Ultrasound Abdomen Cost
Us exam abdom complete
$221Hospital 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.
Choosing a surgery centre over a hospital saves about $50 on the Medicare allowed amount for ultrasound abdomen. Ask whether your procedure can be done at an ambulatory surgery centre.
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 ultrasound abdomen 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 76700
Work is about 23% of the office total RVU; practice expense is about 75%. 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: $114.23. Hospital (facility) physician rate: $114.23.
Medicare patients typically owe 20% of the allowed amount after the Part B deductible — about $23 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 Ultrasound Abdomen?
A complete abdominal ultrasound uses sound waves, no radiation, to examine the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, kidneys, spleen, and major vessels in one session. It is a first-line test for right-upper-belly pain, suspected gallstones, abnormal liver blood tests, and follow-up of known findings. You fast for several hours beforehand so the gallbladder is full, then lie on a table while a technologist glides a warm gel-covered probe over your abdomen for 20 to 30 minutes.
What Affects the Cost
- –Hospital outpatient ultrasound departments charge notably more than independent imaging centers and many physician offices.
- –The complete study covers all upper abdominal organs; a limited single-organ study is a cheaper code when only one question needs answering.
- –The sonographer's images are read by a radiologist whose professional fee may bill separately.
- –Poor views from bowel gas or body habitus occasionally force a repeat study or escalation to CT, adding cost.
- –Findings like gallstones frequently lead to surgical consultation, making this scan a common gateway to a larger episode.
How It Is Billed
CPT 76700 requires documented evaluation of the full set of upper abdominal organs; if only the gallbladder or one organ was examined, the limited code 76705 should be billed at a lower rate instead. Technical and professional components split at hospital-based departments. No contrast, sedation, or lab charges belong on a routine abdominal ultrasound claim.
Insurance & Coverage Notes
Ultrasound generally escapes the prior authorization rules that govern CT and MRI, making it the path of least resistance among abdominal imaging on commercial plans; standard deductible or copay cost sharing applies. Medicare covers it under Part B at 20 percent coinsurance. If your indication is specifically a follow-up of one known finding, ask whether the cheaper limited study suffices, because the complete study is sometimes ordered by default.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Do I need the complete study, or would a limited single-organ ultrasound answer my question at a lower price?
- 2.What are your fasting instructions so the study does not have to be repeated?
- 3.Is the radiologist reading fee included in the quote?
- 4.What does this cost at your imaging center versus the hospital location?
- 5.If views are limited, would you move to CT, and what would that cost?
Ultrasound Abdomen (CPT 76700): questions
The 2026 national Medicare physician rate for CPT 76700 is $114.23 in an office and $114.23 in a hospital. Enter a ZIP code to apply the geographic adjustment for your locality.
For CPT 76700 the office and hospital physician rates are essentially the same ($114.23). The hospital will still usually add a separate facility fee that this page does not show.
A complete abdominal ultrasound uses sound waves, no radiation, to examine the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, kidneys, spleen, and major vessels in one session. It is a first-line test for right-upper-belly pain, suspected gallstones, abnormal liver blood tests, and follow-up of known findings. You fast for several hours beforehand so the gallbladder is full, then lie on a table while a technologist glides a warm gel-covered probe over your abdomen for 20 to 30 minutes. CMS bills it as “Us exam abdom complete.”
Not on its own. $114.23 is the physician allowed amount. Medicare also pays the facility, which takes the total to about $221 in a hospital outpatient department or about $171 at an ambulatory surgery centre. 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.