Compare · vRad (Virtual Radiologic)

Virtual Radiologic (vRad) teleradiology cost, what 357 federal contract awards show, and the alternatives

The short answer

Virtual Radiologic, trading as vRad, is the largest outsourced radiology reading service in the United States and it publishes no rate card. The only verifiable vRad prices in public are US federal contract awards. A USAspending.gov search on September 21, 2026 returns 357 prime contract awards to the four Virtual Radiologic legal entities between FY2008 and 2021, worth $16,523,169 in total. The shape is the opposite of an enterprise software deal: the median priced award is $2,914 and 281 of the 355 priced awards are under $10,000, because federal teleradiology is bought as hundreds of small facility-level purchase orders. vRad itself is no longer independent. MEDNAX bought it in 2015 and Radiology Partners completed an $885 million acquisition of MEDNAX Radiology Solutions on December 15, 2020, so a hospital signing with vRad today is contracting with the largest radiology practice in the country.

Every teleradiology comparison you can find is written by a teleradiology company. Search for vRad alternatives and the first page is rival providers listing themselves, a couple of directory profiles, and nobody at all putting a checkable number next to any of it. vRad does not publish pricing, its competitors do not publish theirs, and the figures that circulate in procurement conversations come from whoever quoted you last.

So this page does not invent a per-study rate. US federal agencies buy teleradiology from vRad, and every one of those purchases is public record with a contract number attached. Everything in the tables below came out of USAspending.gov on September 21, 2026 and you can check any line of it yourself. Federal schedule pricing is not commercial pricing and nobody should pretend otherwise. What the record does show, with no ambiguity, is the shape of the business: how the work is actually bought, how big a normal purchase is, which agency holds almost all of it, and when the prime awards stopped.

The second thing worth knowing before you price anything is who you would be signing with. vRad started as an independent teleradiology company, was acquired by MEDNAX in 2015, and became part of Radiology Partners when that company completed its $885 million purchase of MEDNAX Radiology Solutions on December 15, 2020, bringing roughly 500 teleradiologists across. Radiology Partners is the largest radiology practice in the United States and it grows by acquiring practices. That is not a reason to avoid vRad, and plenty of hospitals sign with them deliberately. It is a reason to read the assignment and non-solicitation clauses properly, because the vendor reading your overnight studies also operates in the market for the group that reads your daytime ones.

There is also a third option that a straight provider-versus-provider comparison never surfaces, and it is the reason this page exists on a software site. Outsourcing exists to solve a capacity problem: too many studies, not enough radiologist hours, and the urgent ones buried in the queue. Buying reads is one answer. Making the hours you already have go further is another, and the two are not mutually exclusive.

The Reading Station

Assistant ready

Worklist

Not for diagnostic use

Structured report

Draft

Run the assistant to draft this report for review.

You review & sign

Decision support. The radiologist reviews and signs every study.

Drafted in · you review & sign Worklist re-prioritized

Decision support for qualified clinicians. Radiological.ai does not provide a diagnosis and is not a substitute for professional judgment.

See the comparison

Flag · prioritize · draft · you review and sign

vRad is the largest outsourced reading service in US radiology, now owned by Radiology Partners, and it sells radiologist hours by the study. Radiological.ai sells none of that: it is an assistant inside your own reading room that flags suspected findings, prioritizes the worklist and drafts the structured report, so the hours you already pay for cover more of the list.

Side by side

What US federal agencies actually paid Virtual Radiologic

The ten largest prime contract awards to vRad entities, each traceable to a contract number. Not a private rate card, but the only verifiable vRad teleradiology pricing that exists anywhere.

What was bought	Award amount	Term and what it tells you
VA, teleradiology for the North Texas system	$876,335	Twelve months, February 2019 to January 2020. The largest single vRad award in the public record and still under $1 million, which is the useful part.
VA, teleradiology, North Texas renewal	$730,400	Twelve months, February 2018 to January 2019. The prior year of the same coverage, so you can see what a renewal did to the number.
VA, teleradiology	$713,348	Twelve months from April 2016. Annual coverage contracts for a single VA system cluster in the $700,000 range.
VA, teleradiology	$577,477	Eight months, December 2017 to July 2018. A part-year term, which is common when coverage is bridged between competitions.
VA, teleradiology	$575,582	April 2017 to May 2019. A two-year term at roughly the same annual rate as the eight-month one above it.
VA Albuquerque, after-hours radiology interpretation	$535,407	July 2014 to November 2015. Explicitly scoped to after-hours reading, which is the classic nighthawk purchase.
VA, teleradiology services	$488,259	Six months, August 2018 to January 2019. Half-year coverage at close to $1 million annualized.
VA, teleradiology services	$447,171	October 2015 to March 2019. A long base-plus-options vehicle rather than a single year.
VA, teleradiology, North Texas	$440,720	April 2016 to June 2020. The same coverage area as the largest award, bought on a different vehicle.
VA Raymond G. Murphy VAMC, off-site radiology, extension	$427,054	November 2016 to September 2017. An extension of services rather than a new award, which is how most of this work actually renews.

