Wrist MRI Cost: TFCC Tear, Scaphoid & Ganglion Scan Prices 2026

Wrist MRI is a relatively quick, focused scan used heavily in sports medicine, hand surgery and occupational-injury workups. UK private prices start at £249, Vista Health's flat national rate. US prices span $400 at a freestanding imaging centre to $4,200 at a hospital outpatient department for the identical scan. MR arthrogram adds a separate fee for TFCC and ligament evaluation.

How wrist MRI is billed

Wrist MRI uses CPT 73221 (without contrast), 73222 (with contrast), or 73223 (without and with). The 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule national average for CPT 73221 at a non-facility setting is roughly $221 for the global service. The Medicare Hospital Outpatient OPPS rate is several times higher because of the facility add-on.

Commercial-insurer negotiated rates are not published by anyone, so we do not quote a band for them: ask your insurer for the allowed amount at the specific facility, which is the only figure that decides your bill. What is published is the cash price, at both ends of the market. RadiologyAssist lists $265 all-inclusive for an MRI without contrast on its national rate card. On the hospital side we parsed the federal price files of all 53 reachable New Jersey hospitals: for CPT 73221 the published cash price runs from $264 at Newton Medical Center to $1,798 at Cooper University Hospital, median $309 among hospitals that discount, and up to $16,641 at Capital Health Regional, which publishes its chargemaster unchanged and calls it a cash price.

UK private wrist MRI is almost always quoted as a single all-in price, with the radiologist report included by default. Vista Health, the one UK provider publishing a national list, prices a single body part at £249 off-peak, £360 standard or £380 fast track regardless of which body part it is, and does not vary those prices by city.

UK wrist MRI pricing

UK private wrist MRI without contrast, verified June 2026: Vista Health charges a flat national rate for any single body part, £249 off-peak or £360 standard (£380 fast-track), report included, often the lowest published price for a single-joint MRI in the UK; Scan.com's end-to-end package starts at £305 including the clinical referral. Hospital groups (Nuffield, Spire, Bupa) and Welbeck (formerly OneWelbeck) price per hospital or on enquiry. Self-referral without a GP letter is accepted at Vista Health and Scan.com; the hospital groups and Welbeck require a referral.

MR arthrogram of the wrist is offered at most regional MSK-imaging centres and at the London musculoskeletal-imaging providers. The only published UK national price is Vista Health's fixed £795 for an MR arthrogram (vista-health.co.uk, June 2026); Nuffield, Spire and Welbeck quote the procedure individually per hospital. The injection portion is performed under ultrasound or fluoroscopy guidance immediately before the scan.

For UK NHS patients, wrist MRI is free with a GP, fracture clinic, or A&E referral. Suspected occult scaphoid fracture from a recent fall is usually scanned within 1 to 2 weeks under expedited orthopaedic pathways, sometimes same-week. Routine waits for non-urgent wrist MRI run 6 to 18 weeks.

US wrist MRI pricing in detail

US wrist MRI pricing follows the same facility-driven pattern as every other extremity MRI: huge variation by where the scan is done, almost none by who reads it. The CMS Hospital Price Transparency rule requires US hospitals to publish their chargemasters, including the gross charge, negotiated rates by insurer, cash-pay discount price, and minimum and maximum negotiated rates. The data is messy but accessible at every major academic medical centre (Cleveland Clinic, Mayo, Johns Hopkins, UCSF, Mass General).

For insured patients with a met deductible: out-of-pocket typically $50 to $300 with copay and coinsurance after pre-auth is approved. Pre-authorisation is required for wrist MRI under almost every commercial plan; skipping it is the leading cause of MRI claim denial.

For high-deductible-plan patients with an unmet deductible: the negotiated in-network rate is what you pay. Freestanding centres typically beat hospital outpatient by 60 to 80 percent. Cash pay at an independent centre often beats in-network insurance at a hospital before deductible is met.

For workplace-injury wrist MRI in the US, workers' compensation covers the full cost of medically necessary scans with no patient out-of-pocket; the workers' comp insurer negotiates directly with the imaging facility. If the wrist injury was occupational, the workers' comp pathway is almost always cheaper for the patient than health-insurance routes.

Sources used on this page

• CMS Physician Fee Schedule, 2026
• Our own parse of the federal standard-charge files (45 CFR 180) of all 53 reachable New Jersey hospitals, CPT 73221; files dated 31 December 2025 to 2 September 2026, collected 16 September 2026 (hospital-by-hospital working)
• RadiologyAssist published rate card ($265 MRI without contrast, median $301), checked 16 September 2026
• CMS Hospital Price Transparency
• Radiopaedia wrist MRI protocol
• ACR Appropriateness Criteria, acute hand and wrist trauma
• Vista Health published national pricing (vista-health.co.uk) and Scan.com package pricing (uk.scan.com), verified June 2026; Nuffield, Spire, Bupa and Welbeck price per hospital or on enquiry

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