How Much Does a Stress Echocardiogram Cost in California?
Stress tte only
$626Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, a stress echocardiogram costs about $626 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). Outside a hospital, at an independent imaging center, lab or office, Medicare's full rate in California averages $211, from $198 in Chico to $249 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (San Benito Cnty).
- ✓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)
+13.8% vs nationalAverage of 29 localities. Office range $198.11–$249.45.
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.
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 stress echocardiogram 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 $139.09.
National vs California
Where California ranks for this CPT
CPT 93350 by California locality
| Locality | Office |
|---|---|
| san jose-sunnyvale-santa clara (san benito cnty) | $249.45 |
| san jose-sunnyvale-santa clara (santa clara cnty) | $249.12 |
| san francisco-oakland-berkeley (marin cnty) | $244.22 |
| san francisco-oakland-berkeley (san francisco/san mateo/alameda/contra costa cnty) | $244.14 |
| napa | $230.34 |
| vallejo | $230.22 |
| santa rosa-petaluma | $216.63 |
| santa cruz-watsonville | $214.44 |
| san diego-chula vista-carlsbad | $212.31 |
| los angeles-long beach-anaheim (los angeles/orange cnty) | $211.35 |
| oxnard-thousand oaks-ventura | $210.50 |
| santa maria-santa barbara | $208.13 |
| sacramento-roseville-folsom | $208.10 |
| salinas | $207.32 |
| san luis obispo-paso robles | $203.95 |
| riverside-san bernardino-ontario | $198.90 |
| bakersfield | $198.38 |
| el centro | $198.13 |
| chico | $198.11 |
| fresno | $198.11 |
| hanford-corcoran | $198.11 |
| madera | $198.11 |
| merced | $198.11 |
| modesto | $198.11 |
| redding | $198.11 |
| stockton | $198.11 |
| visalia | $198.11 |
| yuba city | $198.11 |
| rest of california | $198.11 |
PE GPCI ranges from 1.096 to 1.442 in California. That index is why the same CPT is not one price statewide.
Stress Echocardiogram 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 stress echocardiogram combines a heart ultrasound with exercise: images are taken at rest, you walk or run on a treadmill to a target heart rate, then images are rapidly repeated to see whether any heart wall moves poorly under stress, a sign of blocked arteries. It answers many of the same questions as a nuclear stress test without radiation. Plan on about an hour, wear exercise clothes, and expect to be pushed close to your maximum effort.
What Is Stress Echocardiogram?
A stress echocardiogram combines a heart ultrasound with exercise: images are taken at rest, you walk or run on a treadmill to a target heart rate, then images are rapidly repeated to see whether any heart wall moves poorly under stress, a sign of blocked arteries. It answers many of the same questions as a nuclear stress test without radiation. Plan on about an hour, wear exercise clothes, and expect to be pushed close to your maximum effort.
What Affects the Cost
- –The complete service stacks several billed parts: the imaging, the treadmill stress supervision, and the physician interpretations.
- –Patients who cannot exercise need a dobutamine infusion instead, adding drug and administration charges.
- –Office-based cardiology labs undercut hospital outpatient pricing for the identical test.
- –It is generally cheaper than a nuclear stress test because there is no radioactive tracer, an argument for it when either test would do.
- –Inconclusive results can cascade to nuclear imaging, CT angiography, or catheterization, each a fresh cost tier.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Is stress echo or a nuclear test better for my situation, and what does each cost me?
- 2.Has prior authorization been approved for this specific test?
- 3.Will I exercise, or will I need the dobutamine version, and what does the drug add?
- 4.Is this in an office lab or a hospital department, and what is the price at each?
- 5.If the result is unclear, what is the next test and its cost?
Other featured procedures in California
Stress Echocardiogram in other states
Stress Echocardiogram in California: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, a stress echocardiogram costs about $626 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). Outside a hospital, at an independent imaging center, lab or office, Medicare's full rate in California averages $211, from $198 in Chico to $249 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (San Benito Cnty). Enter a ZIP for the exact California locality.
Yes. CMS splits California into 29 payment localities. For this CPT the office physician fee spans $51.34 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 $42 for the office physician line or $14 for the hospital physician line in California. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.
It depends on where the test is done. At an independent imaging center, lab or office, $210.86 is Medicare's full rate in California, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $71.77) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to about $626. California ranks #49 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (14% above the national office rate of $185.37).