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Procedure price report · Computerized axial tomography (CT) scan head

CT scan of the head without and with contrast

CPT 70470the billing code this page is about

A computed tomography scan of the head or brain done first without contrast dye and then repeated after contrast is given.

Hospitals typically charge $1,629 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,332 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,683. Most fall between $794 and $2,840 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,332
States
50
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 24, 2026

Median: half of hospitals filed less, half more — and it is a price some hospital actually filed. Average of the middle 60%: the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain average, the lowest or the highest price: the extremes in hospital price files are chargemaster artefacts, not prices anyone pays.

What hospitals charge, from cheapest to most expensive

Cash price percentiles, outpatient, across 3,332 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$480$950$1,629$2,571$4,328

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($480 vs $4,328).

How the prices are spread

$268 – $367: 49 hospitals$268$367 – $502: 133 hospitals$502 – $688: 210 hospitals$502$688 – $943: 267 hospitals$943 – $1,292: 433 hospitals$943$1,292 – $1,770: 557 hospitals$1,770 – $2,425: 603 hospitals$1,770$2,425 – $3,322: 384 hospitals$3,322 – $4,552: 235 hospitals$3,322$4,552 – $6,236: 129 hospitals$4,552median $1,629price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (3,000 of 3,332 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$268$36749
$367$502133
$502$688210
$688$943267
$943$1,292433
$1,292$1,770557
$1,770$2,425603
$2,425$3,322384
$3,322$4,552235
$4,552$6,236129

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$179
Median cash price$1,629
Cash as a multiple of Medicare9.1×

The Medicare figure is the national unadjusted OPPS rate for this code — what Medicare itself pays a hospital before local wage adjustment. It is a benchmark, not a price anyone is charged.

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $1,629.

Alaska: median $2,614 across 17 hospitalsAK$2,614Maine: median $1,062 across 25 hospitalsME$1,062Vermont: median $2,704 across 12 hospitalsVT$2,704New Hampshire: median $1,638 across 22 hospitalsNH$1,638Washington: median $1,467 across 70 hospitalsWA$1,467Idaho: median $1,200 across 21 hospitalsID$1,200Montana: median $1,806 across 19 hospitalsMT$1,806North Dakota: median $1,472 across 31 hospitalsND$1,472Minnesota: median $1,442 across 96 hospitalsMN$1,442Illinois: median $2,335 across 134 hospitalsIL$2,335Wisconsin: median $1,533 across 108 hospitalsWI$1,533Michigan: median $1,291 across 86 hospitalsMI$1,291New York: median $846 across 111 hospitalsNY$846Massachusetts: median $1,727 across 53 hospitalsMA$1,727Oregon: median $1,478 across 46 hospitalsOR$1,478Nevada: median $1,960 across 21 hospitalsNV$1,960Wyoming: median $1,521 across 14 hospitalsWY$1,521South Dakota: median $2,954 across 39 hospitalsSD$2,954Iowa: median $1,831 across 83 hospitalsIA$1,831Indiana: median $861 across 95 hospitalsIN$861Ohio: median $1,195 across 142 hospitalsOH$1,195Pennsylvania: median $1,295 across 113 hospitalsPA$1,295New Jersey: median $496 across 58 hospitalsNJ$496Connecticut: median $1,374 across 19 hospitalsCT$1,374Rhode Island: median $1,403 across 10 hospitalsRI$1,403California: median $2,808 across 215 hospitalsCA$2,808Utah: median $2,010 across 40 hospitalsUT$2,010Colorado: median $2,002 across 66 hospitalsCO$2,002Nebraska: median $2,543 across 83 hospitalsNE$2,543Missouri: median $1,464 across 76 hospitalsMO$1,464Kentucky: median $1,533 across 67 hospitalsKY$1,533West Virginia: median $1,236 across 42 hospitalsWV$1,236Virginia: median $1,756 across 71 hospitalsVA$1,756Maryland: median $177 across 38 hospitalsMD$177Delaware: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $1,426 across 53 hospitalsAZ$1,426New Mexico: median $1,837 across 29 hospitalsNM$1,837Kansas: median $1,192 across 85 hospitalsKS$1,192Arkansas: median $777 across 37 hospitalsAR$777Tennessee: median $888 across 77 hospitalsTN$888North Carolina: median $1,891 across 95 hospitalsNC$1,891South Carolina: median $1,969 across 53 hospitalsSC$1,969Oklahoma: median $1,290 across 71 hospitalsOK$1,290Louisiana: median $914 across 55 hospitalsLA$914Mississippi: median $962 across 49 hospitalsMS$962Alabama: median $1,317 across 41 hospitalsAL$1,317Georgia: median $1,271 across 109 hospitalsGA$1,271Hawaii: median $1,573 across 17 hospitalsHI$1,573Texas: median $2,059 across 241 hospitalsTX$2,059Florida: median $4,336 across 171 hospitalsFL$4,336
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,629. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL171$4,336+166%$1,530 – $12,004
South Dakota SD39$2,954+81%$2,581 – $3,901
California CA215$2,808+72%$1,338 – $5,345
Vermont VT12$2,704+66%$1,545 – $2,950
Alaska AK17$2,614+60%$1,636 – $3,953
Nebraska NE83$2,543+56%$1,685 – $2,995
Illinois IL134$2,335+43%$1,275 – $3,690
Texas TX241$2,059+26%$1,278 – $4,559
Utah UT40$2,010+23%$1,864 – $2,084
Colorado CO66$2,002+23%$1,261 – $3,105
South Carolina SC53$1,969+21%$1,260 – $2,492
Nevada NV21$1,960+20%$782 – $3,306
North Carolina NC95$1,891+16%$1,110 – $2,378
New Mexico NM29$1,837+13%$1,478 – $2,722
Iowa IA83$1,831+12%$1,312 – $2,247
Montana MT19$1,806+11%$1,130 – $2,205
Virginia VA71$1,756+8%$1,013 – $3,562
Massachusetts MA53$1,727+6%$925 – $2,482
New Hampshire NH22$1,638+1%$1,145 – $3,500
Hawaii HI17$1,573−3%$1,338 – $1,888
Kentucky KY67$1,533−6%$835 – $2,632
Wisconsin WI108$1,533−6%$576 – $2,305
Wyoming WY14$1,521−7%$974 – $2,829
Oregon OR46$1,478−9%$1,074 – $2,088
North Dakota ND31$1,472−10%$1,207 – $1,923
Washington WA70$1,467−10%$963 – $2,206
Missouri MO76$1,464−10%$964 – $2,289
Minnesota MN96$1,442−11%$656 – $2,057
Arizona AZ53$1,426−12%$424 – $5,051
Rhode Island RI10$1,403−14%$425 – $1,975
Connecticut CT19$1,374−16%$781 – $2,164
Alabama AL41$1,317−19%$720 – $2,723
Pennsylvania PA113$1,295−21%$483 – $3,242
Michigan MI86$1,291−21%$532 – $2,492
Oklahoma OK71$1,290−21%$944 – $2,133
Georgia GA109$1,271−22%$791 – $2,788
West Virginia WV42$1,236−24%$867 – $2,240
Idaho ID21$1,200−26%$1,055 – $1,572
Ohio OH142$1,195−27%$878 – $1,707
Kansas KS85$1,192−27%$697 – $2,136
Maine ME25$1,062−35%$468 – $2,121
Mississippi MS49$962−41%$739 – $1,391
Louisiana LA55$914−44%$448 – $1,463
Tennessee TN77$888−46%$578 – $1,657
Indiana IN95$861−47%$497 – $1,771
New York NY111$846−48%$264 – $2,783
Arkansas AR37$777−52%$384 – $1,580
New Jersey NJ58$496−70%$210 – $1,189
Maryland MD38$177−89%$123 – $246
Delaware DE6not enough hospitals filed a usable price

