Negotiation points — imaging rates

Generated from your benchmark to support a rate conversation with your carrier or network. Achievable-rate framing only — no peer employer is named, no vendor is recommended.

Plan year 2026Anthem Blue Access PPOPrepared Jul 12, 2026 Basis: public MRF · placeholder figures

1 · Your imaging rates sit at the 78th cohort percentile

Across the anonymized cohort of ~40 similar plans, your negotiated MRI rate prices well above the median. An achievable-rate scenario exists at the cohort median.

Your MRI rate

$3,480

Cohort median

$2,410

Gap

+44%

2 · Freestanding sites run materially lower at your own plan's rates

MRI and CT at hospital outpatient settings run ~$2,700 more per scan than freestanding alternatives already in your network — the same procedure, the same plan.

Hospital outpatient

$3,480

Freestanding

$780

Per-scan delta

~$2,700

3 · The suggested ask

Frame the conversation around the median, not a vendor switch:

Ask: bring imaging rates at hospital outpatient settings to the cohort median for comparable MRI/CT procedures, or add a site-of-service tier that recognizes freestanding rates. Annualized opportunity on imaging: ≈$96K gross (see the netted summary in Actions).