How Much Does a Screening Mammogram Cost in District of Columbia?
Scr mammo bi incl cad
$145.56District of Columbia physician fee2026 Medicare office rateUnder 2026 Medicare rates, a screening mammogram costs about $146 in District of Columbia at an imaging center or office. In a hospital, the doctor is paid about $38 for the reading and the hospital bills separately for the test.
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District of Columbia Medicare physician rate (2026)
+15.3% vs nationalSingle statewide locality.
Your ZIP in District of Columbia
Enter a ZIP code to see how the DC locality applies to your address, whether you are in the District itself, Bethesda or Silver Spring on the Maryland side, or Arlington and Alexandria in Virginia.
What screening mammogram costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in District of Columbia 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 20001.
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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 District of Columbia the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $107.40.
National vs District of Columbia
Where District of Columbia ranks for this CPT
Screening Mammogram and how District of Columbia is priced
The District of Columbia is unusual in the fee schedule: it forms its own high-cost locality that reaches beyond the city line to cover close-in Maryland and Virginia suburbs, including areas such as Montgomery and Prince George's counties and the Arlington and Alexandria side of the Potomac. Its geographic indices are among the highest in the country, reflecting the region's wages and office costs. As a result, DC-area Medicare-approved amounts run well above those in the rest of Maryland or Virginia, and the boundary of that locality can matter more than the state line. A patient in Bethesda is priced with Washington, not with Baltimore.
The Washington area is dense with hospitals, including multiple academic medical centers and large regional systems competing across the district and its suburbs. That density gives patients real choice within a short distance, which is rare in American health care. Federal employment also means an unusually well-insured population, so cash-pay and Medicare-rate comparisons are most useful for those outside employer coverage.
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 District of Columbia
Screening Mammogram in other states
Screening Mammogram in District of Columbia: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, a screening mammogram costs about $146 in District of Columbia at an imaging center or office. In a hospital, the doctor is paid about $38 for the reading and the hospital bills separately for the test. District of Columbia is a single Medicare locality, so the physician rate is the same statewide.
Not on the physician fee schedule. District of Columbia uses one locality, so the Medicare physician rate is the same from one end of the state to the other. What still changes is site of service (office vs hospital) and any facility fee the hospital bills on its own claim.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $29 for the office physician line or $8 for the hospital physician line in District of Columbia. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.
At an imaging center or office, $145.56 is Medicare's full rate in District of Columbia, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital, the physician bills only the reading (about $38.16) and the hospital bills separately for the test. District of Columbia ranks #51 of 51 states on this rate (15% above the national office rate of $126.26).