Shoulder X-Ray Cost
X-ray exam of shoulder
$125Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facility- ✓Your ZIP's wage-adjusted hospital and surgery centre 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 rate above is the physician’s fee on its own. The facility bills separately, and for most procedures the facility is the larger half of the bill. 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. 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 shoulder x-ray 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.
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 centre 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.
How CMS prices CPT 73030
Work is about 17% of the office total RVU; practice expense is about 81%. 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: $35.74. Hospital (facility) physician rate: $35.74.
Medicare patients typically owe 20% of the allowed amount after the Part B deductible — about $7 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.
What Is Shoulder X-Ray?
A shoulder X-ray takes two or more views of the shoulder joint in a few minutes, checking for fractures, dislocations, arthritis, or calcium deposits. It is usually the first imaging test for shoulder pain because it is fast and inexpensive, even though it cannot see the rotator cuff tendons themselves. You stand or sit while the technologist positions your arm for each view; no preparation is needed and the radiation dose is small.
What Affects the Cost
- –An orthopedic office with in-house X-ray often bills less overall than a hospital radiology department for the same views.
- –The radiologist or orthopedist reading fee may be billed separately from the technical charge.
- –Because X-rays cannot show tendons, a normal result often leads to a shoulder MRI, which costs many times more.
- –ER imaging for a suspected dislocation carries emergency facility pricing.
- –Comparison views of the other shoulder, when ordered, can add a second billed study.
How It Is Billed
CPT 73030 requires a minimum of two views and covers the complete shoulder series; it is typically billed alongside the office visit at which the shoulder was examined, not instead of it. Technical and professional components may be split or global depending on where the images are taken. If both shoulders are imaged, each side is billed as its own study with a modifier indicating left and right.
Insurance & Coverage Notes
Plain films are covered diagnostic imaging without prior authorization on virtually every plan, subject to copay or deductible. The bigger insurance question is downstream: the shoulder MRI that often follows will need authorization, so a documented X-ray first actually helps that approval. In office settings many plans wrap the X-ray into predictable visit cost sharing, making this one of the more affordable imaging tests.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Is the X-ray billed on top of today's visit charge, and at what price?
- 2.Who reads the images, and is their fee separate?
- 3.If the X-ray is normal, will you order an MRI, and what will that authorization and cost look like?
- 4.Do you need views of both shoulders for comparison, and does that double the imaging charge?
- 5.Can I get the images done here in your office rather than at the hospital?
Shoulder X-Ray (CPT 73030): questions
The 2026 national Medicare physician rate for CPT 73030 is $35.74 in an office and $35.74 in a hospital. Enter a ZIP code to apply the geographic adjustment for your locality.
For CPT 73030 the office and hospital physician rates are essentially the same ($35.74). The hospital will still usually add a separate facility fee that this page does not show.
A shoulder X-ray takes two or more views of the shoulder joint in a few minutes, checking for fractures, dislocations, arthritis, or calcium deposits. It is usually the first imaging test for shoulder pain because it is fast and inexpensive, even though it cannot see the rotator cuff tendons themselves. You stand or sit while the technologist positions your arm for each view; no preparation is needed and the radiation dose is small. CMS bills it as “X-ray exam of shoulder.”
Not on its own. $35.74 is the physician allowed amount. Medicare also pays the facility, which takes the total to about $125 in a hospital outpatient department. Anesthesia, pathology and imaging interpretation billed under other codes are separate again. 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.