Compiled September 21, 2026 from USAspending.gov, the US government public record of federal contract awards. A recipient search for VIRTUAL RADIOLOGIC, filtered to prime award actions of type A, B, C and D with award periods from October 1, 2007 through September 21, 2026, returns 357 awards totaling $16,523,169 across four Virtual Radiologic legal entities. Every recipient name and description was read individually before inclusion. These are public-sector awards bought under federal contracting rules, so they are not a quote for a private hospital or imaging center. Figures are award values rather than amounts finally outlaid. Verify any individual award yourself at usaspending.gov before you use it in a negotiation.

The shape of the market

What 357 federal vRad awards tell a hospital buyer

The headline total is the least interesting number here. Read these six before you take a quote from any reading service.

Measure	Figure	What it means for your contract
Total award value across 357 contracts	$16,523,169	Thirteen years of the entire visible federal vRad market. It is small, so no single award should be treated as a benchmark rate.
Median value of the 355 priced awards	$2,914	The typical federal teleradiology purchase is a single facility buying a slice of coverage, not a system-wide deal. If you are one hospital, you are a normal customer at a normal size.
Priced awards under $10,000	281 of 355	Seventy-nine percent of the record is small purchase orders. Reading services are bought incrementally, which means you can start small and should not accept a floor you do not need.
Share of all dollars in the ten largest awards	40.5%	Two purchase shapes, almost nothing in the middle. Either you are a facility buying coverage by the order or a system signing an annual contract, and the pricing conversation is different for each.
Share of dollars from the Department of Veterans Affairs	$13.71M of $16.52M	The VA is 83 percent of the visible federal book. HHS accounts for $2.32M and the Department of Defense for $491K.
Most recent prime award start date in the record	August 13, 2021	Award starts peak at 51 in 2015 and fall away after 2017: 10 in 2018, 4 in 2019, 6 in 2020, 2 in 2021 and none since. The record shows prime awards under these four entity names ending, which is a fact about the record rather than proof of anything about the business.

All figures computed September 21, 2026 from the same USAspending.gov pull described above: 357 prime awards to Virtual Radiologic Corporation, Virtual Radiologic Professionals of Texas I PA, Virtual Radiologic Professionals of Minnesota PA and Virtual Radiologic Professionals of Illinois PA. Two awards carry a recorded value of zero and are excluded from the median.

Side by side

Radiological.ai vs vRad (Virtual Radiologic), honestly

A fair look at what each does well. Both are capable tools. Here is where they differ.

What matters	Radiological.ai	vRad (Virtual Radiologic)
What you are buying	Software your own radiologists use. It flags suspected findings, prioritizes the worklist and drafts the structured report into your template.	Radiologist hours. Board-certified physicians employed or contracted by vRad read your studies and sign the report.
Who signs the report	Your radiologist, every time. Nothing leaves the practice and no outside physician touches the study.	A vRad radiologist signs the preliminary or final report, depending on the contract.
Unit of cost	Per reading radiologist per month, published on our pricing page from $199 billed annually.	Per study, per shift or as an annual coverage contract. Not published; quoted per facility.
Overnight coverage	None. We do not read studies, so a 3am study still needs a radiologist.	This is the core of the product and the main reason hospitals sign. Genuine 24/7 coverage at scale.
Subspecialty depth you do not employ	None. We make your radiologists faster, not more subspecialized.	A large panel means neuro, MSK and body subspecialists you would never hire for your own volume.
Licensure and credentialing burden	None added. Your existing radiologists are already licensed and privileged where they read.	The provider carries it, but you still verify state licensure, hospital privileges and malpractice coverage for every reader on your account.
Ownership	Independent software company. We do not operate imaging centers or employ radiologists.	Part of Radiology Partners since December 2020, the largest radiology practice in the United States, which also acquires practices.
Marginal cost of one more study	Zero. The price does not move with volume.	Direct. Every additional study is another line on the invoice.
Best suited for	Groups with radiologists who cannot get through the list, and daytime volume that keeps growing.	Hospitals with genuine gaps: nights, weekends, holidays, subspecialty reads and vacation cover.

Comparison reflects general, publicly understood positioning. Capabilities change, so check each product for the latest.

This page covers the vendor. The other two national reading services get the same treatment: ONRAD radiology and teleradiology cost runs 80 federal awards to the largest independent provider, and StatRad teleradiology alternatives covers the San Diego provider now owned by I-MED, and Real Radiology LLC teleradiology cost runs 41 Army and VA awards to the radiologist-owned Omaha practice. If you are still working out which shape of provider you need before you shortlist anyone, the teleradiology companies comparison sorts national reading services, regional practices and platform vendors into three groups, and teleradiology pricing works through per-study, per-hour and retainer economics with a blended hourly rate derived from a federal award.

