How Much Does a Screening Mammogram Cost in California?
Scr mammo bi incl cad
$144.68California physician fee2026 Medicare office rateUnder 2026 Medicare rates, a screening mammogram costs about $145 in California at an imaging center or office, from $135 in Chico to $172 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (San Benito Cnty). In a hospital, the doctor is paid about $37 for the reading and the hospital bills separately for the test.
- ✓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
California Medicare physician rate (2026)
+14.6% vs nationalAverage of 29 localities. Office range $135.49–$172.34.
Your ZIP in California
A ZIP-level lookup matters more in California than in any other state; compare your area, whether that is the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, the Central Valley, or the rural north.
What screening mammogram costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in California 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. In California the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $107.68.
National vs California
Where California ranks for this CPT
CPT 77067 by California locality
| Locality | Office |
|---|---|
| san jose-sunnyvale-santa clara (san benito cnty) | $172.34 |
| san jose-sunnyvale-santa clara (santa clara cnty) | $172.11 |
| san francisco-oakland-berkeley (marin cnty) | $168.65 |
| san francisco-oakland-berkeley (san francisco/san mateo/alameda/contra costa cnty) | $168.59 |
| napa | $158.75 |
| vallejo | $158.67 |
| santa rosa-petaluma | $148.99 |
| santa cruz-watsonville | $147.47 |
| san diego-chula vista-carlsbad | $145.81 |
| los angeles-long beach-anaheim (los angeles/orange cnty) | $144.98 |
| oxnard-thousand oaks-ventura | $144.49 |
| santa maria-santa barbara | $142.75 |
| sacramento-roseville-folsom | $142.65 |
| salinas | $142.13 |
| san luis obispo-paso robles | $139.78 |
| riverside-san bernardino-ontario | $136.04 |
| bakersfield | $135.66 |
| el centro | $135.50 |
| chico | $135.49 |
| fresno | $135.49 |
| hanford-corcoran | $135.49 |
| madera | $135.49 |
| merced | $135.49 |
| modesto | $135.49 |
| redding | $135.49 |
| stockton | $135.49 |
| visalia | $135.49 |
| yuba city | $135.49 |
| rest of california | $135.49 |
PE GPCI ranges from 1.096 to 1.442 in California. That index is why the same CPT is not one price statewide.
Screening Mammogram and how California is priced
California is the most finely divided state in the Medicare fee schedule, with roughly thirty payment localities drawn around metropolitan statistical areas after CMS reformed the state's locality map. The San Francisco Bay Area carries some of the highest geographic adjustments in the nation, with San Francisco, San Jose, and the East Bay each priced separately, while Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and Sacramento have their own localities at somewhat lower levels. Rural and inland counties fall into lower-cost localities, so the same procedure can carry meaningfully different Medicare-approved amounts within a single day's drive. No other state shows this much in-state variation on the fee schedule itself.
California's markets differ sharply: the Bay Area combines high wages with heavily consolidated hospital systems, Los Angeles offers enormous choice across a sprawling region, and the Central Valley and far north face genuine access shortages. Where you are treated within the state matters more here than almost anywhere else in the country. Academic medical centers in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sacramento handle much of the complex referral care.
This procedure: A screening bilateral mammogram is the routine X-ray check of both breasts in women with no symptoms, looking for cancers too small to feel. A technologist takes two standard views of each breast with brief compression; the visit takes about 20 minutes, and a radiologist reads the images afterward, with results sent within days. It is the test guidelines recommend at regular intervals starting in a woman's 40s.
What Is Screening Mammogram?
A screening bilateral mammogram is the routine X-ray check of both breasts in women with no symptoms, looking for cancers too small to feel. A technologist takes two standard views of each breast with brief compression; the visit takes about 20 minutes, and a radiologist reads the images afterward, with results sent within days. It is the test guidelines recommend at regular intervals starting in a woman's 40s.
What Affects the Cost
- –The screening itself is free under ACA preventive rules at in-network facilities, so out-of-pocket cost usually arises only from what follows.
- –3D tomosynthesis screening is an add-on code; most plans and Medicare now cover it as part of screening, but a few still pass its cost to patients.
- –Callbacks for additional views are billed as diagnostic mammography with normal cost sharing, and roughly one in ten screenings generates a callback.
- –Out-of-network facilities are not bound by the zero-cost-share screening rule.
- –Dense-breast supplemental imaging, like ultrasound or MRI, is billed separately and often with cost sharing.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Is this facility in network so my screening is fully free?
- 2.Is 3D tomosynthesis included at no charge under my plan?
- 3.If I get called back for more views, what will that diagnostic visit cost me?
- 4.Am I inside my plan's allowed screening interval so the claim will not be denied for timing?
- 5.If I have dense breasts, what supplemental imaging might be recommended and does my plan cover it?
Other featured procedures in California
Screening Mammogram in other states
Screening Mammogram in California: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, a screening mammogram costs about $145 in California at an imaging center or office, from $135 in Chico to $172 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (San Benito Cnty). In a hospital, the doctor is paid about $37 for the reading and the hospital bills separately for the test. Enter a ZIP for the exact California locality.
Yes. CMS splits California into 29 payment localities. For this CPT the office physician fee spans $36.85 from the lowest to highest locality. A ZIP-level lookup matters more in California than in any other state; compare your area, whether that is the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, the Central Valley, or the rural north.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $29 for the office physician line or $7 for the hospital physician line in California. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.
At an imaging center or office, $144.68 is Medicare's full rate in California, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital, the physician bills only the reading (about $37.00) and the hospital bills separately for the test. California ranks #50 of 51 states on this rate (15% above the national office rate of $126.26).