Knee X-Ray Cost
X-ray exam of knee 1 or 2
$123Hospital 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 knee 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 73560
Work is about 16% of the office total RVU; practice expense is about 83%. 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: $34.40. Hospital (facility) physician rate: $34.40.
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 Knee X-Ray?
A knee X-ray takes one or two views of the knee joint, checking for fractures, arthritis, alignment problems, and fluid. It is the recommended first test for most knee pain, especially in patients over 50 where arthritis is likely, and often the only imaging needed. The technologist positions your leg for each quick exposure; standing views may be taken because they show arthritis narrowing better than lying down. The whole visit takes minutes.
What Affects the Cost
- –Orthopedic and primary care offices with in-house X-ray typically cost less than hospital radiology departments.
- –Weight-bearing or additional specialized views can be billed as expanded series under related codes.
- –A separate radiologist reading fee may apply where images are sent out for interpretation.
- –A normal X-ray in a younger patient with mechanical symptoms often leads to a knee MRI at many times the price.
- –Imaging both knees for comparison doubles the studies billed.
How It Is Billed
CPT 73560 covers one or two views of a single knee; three views, four or more views, or both-knee standing studies bill under neighboring codes with slightly different rates. The X-ray is billed alongside, not within, the office visit where your knee was examined. Left and right knees are always separate studies with side modifiers when both are imaged.
Insurance & Coverage Notes
No plan requires prior authorization for a knee X-ray, and cost sharing is usually a modest copay or a small hit to the deductible. Its main insurance role is as a gatekeeper: most commercial insurers expect an X-ray before they will authorize knee MRI, so skipping it can delay the approval of advanced imaging. In arthritic knees the X-ray plus exam is frequently sufficient for treatment decisions, making the MRI avoidable entirely.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Can the X-ray be done here in the office today, and what will it add to my bill?
- 2.Are standing views needed, and are they billed differently?
- 3.Is an outside radiologist reading the film for a separate fee?
- 4.Based on my age and symptoms, is an MRI likely to be needed, or should the X-ray settle it?
- 5.If you want to compare both knees, is that one charge or two?
Knee X-Ray (CPT 73560): questions
The 2026 national Medicare physician rate for CPT 73560 is $34.40 in an office and $34.40 in a hospital. Enter a ZIP code to apply the geographic adjustment for your locality.
For CPT 73560 the office and hospital physician rates are essentially the same ($34.40). The hospital will still usually add a separate facility fee that this page does not show.
A knee X-ray takes one or two views of the knee joint, checking for fractures, arthritis, alignment problems, and fluid. It is the recommended first test for most knee pain, especially in patients over 50 where arthritis is likely, and often the only imaging needed. The technologist positions your leg for each quick exposure; standing views may be taken because they show arthritis narrowing better than lying down. The whole visit takes minutes. CMS bills it as “X-ray exam of knee 1 or 2.”
Not on its own. $34.40 is the physician allowed amount. Medicare also pays the facility, which takes the total to about $123 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.