Teleradiology pricing in India: what a CT or MRI report actually costs

What hospitals pay

A hospital in India can expect to pay a few hundred rupees per outsourced CT or MRI report, and the two providers that publish prices land close together. 5C Network lists X-ray at ₹80 to 200, CT at ₹250 to 500 and MRI at ₹400 to 600, with a STAT surcharge of 20 to 40 percent.¹ Krsnaa Diagnostics lists indicative, volume-linked rates of ₹40 for X-ray, ₹350 for CT and ₹650 for MRI.²

Those are prices for a signed report. Software alone is far cheaper: Gratirad, a cloud PACS, charges ₹3 to 20 per report with ten days of storage, prepaid.³ The difference between ₹20 and ₹350 is the radiologist, and that is the number the rest of this guide is about.

For context, the alternative to outsourcing is a salaried radiologist, which 5C Network puts at ₹9 to 25 lakh a year for a permanent post that may take 6 to 18 months to fill in a tier-2 or tier-3 town.¹³ At ₹350 per CT, ₹25 lakh buys roughly 7,000 reports a year, but a single employed radiologist does not cover nights, weekends or leave.⁷ The companies guide puts these prices alongside turnaround and contract terms for each provider.

What radiologists are paid

The one published per-study rate to radiologists is 5C Network’s flat ₹425 to 575 per study, with 10 percent more for evening reads and 20 percent more between 1 and 5 AM, paid monthly by bank transfer.⁴⁵ Krsnaa Diagnostics’ radiologists are salaried employees and their pay is not published. Note that 5C’s published radiologist pay exceeds the low end of its published CT price to hospitals; both are ranges for different study mixes and the company has not reconciled them publicly.

The reference floor is the Indian Radiological and Imaging Association’s circular on minimal charges for teleradiology reporting, issued in April 2024. It sets the minimum a radiologist should receive per study, or 10 percent of the gross scan charge, whichever is higher, and states that it does not apply to government or corporate hospitals.⁶

Set the two tables side by side and the tension is obvious. A hospital price of ₹250 to 350 for a CT is at or below the IRIA floor of ₹300 to 500 for the radiologist alone. Either the radiologist is paid below the floor, or the provider absorbs the difference on volume, or the price on the brochure is not the price on the invoice. A hospital should ask which. The radiologist salary guide covers what this means in annual terms for the reader.

Why nights cost more

Night and STAT reports cost more because fewer radiologists are willing to read at that hour and the study cannot wait for one who is. The published surcharges show both sides of the market: 5C Network charges hospitals 20 to 40 percent more for STAT¹ and pays radiologists 10 percent more between 10 PM and 1 AM and 5 and 8 AM, and 20 percent more between 1 and 5 AM.⁵ The IRIA circular allows extra for nights and emergencies over and above its minimums.⁶

There is a structural reason too. A hospital with one salaried radiologist has already paid for daytime cover, so the marginal value of a remote reader is highest between 10 PM and 8 AM, when a casualty head CT would otherwise wait until morning.⁷ Providers price the night shift accordingly, and a hospital that only needs nights should expect to pay the upper end of any range.

Platform fees, GST and TDS

Three items sit between the radiologist’s fee and the amount on the hospital’s invoice: the platform’s fee, GST on that fee, and TDS on the radiologist’s payout. Each has a clear rule.

• The radiologist’s service is exempt from GST. Entry 74 of Notification 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) exempts health care services by a clinical establishment or an authorised medical practitioner,⁸ and Circular 32/06/2018-GST confirms that consultant doctors’ services to hospitals are covered.⁹
• The platform’s fee is taxed at 18 percent. Technology and support services to healthcare are not health care services. The Haryana Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling held in Siemens Healthcare, on 24 June 2020, that supplying images is a taxable supply, and support services to healthcare fall under SAC 998599 at 18 percent.¹⁰ Neither the hospital nor the radiologist can take input tax credit on that 18 percent, because their own outputs are exempt.
• TDS on the radiologist is 0.1 percent under section 194-O when a platform facilitates the service, deducted by the platform as e-commerce operator on the gross amount, with an exemption up to ₹5 lakh a year for resident individuals with a PAN. Section 194-O(3) means no 10 percent deduction under section 194J on the same transaction. The provision continues as section 393 of the Income-tax Act 2025 from 1 April 2026.¹¹

A worked example, with illustrative numbers

The figures below are illustrative. They are not Raydiac’s rates and not any provider’s published price; they exist only to show how the lines add up.

The split matters for the tax base. If a provider instead bills the whole ₹650 as a single taxable support service, GST at 18 percent applies to all of it: ₹117 rather than ₹27, and the hospital pays ₹767 for the same report, again on these illustrative figures. A provider that shows the radiologist fee and the platform fee separately is not only being transparent; it is keeping the exempt part exempt. The GST and TDS guide goes through the e-commerce operator rules and what to tell an accountant.

Contract terms that change the real price

The per-study rate is the smallest part of what a hospital ends up paying. Four terms move the real number.

1. Minimum volumes. A price conditional on a monthly minimum is a fixed cost in disguise. 5C Network advertises no minimums;¹ Krsnaa Diagnostics’ rates are volume-linked.² Ask what the price becomes in a quiet month.
2. Lock-in. 5C Network’s contracts run 12 to 24 months.¹ Krsnaa’s government PPP contracts run 5 to 10 years.¹² A long term at a good rate is still a long term if the service disappoints.
3. Receivables and payment terms. Krsnaa’s PPP business carries around 120 days of receivables.¹² A provider that finances 120-day government receivables prices that cost into every private contract too. Ask for the credit period in writing.
4. Service credits. A turnaround target without a credit is a hope. A credit turns a missed target into a discount, which is the only pricing term that improves when the provider performs badly.

What Raydiac does

Raydiac publishes the structure of its pricing before it publishes the figures. The rate card is per study, set by modality, study type, contrast, priority and shift, for CT and MRI only. The radiologist fee and the platform fee are shown separately on every line, so that GST at 18 percent applies to the platform fee alone and the radiologist’s exempt service stays exempt. The hospital receives one monthly invoice per organisation. Settlement runs through an authorised payment aggregator’s split settlement, so Raydiac never holds the hospital’s money; the radiologist receives a monthly payout statement with TDS under section 194-O at 0.1 percent and Form 16A.

There is no 12 to 24 month lock-in; the term is monthly, cancellable with notice. Each priority carries a service-level target per site with a visible countdown and service credits. The rupee figures are shared during onboarding, and the IRIA table above is the public reference floor against which they can be judged. The for hospitals page describes the workflow; the pricing page describes how the rate card is built.

Provider prices in this guide are the providers’ own published figures as of September 2026 and have not been verified by Raydiac. Tax treatment is summarised from the notifications and rulings cited; confirm with a chartered accountant before relying on it.