbar spine (CPT 72148) shows a similar pattern, from $230.91 (Harris Health) to $21,149.92 (HCA Northwest).
How to read this table: it is not telling you to avoid hospitals at any cost, Harris Health's $230.91 is the cheapest figure in the city if you qualify for its system. It is telling you never to walk into a hospital MRI without asking the cash price first, because the identical scan two miles away may be listed at 20x less.
Imaging Centers in Houston: Who Publishes, Who Quotes
Houston has dozens of freestanding imaging centres. Most do not publish prices; that does not mean they are expensive, it means you have to call. Ask for the cash-pay or self-pay rate on your exact scan (body part, with or without contrast).
SimonMed Imaging
Quote-onlyMultiple Houston-area locations (Med Center, Beltway, Sugar Land, Tomball). Offers a cash price for uninsured patients but publishes no rate card; quotes by phone or chat.
Memorial MRI & Diagnostic
Quote-onlyHouston-area independent operating since 2001, positions itself on affordable rates. No published price list; call for the self-pay rate.
Mason Imaging (Katy)
From $250West Houston / Katy independent. Publishes MRI self-pay rates starting from $250, with per-scan pricing confirmed on booking.
RadiologyAssist programme
$263–$280Booking programme with published all-inclusive rates at participating Houston centres, radiologist report included. Programme terms apply.
Quote-only means the provider publishes no cash price we could verify; we do not estimate figures for them. Our national sourced range for freestanding centres, $400 to $2,000 for most single body parts, is the sensible sanity check for any Houston phone quote.
396 NPI registry records (75 with the MRI-specific code) across 38 cities, with registry phone numbers and nearest alternatives. Texas listing, August 2026 file.
Cash-Pay Networks Serving Houston
Green Imaging
Quote per orderGreen Imaging is a physician-owned cash-pay network founded here in Houston in 2011 by radiologist Dr. Cristin Dickerson. It coordinates scans at partner facilities and quotes one bundled price per imaging order, facility and radiologist read included, paid upfront with no bill afterwards. It publishes no public rate card, so it belongs in the quote-only column, but as a Texas-founded network with bundled pricing it is a natural extra quote for any Houston cash-pay patient.
How Green Imaging's pricing worksMRI in Houston, Frequently Asked Questions
Verified published prices in Houston start at $263.22 for a cervical spine MRI without contrast through the RadiologyAssist booking programme, with brain, lumbar spine, abdomen and knee scans all listed between $263 and $280 (radiologist report included). Mason Imaging in Katy advertises MRI from $250. Most other Houston imaging centres quote cash rates by phone. Hospital cash prices for the same brain MRI range from $230.91 at Harris Health to $20,243.66 at HCA Houston Healthcare Northwest in the hospitals' own federal price-transparency files, so where you go matters far more than negotiating skill.
Sources, all retrieved 3 August 2026: radiologyassist.com/facility-locations-rates/locations-by-city/mri/houston-tx-mri/ (published programme rates, radiologist report included); mason-imaging.com/mri-in-katy-texas/ (MRI from $250 self-pay); cms.gov Hospital Price Transparency rule; simonmed.com/patient-info/cost-estimates/ (cash price by phone, no rate card); memorialdiagnostic.com (no published rates); greenimaging.net (quote-per-order model). Hospital cash prices parsed by us directly from each hospital's machine-readable file published under the CMS Hospital Price Transparency rule (harrishealth.org, memorialhermann.org, houstonmethodist.org, commonspirit.org, texaschildrens.org and HCA Healthcare's posting files), file dates 25 June 2025 to 14 May 2026, retrieved August 2026. National imaging-centre vs hospital ranges: our methodology.