How Much Does a Carotid Ultrasound Cost in Nebraska?
Extracranial bilat study
$281Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, a carotid ultrasound costs about $281 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 Nebraska averages $175.
- ✓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
Nebraska Medicare physician rate (2026)
-7.6% vs nationalSingle statewide locality.
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 Nebraska
Try a ZIP lookup for your part of Nebraska, from Omaha and Lincoln to Grand Island, Kearney, North Platte, Scottsbluff, and the Sandhills.
What carotid ultrasound costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in Nebraska 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 68001.
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 Nebraska the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $139.42.
National vs Nebraska
Where Nebraska ranks for this CPT
Carotid Ultrasound and how Nebraska is priced
One locality prices all of Nebraska, with low geographic indices typical of the Plains, so Omaha, Lincoln, and the Sandhills ranch country share the same Medicare-approved amounts. The statewide setup means Nebraska's largest metro carries no fee schedule premium over its most remote village. Practice costs in Omaha do run above the rural average, but CMS averages that into one set of factors. Patients can treat the statewide numbers here as applicable anywhere in Nebraska.
Omaha is the state's medical anchor, with an academic medical center of national standing and a market that also serves western Iowa, while Lincoln adds a second urban hub. Outstate Nebraska depends heavily on critical access hospitals, and residents of the Panhandle often find Denver or Rapid City closer than Omaha for specialty care. Long travel distances are simply part of rural care planning here.
This procedure: A bilateral carotid duplex ultrasound examines the arteries on both sides of the neck that supply the brain, measuring plaque buildup and blood flow speed to estimate narrowing. It is ordered after a stroke or mini-stroke, for a bruit heard in the neck, or before certain surgeries. A technologist moves a probe along each side of your neck for 30 to 45 minutes; it is painless, radiation-free, and requires no preparation.
What Is Carotid Ultrasound?
A bilateral carotid duplex ultrasound examines the arteries on both sides of the neck that supply the brain, measuring plaque buildup and blood flow speed to estimate narrowing. It is ordered after a stroke or mini-stroke, for a bruit heard in the neck, or before certain surgeries. A technologist moves a probe along each side of your neck for 30 to 45 minutes; it is painless, radiation-free, and requires no preparation.
What Affects the Cost
- –Hospital vascular labs charge multiples of what office-based or freestanding vascular labs charge for the same bilateral study.
- –Significant narrowing triggers surveillance scans every 6 to 12 months, making the per-scan price a recurring expense for years.
- –Findings can cascade to CT or MR angiography for confirmation, each far more expensive than the ultrasound.
- –The interpreting physician's fee is a separate component at facility-based labs.
- –Screening packages sold directly to consumers by mobile companies price this scan cheaply as cash-pay, but positive findings still funnel into insured follow-up costs.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.What indication is on my order, and is it one my insurer covers?
- 2.What does this study cost at an office vascular lab versus the hospital?
- 3.If narrowing is found, how often will I need repeat scans and at what cost each?
- 4.Would an abnormal result lead to CT or MR angiography, and what do those cost?
- 5.Is the physician interpretation included in your quoted price?
Other featured procedures in Nebraska
Carotid Ultrasound in other states
Carotid Ultrasound in Nebraska: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, a carotid ultrasound costs about $281 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 Nebraska averages $175. Nebraska is a single Medicare locality, so the physician rate is the same statewide.
Not on the physician fee schedule. Nebraska 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 $35 for the office physician line or $7 for the hospital physician line in Nebraska. 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, $174.68 is Medicare's full rate in Nebraska, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $35.26) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to about $281. Nebraska ranks #11 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (8% below the national office rate of $189.05).