Cardinal Points Imaging brings cheaper MRIs to Wake Forest

An MRI is the same machine wherever you have it done. The bill is not. That gap is the entire business model behind the imaging centre that opened this year on Durham Road.

Cardinal Points Imaging runs an outpatient diagnostic centre at 839 Durham Rd., Unit A, in Wake Forest. The Town of Wake Forest issued its permit in August, filed under medical services on the town’s new business record. It is one of five centres the company runs around the Triangle, alongside Brier Creek, Midtown Raleigh, Clayton and Cary.

What they can actually scan

The Wake Forest centre covers most of what a hospital radiology department does on an outpatient basis: MRI, CT including low-dose CT lung screening, ultrasound, X-ray, bone density, fluoroscopy, and women’s imaging including mammography.

Hours run Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with weekend appointments available by request. They take physician referrals and they also let patients book directly, with a separate online scheduling path for mammograms.

That direct-booking piece matters more than it sounds. A lot of imaging in this country happens only after a referral has been faxed, chased and scheduled by somebody else. Being able to book your own mammogram removes a step that quietly stops people from getting one.

The pricing claim, and how to read it

The company’s pitch is cost. On its own site it puts an average MRI at $1,350 at a hospital against $500 at one of its centres, which it presents as savings of more than 60 percent. It also advertises a single bill with no separate facility fee.

Those are the company’s own figures, not independently verified, and “average” is doing work in that sentence. But the underlying pattern is real and well documented across American healthcare: the same scan costs substantially more when it is billed through a hospital outpatient department than through a freestanding centre, largely because of facility fees. If you have a high-deductible plan, that difference comes straight out of your pocket rather than the insurer’s.

Our read: the number to ask about is not the advertised price but your own. Call with your insurance details and your deductible status before you book anywhere, and ask specifically whether a facility fee applies. That one question is worth more than any comparison chart.

Where this fits in a county arguing about hospital capacity

The timing is interesting. Wake County is in the middle of a fight about acute care capacity, and northern Wake is the part of it with the thinnest coverage. We wrote about the state filings earlier today: WakeMed has asked the state for new hospitals in Rolesville and Wendell, part of a capital programme north of $919 million, while its proposed merger with Atrium Health sits paused.

Outpatient imaging is the other half of that story and gets far less attention. Hospitals are where you go when something is wrong right now. Imaging centres are where you go to find out whether something is wrong at all, and most of that work does not need a hospital attached. A county that adds 66 residents a day needs both, and the freestanding kind arrives years faster.

Wake Forest has been filling in medical services steadily this year rather than in one announcement. The town permit record shows Novant Health on Ligon Mill Road, JMA Pediatrics on Rogers Road, Caring Connections Pediatric Therapy and Thrive Brain Health at Heritage Center, and a clinic at 12217 Capital Blvd. We mapped the whole pattern in our look at the 44 new businesses that opened here in 2026. Healthcare was the single biggest category in it.

Who this is most useful for

Three groups, specifically. Anyone on a high-deductible plan, where the first few thousand dollars of the year are yours regardless of what the insurer eventually pays. Anyone self-paying, where the sticker price is the only price. And anyone who has been putting off a scan their doctor ordered months ago because the hospital’s next available slot is weeks out and the parking alone is an ordeal.

That last group is larger than it should be. Imaging delayed is diagnosis delayed, and the barriers that cause it are rarely medical. They are scheduling, cost and the twenty minutes of driving that turn a scan into half a day off work.

One address to double-check

Three versions of this address are circulating, which is worth knowing before you drive over.

The company’s own site says 839 Durham Rd., Unit A. The town’s permit record lists the business at 839 Wake Forest Business Park. A widely syndicated listing has it as 839 Durham Hwy. The street number is consistent, so this is almost certainly one location described three ways, with the business park being the name of the complex the Durham Road address sits in. Use the company’s own version, and if you are relying on a map app, confirm the unit letter when you call to book.

What to ask when you book

Three practical things, whichever centre you end up using.

Ask whether the radiologist reading your scan is in network, separately from whether the facility is. Those are two different bills at many providers, and a single-bill model is a genuine differentiator precisely because that surprise is so common.

Ask how the results get to your doctor and how long it takes. An imaging centre that is fast on the scan and slow on the report has not saved you anything if you are waiting on a treatment decision.

And if you are self-paying, ask for the cash price directly rather than assuming the advertised figure applies to your scan. MRI pricing varies by body part and by whether contrast is used, and the number on a homepage is a starting point rather than a quote.

Cardinal Points Imaging is in our directory under Health & Wellness, with the rest of the Wake Forest listings.