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

Across 1,227 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $303, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $129 and $908. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $1,069 across the 975 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.

Why do Head CT Scan prices vary so much?

Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 14.5 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $97 in Alabama to $2,120 in South Dakota.

Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?

Sometimes. At 226 of the 975 hospitals that list a cash price (23%), 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?

$107 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 2.8 times it.

All procedures / Head CT Scan

Head CT Scan Cost in the US (2026): What 1,227 Hospitals NegotiatedNPI VERIFIED

Across 1,227 US hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate for a CT scan of the head is $303 — 2.8× the Medicare outpatient rate of $107. The middle half of hospitals negotiated between $129 and $908; the priciest tenth negotiated more than $1,494, 14.5× the cheapest tenth (under $103). Hospitals that list a self-pay price ask a median of $1,069 (975 hospitals).

Code CPT 70450 · 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

$303

all plan types · 1,227 hospitals

Middle half

$129–$908

25th–75th percentile of hospitals

Median cash price

$1,069

self-pay · 975 hospitals list one

Medicare baseline

$107

CMS OPPS national · July 2026

1,227 hospitals, one bar per price band

median $303Medicare $107

$0$1,000$2,000

Each bar counts hospitals whose median rate falls in that price band; the last, dashed bar holds the 56 at $2,000 or more. The cheapest tenth negotiated under $103, the priciest tenth over $1,494 — 14.5× 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: 1,227 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. 93 of these 1,227 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)	745	$856	$255 – $1,508	8.0×
PPO	779	$810	$319 – $1,469	7.6×
HMO	524	$511	$262 – $1,124	4.8×
EPO	126	$862	$222 – $1,591	8.1×
POS	59	$440	$269 – $1,176	4.1×
ACA Marketplace	479	$240	$161 – $714	2.3×
Medicare Advantage	706	$118	$104 – $631	1.1×
Medicare (as listed)	689	$111	$104 – $179	1.0×
Medicaid	777	$287	$132 – $670	2.7×
Federal employees (FEP)	22	$766	$712 – $1,375	7.2×
Workers' comp	136	$568	$221 – $1,373	5.3×

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	16	$97	$94 – $102	0.9×	$823
Arizona	12	$121	$118 – $477	1.1×	$535
Arkansas	15	$375	$125 – $488	3.5×	$1,007
California	43	$178	$134 – $560	1.7×	$1,036
Colorado	8	$479	$182 – $1,212	4.5×	$752
Florida	48	$216	$188 – $247	2.0×	$1,862
Georgia	33	$198	$163 – $803	1.9×	$674
Hawaii	7	$129	$105 – $365	1.2×	$991
Idaho	11	$776	$658 – $985	7.3×	$1,090
Illinois	46	$761	$308 – $1,363	7.1×	$1,608
Indiana	27	$242	$211 – $458	2.3×	$1,042
Iowa	47	$949	$664 – $1,295	8.9×	$1,341
Kansas	47	$766	$508 – $1,139	7.2×	$950
Kentucky	43	$457	$288 – $629	4.3×	$937
Louisiana	28	$298	$153 – $523	2.8×	$876
Maine	9	$447	$276 – $867	4.2×	$714
Maryland	9	$111	$74 – $122	1.0×	$109
Massachusetts	9	$245	$174 – $662	2.3×	$1,430
Michigan	32	$122	$104 – $197	1.1×	$812
Minnesota	30	$931	$515 – $1,412	8.7×	$1,302
Mississippi	23	$97	$91 – $147	0.9×	$844
Missouri	29	$128	$109 – $363	1.2×	$1,104
Montana	20	$1,055	$596 – $1,451	9.9×	$1,382
Nebraska	31	$1,308	$560 – $2,056	12.2×	$2,015
Nevada	8	$191	$191 – $394	1.8×	$2,866
New Hampshire	6	$383	$185 – $597	3.6×	$4,350
New Jersey	23	$217	$158 – $241	2.0×	$434
New Mexico	17	$695	$172 – $1,692	6.5×	$1,029
New York	39	$145	$131 – $239	1.4×	$627
North Carolina	22	$334	$107 – $526	3.1×	$979
North Dakota	14	$1,108	$847 – $1,577	10.4×	$976
Ohio	58	$160	$109 – $458	1.5×	$900
Oklahoma	37	$189	$95 – $634	1.8×	$1,109
Oregon	22	$191	$147 – $411	1.8×	$920
Pennsylvania	60	$157	$124 – $516	1.5×	$1,010
Puerto Rico	11	$98	$98 – $108	0.9×	$400
Rhode Island	5	$162	$146 – $162	1.5×	$752
South Carolina	27	$109	$104 – $261	1.0×	$1,396
South Dakota	11	$2,120	$1,675 – $2,145	19.8×	$2,163
Tennessee	23	$103	$102 – $143	1.0×	$532
Texas	105	$413	$143 – $962	3.9×	$985
Utah	21	$1,283	$1,274 – $1,536	12.0×	$1,355
Vermont	9	$1,461	$1,001 – $1,637	13.7×	$1,824
Virginia	19	$340	$195 – $831	3.2×	$799
Washington	16	$813	$452 – $1,010	7.6×	$1,196
West Virginia	7	$1,156	$94 – $1,600	10.8×	$1,129
Wisconsin	27	$578	$341 – $897	5.4×	$1,144
Wyoming	9	$1,424	$1,276 – $1,516	13.3×	$1,105

middle half of hospitalsstate medianMedicare rate · a dotted end means the range runs past $2,000

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 behind this page

The hospital-level medians, plan-type distributions and source-file links behind these figures are in our free sample dataset (CC BY 4.0): DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23199844 · Kaggle. Recompute any number on this page from it.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a CT scan of the head cost in the US?: Across 1,227 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $303, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $129 and $908. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $1,069 across the 975 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.
Why do Head CT Scan prices vary so much?: Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 14.5 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $97 in Alabama to $2,120 in South Dakota.
Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?: Sometimes. At 226 of the 975 hospitals that list a cash price (23%), 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?: $107 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 2.8 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

Chest CT Scan

median $448 · 1,215 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

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