Echocardiogram Cost
Tte w/doppler complete
$626Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, an echocardiogram costs about $626 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility. Outside a hospital, one global fee of about $197 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.
This is Medicare's separate payment to the facility on top of the physician's fee. 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 echocardiogram 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 $129.26.
How CMS prices CPT 93306
Work is about 24% 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: $196.73. Hospital (facility) physician rate: $67.47.
Medicare patients typically owe 20% of the allowed amount after the Part B deductible, about $39 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.
Echocardiogram cost by state
2026 Medicare non-hospital rate for CPT 93306, averaged across each state's localities. Open a state for its locality table and full cost breakdown.
What Is Echocardiogram?
A complete transthoracic echocardiogram is an ultrasound movie of the heart, capturing chamber sizes, pumping strength, and, in this code's complete-with-Doppler form, blood flow across each valve. It evaluates murmurs, shortness of breath, heart failure, and valve disease. A sonographer glides a probe across your chest for 30 to 45 minutes while you lie on your side; there is no radiation, no dye, and no preparation.
What Affects the Cost
- –Hospital outpatient echo labs charge dramatically more than cardiologist office-based labs for the same complete study.
- –This complete-with-Doppler code prices above limited or follow-up echo codes, so the study type ordered matters.
- –The interpreting cardiologist's professional fee is a separate component at facility-based labs.
- –Serial echos to monitor a known valve problem repeat the full cost at each surveillance interval.
- –If images are inadequate, an ultrasound-enhancing contrast agent may be used, adding a drug charge, or a transesophageal echo may follow at substantially higher cost.
How It Is Billed
CPT 93306 is the complete echo including spectral and color Doppler; a study without Doppler (93307) or a limited follow-up (93308) bills lower, and payers expect the ordered indication to justify the complete version. Technical and professional components split at hospitals and often merge in office labs. An echo contrast agent, when used for difficult imaging windows, appears as an added drug line.
Insurance & Coverage Notes
Many commercial plans now require prior authorization for outpatient echocardiography through cardiology benefit managers, a newer development than the long-standing MRI rules, so scheduling before authorization clears is risky. Medicare covers it under Part B without authorization at standard coinsurance. For valve surveillance patients, asking whether a limited follow-up echo suffices at each interval instead of a repeat complete study is a legitimate cost and coding question.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Has prior authorization been approved if my plan requires it for echo?
- 2.What is the price at your office lab versus the hospital's echo department?
- 3.Is a complete study needed, or does my follow-up qualify for the cheaper limited echo?
- 4.Is the cardiologist's reading fee included in the quote?
- 5.How often will this need repeating for my condition, and at what recurring cost?
Echocardiogram (CPT 93306): questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, an echocardiogram costs about $626 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility. Outside a hospital, one global fee of about $197 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 93306 is $196.73. In a hospital the physician bills only the reading, about $67.47, and the hospital is paid for the rest on its own claim.
A complete transthoracic echocardiogram is an ultrasound movie of the heart, capturing chamber sizes, pumping strength, and, in this code's complete-with-Doppler form, blood flow across each valve. It evaluates murmurs, shortness of breath, heart failure, and valve disease. A sonographer glides a probe across your chest for 30 to 45 minutes while you lie on your side; there is no radiation, no dye, and no preparation. CMS bills it as “Tte w/doppler complete.”
It depends on the setting. At an independent imaging center, lab or office, $196.73 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 $67.47) and the hospital is paid separately, which takes the total to about $626. 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.