Alberta allows self-referred private-pay MRI, CT and ultrasound

What the policy changes

The change removes the requirement for a physician referral before an Albertan (or a visitor to Alberta) pays out of pocket for one of the listed diagnostic exams at a private facility. The provincial government has said it will reimburse patients when a new cancer diagnosis results from the privately paid scan.

Published fee schedules at private MRI clinics in Alberta currently list common MRI exams in the range of roughly $650 to $850 CAD, based on clinics' own posted prices tracked on MRIPrices.ca. Detailed per-exam ranges are available for brain MRI pricing in Alberta, knee MRI pricing in Alberta and lumbar spine MRI pricing in Alberta.

Wait-time context

The policy arrives against a backdrop of long publicly funded imaging queues. A Fraser Institute commentary cites a median wait of approximately seven months for MRI and approximately three-and-a-half months for CT in Alberta's government system.

Nationally, the Canadian Medical Imaging Inventory 2022–2023 report notes that in 2023 wait times for medically necessary elective MRI exceeded the recommended 30-day maximum target in all provinces for which data were available, with a national average wait time of 90 days. For CT, the reported national average wait time was 46 days, exceeding the 30-day target in all reporting provinces except Quebec.

The same inventory reports that Canada sits in the bottom 30% of OECD countries in units per million population for CT, MRI and PET-CT, and in the bottom 50% of OECD countries for volume of publicly funded CT, MRI and PET-CT exams per 1,000 population.

Private facilities in the national picture

The Canadian Medical Imaging Inventory 2022–2023 identifies increased reliance on private delivery of publicly funded exams, expansion of private services, chain ownerships and investment-firm acquisition of private imaging facilities among the trends reshaping the sector since 2021. The inventory also flags workforce strain, noting fewer full-time radiology professionals in practice across Canada compared with the pre-pandemic period, with medical physicists experiencing the largest decline per million population.

Pan-Canadian task force convened

Separately, Canada's Drug Agency (CDA-AMC) has established a time-limited pan-Canadian Medical Imaging Task Force whose members will convene between November 2025 and November 2026. The task force includes representatives from provincial and territorial ministries of health, radiology and nuclear medicine specialists, and patient and caregiver representatives, and is chaired by Brian Martell, a former director of diagnostic imaging operations in the Central Zone of Nova Scotia Health from 2016 to 2022. Marc Lamoureux, Head of the Digital Health Division at Health Canada, serves as the Health Canada representative.

The task force's mandate is to identify high-priority issues in medical imaging and develop coordinated, evidence-informed approaches, and it may advise on data and analysis needs that inform national tools such as the Canadian Medical Imaging Inventory.

What to watch

• Whether Alberta publishes operational details of the reimbursement mechanism for new cancer diagnoses identified through privately paid scans.
• How other provinces respond — private-pay diagnostic imaging rules differ by province, and readers can track provincial listings for private MRI clinics in British Columbia, private MRI clinics in Quebec and private MRI clinics in Saskatchewan.
• Outputs from the pan-Canadian Medical Imaging Task Force before it concludes in November 2026.

Ongoing coverage is available on the MRI news page and via MRI price comparison.