Brain MRI with contrast cost in St. Joseph, MO
In St. Joseph, MO-KS, 2 hospitals list a cash price for MRI of the brain, with and without contrast dye: from $2,550.00 to $3,825.00, with a median of $3,187.50. The lowest listed price is at Heartland Long Term Acute Hospital — $637.50 less than the median here. Across Missouri, the median is $2,550.00 at 57 hospitals.
Cash prices at 2 facilities for code 70553, as an outpatient — the setting a self-pay patient normally buys. Collected Sep 27, 2026; the hospital files themselves were last updated between Sep 26, 2025 and Jun 23, 2026.
Where each hospital's price falls
Each dot is one hospital's cash price on a scale from the lowest to the highest in St. Joseph, MO-KS.
Hospitals, cheapest first
| Hospital | Cash price | List price | Insurers pay | Off list | File date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heartland Long Term Acute Hospital lowest St. Joseph, MO · (816) 271-6000 HC MRI BRAIN/BRAIN STEM W/O & W/CONTRAST | $2,550.00 | $3,000.00 | $359.88–$5,340.00 | 15% | Jun 23, 2026 source file |
| Heartland Regional Medical Center St. Joseph, MO · (816) 271-6000 HC MRI BRAIN/BRAIN STEM W/O & W/CONTRAST | $3,825.00 | $4,500.00 | $359.88–$8,010.00 | 15% | Sep 26, 2025 source file |
Outpatient: lowest $2,550.00, median $3,187.50, highest $3,825.00 — a 1.5× difference within the same market.
As an inpatient, the same code is billed by 2 facilities here, median $2,550.00. Inpatient and outpatient prices are not comparable and are kept on separate pages: the inpatient charge covers admission, not the same purchase.
Cash or insurance?
At 2 of 2 hospitals that publish insurer rates for this code here, the cash price is below the highest rate a health plan has negotiated, and at none is it below every plan's rate. If you have insurance but have not met your deductible, you usually pay your plan's negotiated rate, which falls somewhere in the "Insurers pay" column. Paying cash can cost less, but a cash payment usually does not count toward your deductible. Ask the hospital for both numbers before you book.
What it is
This brain MRI is done in two parts: first without contrast dye, then again after a gadolinium contrast dye is injected into a vein. The contrast helps show tumors, infection, inflammation and conditions such as multiple sclerosis more clearly.
What the price covers
The hospital price usually covers both sets of images. The radiologist's reading is often billed separately, and the contrast agent may appear as its own pharmacy charge.