CT Head Without Contrast Cost
Ct head/brain w/o dye
$146Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, a CT head without contrast costs up to about $146 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility. Outside a hospital, one global fee of about $107 covers the whole test, and a ZIP code adjusts every figure to your area.
- ✓Your ZIP's wage-adjusted hospital and surgery center rates
- ✓Five nearby hospitals by name, with CMS star ratings
- ✓The add-on codes that typically land on the bill
- ✓A word-for-word script for asking for a good-faith estimate
- ✓A private link you can reopen and share
- ✓Everything in the Premium report
- ✓15 nearby hospitals instead of five
- ✓Filled good-faith-estimate request letter
- ✓Bill-negotiation letter
- ✓Printable PDF download
National Medicare physician rate (2026)
What the whole procedure costs
The office rate above is what an imaging center, lab or office is paid for the whole test. In a hospital, the facility bills its own fee and the physician bills only the reading. These are 2026 national Medicare amounts.
Medicare may pay the facility separately for this code or package it into another service on the same day, so treat the facility share as an upper bound. For a test like this the physician in a hospital bills only the reading (the professional component); outside a hospital one global fee covers the whole test, shown in the office rate above. Medicare allowed amounts are not what an uninsured patient is charged, and not a quote. Private plans typically allow more.
Get the rate for your ZIP
CMS adjusts this CPT by locality. A five-digit ZIP is enough: no account, no insurance card.
What CT head without contrast costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in your area moves the bill more than anything else you control.
Rates for your ZIP, 5 named hospitals with CMS ratings, the add-on codes, and the scheduler script.
For example 90001.
One-off payment, no account and no subscription. You get a private link and an email. No medical records and no insurance card, ever.
What these numbers are
Every figure on this page is a 2026 Medicare allowed amount: the physician line comes from the Physician Fee Schedule adjusted by geographic practice-cost indices, and the facility totals come from the CMS hospital outpatient (OPPS) and ambulatory surgery center rates. None of them is a hospital chargemaster price, your insurer's contracted rate, or a quote. Anesthesia, pathology, imaging reads and follow-up care are billed under their own codes when they apply, and an inpatient stay is paid a different way again. For this code the office and hospital physician lines differ by $67.14.
How CMS prices CPT 70450
Work is about 26% of the office total RVU; practice expense is about 72%. Localities with a high PE GPCI move this code more when practice expense is a large share.
Office vs hospital for this code
Office (non-facility) physician rate: $106.55. Hospital (facility) physician rate: $39.41.
Medicare patients typically owe 20% of the allowed amount after the Part B deductible, about $21 for the office physician fee, before any Medigap coverage. That coinsurance does not include a hospital facility fee.
Labeled private-plan and cash ranges on this page are arithmetic multiples of Medicare, not negotiated quotes. Ask the billing office for the CPT code, the site of service, and a good-faith estimate.
CT Head Without Contrast cost by state
2026 Medicare non-hospital rate for CPT 70450, averaged across each state's localities. Open a state for its locality table and full cost breakdown.
What Is CT Head Without Contrast?
A CT scan of the head without contrast uses X-rays and a computer to build cross-sectional pictures of the brain and skull. It is the usual first scan after a head injury, a sudden severe headache, or symptoms that could be a stroke, because it is fast and shows bleeding and fractures clearly. The scan itself takes only a few minutes: you lie on a table that slides through a ring-shaped scanner, and no injection is involved in this non-contrast version.
What Affects the Cost
- –Where the scan is done matters most: a hospital outpatient department or emergency room adds a facility payment that is often far higher than what a freestanding imaging center charges for the same scan.
- –A head CT done in the emergency department is billed alongside an ER visit level, which usually costs more than the CT itself.
- –In a hospital, the radiologist's reading is billed separately from the scan, often by a physician group you never meet.
- –If contrast is added, the study becomes a different and costlier code (70460, or 70470 for a scan without and then with contrast) and the contrast agent is charged as well.
- –Freestanding imaging centers often publish cash prices well below a hospital's list price, so it is worth asking when the scan is not urgent.
How It Is Billed
CPT 70450 means a CT of the head or brain with no contrast material. Like most imaging codes it has two parts: the technical component for running the scanner and the professional component (modifier 26) for the radiologist's report. A freestanding imaging center usually bills both together as one global fee, while a hospital bills the technical side on its own facility claim and the radiologist bills only the reading. Contrast studies use 70460 (with contrast) or 70470 (without and then with contrast).
Insurance & Coverage Notes
Plans cover a head CT when it is medically necessary, and emergency scans do not need prior authorization. For a scheduled, non-urgent head CT, many commercial plans require prior authorization, often handled by a radiology benefits manager. Original Medicare does not require prior authorization for an outpatient CT, and you generally pay 20 percent of the allowed amount after the Part B deductible. A head CT done in the ER falls under your plan's emergency benefit, and the No Surprises Act limits out-of-network bills for emergency care.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Is a CT the right test for my symptoms, or would an MRI or no scan at all be better?
- 2.Can the scan be done at a freestanding imaging center instead of the hospital?
- 3.Does my plan need prior authorization, and has it been approved?
- 4.Is the radiologist's reading included in the price, or billed separately?
- 5.Will contrast be used, and how would that change the cost?
CT Head Without Contrast (CPT 70450): questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, a CT head without contrast costs up to about $146 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility. Outside a hospital, one global fee of about $107 covers the whole test, and a ZIP code adjusts every figure to your area.
Outside a hospital, one global fee pays for the equipment, the staff and the doctor's reading, so the office or imaging center rate for CPT 70450 is $106.55. In a hospital the physician bills only the reading, about $39.41, and the hospital is paid for the rest on its own claim.
A CT scan of the head without contrast uses X-rays and a computer to build cross-sectional pictures of the brain and skull. It is the usual first scan after a head injury, a sudden severe headache, or symptoms that could be a stroke, because it is fast and shows bleeding and fractures clearly. The scan itself takes only a few minutes: you lie on a table that slides through a ring-shaped scanner, and no injection is involved in this non-contrast version. CMS bills it as “Ct head/brain w/o dye.”
It depends on the setting. At an independent imaging center, lab or office, $106.55 is Medicare's full national rate, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $39.41) and the hospital is paid separately, which takes the total to about $146. Private-plan allowed amounts are often higher than Medicare; your deductible and coinsurance still apply.
For cash-pay surgery shopping, use this CPT as the Medicare floor when you compare written quotes. How cash-price shopping works.