How much does a CT scan of the chest cost in the US?

Across 1,215 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $448, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $216 and $1,193. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $1,412 across the 964 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.

Why do Chest CT Scan prices vary so much?

Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 11.9 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $143 in Puerto Rico to $2,691 in South Dakota.

Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?

Sometimes. At 227 of the 964 hospitals that list a cash price (24%), it is lower than that hospital's own median negotiated rate. If you have a high deductible, ask the hospital for its self-pay price before you book.

What is the Medicare rate shown here?

$179 is the CMS national outpatient (OPPS) payment rate for this service (July 2026). We show it as a government baseline: the national median negotiated rate is 2.5 times it.

All procedures / Chest CT Scan

Chest CT Scan Cost in the US (2026): What 1,215 Hospitals NegotiatedNPI VERIFIED

Across 1,215 US hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate for a CT scan of the chest is $448 — 2.5× the Medicare outpatient rate of $179. The middle half of hospitals negotiated between $216 and $1,193; the priciest tenth negotiated more than $2,062, 11.9× the cheapest tenth (under $173). Hospitals that list a self-pay price ask a median of $1,412 (964 hospitals).

Code CPT 71260 · Source: hospital machine-readable files (45 CFR §180), file dates 2022-11-12 to 2026-09-28 (median 2026-04-01) · Medicare baseline: CMS OPPS Addendum B, July 2026 · Data extracted 2026-10-06 · Page updated 2026-10-07

National median

$448

all plan types · 1,215 hospitals

Middle half

$216–$1,193

25th–75th percentile of hospitals

Median cash price

$1,412

self-pay · 964 hospitals list one

Medicare baseline

$179

CMS OPPS national · July 2026

1,215 hospitals, one bar per price band

median $448Medicare $179

$0$2,500$5,000

Each bar counts hospitals whose median rate falls in that price band; the last, dashed bar holds the 1 at $5,000 or more. The cheapest tenth negotiated under $173, the priciest tenth over $2,062 — 11.9× apart for the same procedure.

These are contract reference rates, not your bill. A median across hospitals is not a quote for your plan or network. Your out-of-pocket cost depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network status.

This is the hospital's facility fee. The radiologist who reads the images bills separately.

Coverage: 1,215 of the 5,419 hospitals in the CMS roster have an identity-verified price file with this procedure in our data. It is not a random sample, and a hospital missing here has not been judged non-compliant — we may simply not have its file yet. 92 of these 1,215 hospital files were more than 12 months old at extraction — hospitals must update yearly; we keep the figures and say so rather than hide them.

By insurance type

Insurance type	Hospitals	Median	Middle half	× Medicare
Commercial (plan type not stated)	742	$1,113	$443 – $2,084	6.2×
PPO	777	$1,082	$535 – $1,981	6.0×
HMO	522	$710	$419 – $1,498	4.0×
EPO	127	$1,055	$393 – $2,765	5.9×
POS	59	$761	$304 – $1,630	4.2×
ACA Marketplace	477	$402	$268 – $932	2.2×
Medicare Advantage	701	$199	$175 – $830	1.1×
Medicare (as listed)	682	$186	$174 – $320	1.0×
Medicaid	767	$382	$196 – $846	2.1×
Federal employees (FEP)	22	$1,497	$1,260 – $3,269	8.4×
Workers' comp	136	$830	$366 – $2,345	4.6×

Plan types are grouped from each hospital's plan names. Each figure is a median of hospital-level medians; types with fewer than 20 hospitals are left out.

