How Much Does a Carotid Ultrasound Cost in Texas?
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 Texas averages $186, from $174 in Beaumont to $198 in Austin.
- ✓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
Texas Medicare physician rate (2026)
-1.4% vs nationalAverage of 8 localities. Office range $174.44–$197.98.
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 Texas
With so many Texas localities, check your exact ZIP: Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, the Galveston and Beaumont coast, San Antonio, El Paso, the Valley, and rural West Texas can all price differently.
What carotid ultrasound costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in Texas 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 73960.
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 Texas the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $149.23.
National vs Texas
Where Texas ranks for this CPT
CPT 93880 by Texas locality
| Locality | Office |
|---|---|
| austin | $197.98 |
| houston | $189.40 |
| dallas | $188.17 |
| galveston | $187.57 |
| brazoria | $187.09 |
| fort worth | $186.62 |
| rest of texas | $180.58 |
| beaumont | $174.44 |
PE GPCI ranges from 0.910 to 1.058 in Texas. That index is why the same CPT is not one price statewide.
Carotid Ultrasound and how Texas is priced
Texas is carved into grouped metro localities rather than priced statewide: Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Galveston, Beaumont, and Brazoria each carry their own locality, and the enormous remainder of the state shares rest-of-state pricing. The big-city localities approve higher amounts than rural Texas, with Houston and Dallas at the top of the state's range. Uniquely, several smaller Gulf Coast areas kept their own localities from an earlier era, which is why Galveston and Beaumont are priced separately from Houston. San Antonio and El Paso, despite their size, fall under rest-of-state factors.
Texas contains several of the largest medical complexes in the world, most famously in Houston, plus deep hospital markets in Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin. At the other extreme, West Texas and the Panhandle include counties with no physician at all, and rural hospital closures have hit Texas harder than almost any state. Border communities from El Paso to the Rio Grande Valley have distinct markets, and some residents cross into Mexico for lower-cost dental and pharmacy care.
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 Texas
Carotid Ultrasound in other states
Carotid Ultrasound in Texas: 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 Texas averages $186, from $174 in Beaumont to $198 in Austin. Enter a ZIP for the exact Texas locality.
Yes. CMS splits Texas into 8 payment localities. For this CPT the office physician fee spans $23.54 from the lowest to highest locality. With so many Texas localities, check your exact ZIP: Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, the Galveston and Beaumont coast, San Antonio, El Paso, the Valley, and rural West Texas can all price differently.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $37 for the office physician line or $7 for the hospital physician line in Texas. 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, $186.48 is Medicare's full rate in Texas, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $37.25) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to about $281. Texas ranks #28 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (within 2% of the national office rate of $189.05).