Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast)

This MRI covers the soft tissue of the eye sockets, the face, and the neck — the structures a bone x-ray or a plain look in the mirror cannot show. It is the version done without injected contrast dye, using only the natural differences between tissues to build the picture.

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What it is

MRI uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves rather than x-rays, and its particular strength is telling one kind of soft tissue from another. That is exactly what is needed in this part of the body, where the important structures are not bone: the eye and the muscles and nerve behind it packed into the orbit, the salivary glands and the tongue and the deep spaces of the face, and the glands, nodes, and muscles of the neck. CT is often better for the bone and the sinus air spaces; MRI is generally the more sensitive test for the tissue itself. This code is specifically the study performed without contrast. A separate code exists for the study done with contrast, and another for one done both ways in the same sitting, so what appears on the bill depends on what the radiologist decided was needed.

Why it is done

To investigate vision problems, bulging of an eye, or pain behind the eye, by looking at the nerve, the muscles, and the tissue inside the orbit
To characterize a lump in the neck, the jaw, or a salivary gland that can be felt but not identified
To look at the soft tissue of the face and neck when infection is suspected of spreading beyond where it started
To assess a known tumour of the head and neck, including how far it extends into surrounding tissue
To examine the throat and the base of the tongue in someone with unexplained swallowing or voice symptoms

What to expect

The patient lies on a sliding table and the head and neck go into the middle of the magnet, usually inside a coil placed around them. The machine is loud — a series of knocking and buzzing runs while each sequence acquires — and hearing protection is provided. Staying still matters a great deal here; swallowing and eye movement blur the very structures being imaged, and the technologist will say when a sequence is running. A scan of this area commonly runs somewhere between twenty and forty-five minutes. There is no radiation and, in this version, no injection. Anything metallic, including implanted devices, has to be declared beforehand, because the magnet is always on. A radiologist interprets the images and reports separately.

Questions worth asking

Was the scan definitely done without contrast? If dye ends up being given during the appointment, a different and higher-priced code applies.
Does my plan require prior authorization for MRI, and was it obtained before the appointment rather than after?
Is the scan booked at a hospital or at a freestanding imaging centre? The same sequences often cost strikingly different amounts between the two.
Will the radiologist's reading arrive as a second bill from a separate practice, and is that practice in my network?
If sedation is needed to hold still, who provides it and is it billed as its own service?

What Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) costs by state

Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Texas — 112 hospitals, median $2,347.34
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in California — 90 hospitals, median $2,080.00
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Florida — 79 hospitals, median $5,135.84
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Ohio — 54 hospitals, median $1,555.45
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Illinois — 51 hospitals, median $2,704.32
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Virginia — 40 hospitals, median $2,467.00
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Tennessee — 38 hospitals, median $604.95
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Washington — 32 hospitals, median $1,354.50
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Wisconsin — 32 hospitals, median $2,110.00
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Pennsylvania — 31 hospitals, median $1,741.80
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Michigan — 27 hospitals, median $1,902.00
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Indiana — 26 hospitals, median $655.00
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Georgia — 25 hospitals, median $1,782.69
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Kentucky — 24 hospitals, median $3,052.20
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Iowa — 23 hospitals, median $1,781.72
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Arizona — 22 hospitals, median $362.05
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in New York — 22 hospitals, median $286.04
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in New Jersey — 21 hospitals, median $499.23
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Missouri — 20 hospitals, median $1,410.75
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Minnesota — 19 hospitals, median $2,835.20
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in West Virginia — 17 hospitals, median $1,531.00
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Oklahoma — 16 hospitals, median $1,632.80
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Colorado — 15 hospitals, median $6,107.69
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in North Carolina — 15 hospitals, median $2,054.78
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Oregon — 13 hospitals, median $1,438.50
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Nebraska — 12 hospitals, median $2,074.27
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Kansas — 11 hospitals, median $3,600.03
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Mississippi — 11 hospitals, median $876.00
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in South Carolina — 10 hospitals, median $2,735.50
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Arkansas — 7 hospitals, median $1,171.35
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Maine — 7 hospitals, median $2,397.05
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in South Dakota — 7 hospitals, median $3,095.20
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in North Dakota — 4 hospitals, median $2,616.00
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Wyoming — 4 hospitals, median $2,023.68
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Alaska — 3 hospitals, median $3,173.04
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Nevada — 3 hospitals, median $1,023.09
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Hawaii — 2 hospitals, median $784.64
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Louisiana — 2 hospitals, median $592.80
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Maryland — 2 hospitals, median $388.80
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in Montana — 2 hospitals, median $1,449.60
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in New Mexico — 2 hospitals, median $1,486.38
Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost in New Hampshire — 1 hospitals, median $3,864.90

Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) prices at hospitals

See every published price for Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast): the full national range, the state and hospital breakdowns, and which hospitals charge the least.

Face, Eye Socket and Neck MRI (without contrast) cost — see all prices →

Sources

RadiologyInfo (RSNA/ACR): Head and Neck Cancers - Diagnosis, Evaluation and Treatment (opens in a new tab, leaves healthcosts.net)
RadiologyInfo (RSNA/ACR): Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) - Head (opens in a new tab, leaves healthcosts.net)
Wikipedia (opens in a new tab, leaves healthcosts.net)

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