By state

State	Hospitals	Median	Middle half	× Medicare	Median cash
Alabama	17	$161	$157 – $170	0.9×	$1,158
Arizona	12	$202	$198 – $659	1.1×	$701
Arkansas	15	$524	$206 – $668	2.9×	$1,291
California	43	$292	$227 – $769	1.6×	$1,764
Colorado	8	$864	$306 – $1,535	4.8×	$752
Florida	48	$338	$224 – $422	1.9×	$2,509
Georgia	32	$339	$270 – $1,364	1.9×	$1,482
Hawaii	7	$216	$175 – $544	1.2×	$1,353
Idaho	11	$1,035	$741 – $1,271	5.8×	$1,248
Illinois	45	$800	$389 – $1,694	4.5×	$2,278
Indiana	27	$481	$362 – $685	2.7×	$1,364
Iowa	47	$1,127	$869 – $1,593	6.3×	$1,650
Kansas	45	$811	$580 – $1,144	4.5×	$1,015
Kentucky	43	$464	$328 – $856	2.6×	$1,156
Louisiana	28	$369	$242 – $755	2.1×	$1,276
Maine	9	$753	$386 – $1,382	4.2×	$966
Maryland	9	$249	$164 – $272	1.4×	$244
Massachusetts	9	$413	$297 – $927	2.3×	$1,909
Michigan	32	$204	$174 – $352	1.1×	$1,071
Minnesota	30	$1,169	$711 – $1,750	6.5×	$1,559
Mississippi	23	$163	$150 – $246	0.9×	$1,156
Missouri	29	$292	$177 – $732	1.6×	$1,339
Montana	18	$1,389	$690 – $2,088	7.7×	$1,792
Nebraska	31	$1,519	$560 – $2,550	8.5×	$2,530
Nevada	8	$307	$307 – $894	1.7×	$3,976
New Hampshire	6	$644	$311 – $1,013	3.6×	$4,608
New Jersey	23	$288	$240 – $288	1.6×	$715
New Mexico	18	$1,246	$278 – $1,918	7.0×	$1,283
New York	39	$241	$219 – $443	1.3×	$977
North Carolina	22	$490	$179 – $775	2.7×	$1,366
North Dakota	14	$1,559	$1,182 – $1,741	8.7×	$1,557
Ohio	57	$269	$182 – $605	1.5×	$1,166
Oklahoma	37	$292	$162 – $984	1.6×	$1,252
Oregon	22	$320	$258 – $528	1.8×	$1,152
Pennsylvania	59	$229	$185 – $777	1.3×	$1,725
Puerto Rico	5	$143	$136 – $201	0.8×	$229
Rhode Island	5	$264	$238 – $299	1.5×	$1,069
South Carolina	27	$179	$174 – $390	1.0×	$1,895
South Dakota	12	$2,691	$2,301 – $3,048	15.0×	$3,110
Tennessee	23	$173	$171 – $226	1.0×	$579
Texas	103	$632	$237 – $1,295	3.5×	$1,392
Utah	21	$2,489	$1,721 – $2,648	13.9×	$2,648
Vermont	9	$1,969	$739 – $2,171	11.0×	$2,465
Virginia	19	$499	$301 – $1,060	2.8×	$1,029
Washington	17	$1,080	$762 – $1,612	6.0×	$1,801
West Virginia	7	$1,782	$154 – $2,130	9.9×	$1,694
Wisconsin	27	$762	$563 – $1,112	4.2×	$1,486
Wyoming	9	$1,804	$1,437 – $1,949	10.1×	$1,342

middle half of hospitalsstate medianMedicare rate · a dotted end means the range runs past $2,500

States with at least 5 hospitals in our data (48 states). 3 smaller states are counted in the national figures but not listed — a median of two or three hospitals says more about those hospitals than about the state.

Get the data

Hospital-level and insurer-level rates for this procedure are in the full dataset. A free three-procedure sample (brain MRI, head CT, diagnostic colonoscopy) is open under CC BY 4.0: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23199844 · Kaggle.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a CT scan of the chest cost in the US?: Across 1,215 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $448, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $216 and $1,193. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $1,412 across the 964 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.
Why do Chest CT Scan prices vary so much?: Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 11.9 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $143 in Puerto Rico to $2,691 in South Dakota.
Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?: Sometimes. At 227 of the 964 hospitals that list a cash price (24%), it is lower than that hospital's own median negotiated rate. If you have a high deductible, ask the hospital for its self-pay price before you book.
What is the Medicare rate shown here?: $179 is the CMS national outpatient (OPPS) payment rate for this service (July 2026). We show it as a government baseline: the national median negotiated rate is 2.5 times it.

Other imaging prices

Brain MRI

median $799 · 1,185 hospitals

Knee MRI

median $567 · 1,191 hospitals

Lower Back MRI

median $528 · 1,186 hospitals

Neck MRI

median $533 · 1,177 hospitals

Head CT Scan

median $303 · 1,227 hospitals

Abdomen & Pelvis CT Scan

median $676 · 1,225 hospitals

Sinus CT Scan

median $296 · 1,215 hospitals

Abdominal Ultrasound

median $217 · 1,213 hospitals

Chest X-Ray

median $112 · 1,210 hospitals

Lower Back X-Ray

median $157 · 1,206 hospitals

See all 30 procedures →