Hospitals like yours

The same distribution cut by the kind of hospital. Hospital type and ownership come from CMS; a hospital counts as part of a system when its price file is shared with at least one other hospital under the same brand. The national median is $1,629.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,357$1,591$725 – $3,192
Children’s64$2,278$1,599 – $3,586
Critical access901$1,670$950 – $2,569
Ownership
For-profit483$2,394$1,050 – $8,408
Government597$1,559$755 – $2,504
Non-profit2,242$1,584$753 – $2,680
System affiliation
Part of a system2,742$1,639$798 – $2,954
Independent590$1,541$756 – $2,540

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$2,754
Median cash price$1,629
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. The share is the median of each hospital’s own cash ÷ list ratio, over hospitals that filed both — not the ratio of the two medians above.

The same procedure, inpatient

2,257 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,703 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,742; most fall between $864 and $2,830.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,257 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$547$1,022$1,703$2,597$3,952

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($547 vs $3,952).

Of the 2,513 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,257 gave a usable cash price; 147 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 109 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,332 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (84%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,693 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,332
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here238
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded122
Hospitals that filed this code3,693

Sections not shown for this setting

  • Since our last snapshot: there is no earlier snapshot at least 90 days older than this one yet.

We last checked these hospitals’ price files for changes between July 20, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 24, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Computerized axial tomography (CT) scan head family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as CT Head/Brain W/O & W/Contrast Material|PROFESSIONAL COMPONENT.

Method

Source
The machine-readable price files every U.S. hospital is required by CMS to publish, parsed per hospital. Nothing is surveyed, sampled or modelled.
What counts
One cash (self-pay) price per hospital for this code and setting. A hospital’s own filing can rule its number out — a placeholder, a “not applicable” note, a list price standing in for cash — and our plausibility checks can flag a price far below what every other hospital files. Both kinds are disclosed above and excluded from the statistics; on the compare tool a flagged price is still shown.
Statistics
Percentiles are discrete: each is a price some hospital filed. The average is the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain mean, the minimum or the maximum. A state needs 10 hospitals and a segment 20 to show a figure; otherwise the row shows its count and no number. Medicare is the national unadjusted OPPS rate where one exists.
Names
Procedure names on these pages are our own plain-language titles, not the AMA’s copyrighted CPT descriptors. The code is the identity.

The full rules — sources, statistics, thresholds, limitations — are on the methodology page.

Download this page’s figures: JSON · CSV. Aggregates only — the per-hospital prices are on the compare tool.

Cite: HospitalRates.com, “CT scan of the head without and with contrast (CPT 70470) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-70470-ct-scan-of-the-head-without-and-with-contrast