If the gap you are filling is specifically overnight, nighthawk radiology coverage cost covers what after-hours reading is priced at and why the premium exists. If it is preliminary reads on plain films for an urgent care or clinic network, radiology over read services is the narrower comparison, and X-ray overread services for urgent care goes through the three buying models.

On the software side of the same decision, teleradiology software covers the platform your own radiologists would read in, worklist prioritization covers getting urgent studies to the front of the queue, and our pricing is published so you can put the two models side by side without a sales call.

Why groups pick Radiological.ai

One assistant across the whole read

Outsourcing and capacity are different problems

vRad exists because a hospital cannot staff 3am. That is a coverage gap and no software fixes it. What software does fix is the other half of the same complaint: a daytime list your own radiologists cannot finish, with the urgent studies sitting in the middle of it. Groups that buy both usually send less to the reading service the second year, because the daytime backlog stops spilling into the overnight queue.

The cost curve runs the other way

A per-study contract gets more expensive precisely when you succeed, because growth is billable. A per-radiologist subscription does not. At $299 per reading radiologist per month on the annual Group plan the number is the same whether the list is 40 studies or 140, which is worth modeling before you assume outsourcing is the cheaper line.

Read the ownership clause, not just the rate

Radiology Partners completed its $885 million purchase of MEDNAX Radiology Solutions, vRad included, on December 15, 2020. The reading service on your overnight contract belongs to the largest radiology practice in the country, and on August 25, 2026 Radiology Partners agreed to buy Everlight Radiology, an international teleradiology group, in a deal valued at about $1 billion, to pair it with vRad in a follow-the-sun network. Ask how assignment, non-solicitation and data use are written, and ask it before price.

Decision support, your radiologist always signs

Every flag is a prompt to look again and every report is a draft. The responsible radiologist reviews, edits and signs each study. We publish no accuracy figures and make no regulatory-status claims on this site.

Good questions

vRad (Virtual Radiologic) vs Radiological.ai, answered

vRad publishes no price and quotes per facility, so any public figure is either a federal contract or somebody else deal. The federal record is checkable: 357 prime awards worth $16,523,169, a $2,914 median and 281 of 355 priced awards under $10,000, with the largest single award at $876,335 for a year of VA North Texas coverage. Commercial per-study rates are negotiated against your volume, turnaround and subspecialty mix.

Radiology Partners. vRad was independent until MEDNAX acquired it in 2015, and Radiology Partners completed an $885 million acquisition of MEDNAX Radiology Solutions on December 15, 2020, which brought roughly 500 teleradiologists across. Radiology Partners is the largest radiology practice in the United States and grows by acquiring practices, so assignment and non-solicitation language deserves a close read before you sign. In August 2026 it also agreed to acquire Everlight Radiology, which reads for hospitals in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, to combine with vRad.

They are the same company. Virtual Radiologic is the legal name and vRad is the brand. Federal contracts are awarded to four separate legal entities: Virtual Radiologic Corporation, plus Virtual Radiologic Professionals of Texas I PA, of Minnesota PA and of Illinois PA. The professional-association entities exist because the corporate practice of medicine doctrine in several states requires physician services to be delivered through a physician-owned entity.

Cheaper depends on which problem you are paying to solve. If you genuinely cannot staff nights, a smaller regional reading service may quote below a national provider but with a thinner panel and less subspecialty depth. If the real problem is a daytime list your own radiologists cannot finish, the cheaper answer is usually not another reading service at all, but software that prioritizes the worklist and drafts the report so existing hours cover more studies.

Both, and which one you buy changes the economics substantially. Preliminary reads are cheaper per study and still require your radiologist to issue the final interpretation the next morning, so you pay twice for the same study. Final reads cost more but close the loop. Make your quote state which one each rate covers, per modality, because a blended rate hides the difference.

Six things, in this order: which reads are preliminary and which are final, guaranteed turnaround by priority level with a remedy if it is missed, how STAT is defined and who declares it, the rate for every modality including the ones you rarely send, assignment and non-solicitation language, and who carries malpractice coverage with proof of current limits for each reading radiologist on your account.

Not for overnight coverage. If there is no radiologist available at 3am, no assistant creates one, and any vendor claiming otherwise is selling you something that does not exist. What software replaces is the part of the outsourcing bill that exists because the daytime list overflowed. Groups usually run both and watch the outsourced volume fall as the backlog clears.

The public record shows prime award starts peaking at 51 in 2015, falling to 10 in 2018 and 2 in 2021, with none recorded since under the four Virtual Radiologic entity names. That is a statement about prime awards under those names and nothing more. Work delivered as a subcontractor, under a different corporate entity after the Radiology Partners acquisition, or through a vehicle that does not name the entity would not appear in this search.

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See how Radiological.ai reads alongside your group

One assistant that flags suspected findings, prioritizes the worklist, and drafts the structured report on X-ray, CT and MRI. You review and sign every study.

See pricing

Decision support for qualified clinicians. Radiological.ai does not provide a diagnosis and is not a substitute for professional medical judgment.