Chest CT cost in San Francisco (2026): what Aetna, Anthem, Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare and Cigna pay

CT scan of the chest without contrast, CPT 71250. Also called CT chest without contrast, lung CT scan, CT scan of the chest. In-network rates by insurer.

Chest CT cost in San Francisco, 2026: in the San Francisco area, insurers pay a typical $254 for a chest CT at doctors' offices and imaging centers. By insurer, the typical office rate runs from $236 (UnitedHealthcare) to $294 (Anthem Blue Cross). Original Medicare's rate is $174 here. Rates from five insurers' published files, for providers within 20 miles of downtown San Francisco.

What each insurer pays

InsurerOffices and imaging centers
median, middle half		Billing entities
Anthem Blue Cross$294
$189 to $377		202
Blue Shield of California$236
$205 to $307		57
Aetna$271
$167 to $355		116
UnitedHealthcare$236
$173 to $310		89
Cigna$279
$190 to $379		89
Original Medicare$174-

Anthem Blue Cross figures reflect the menu of rates Anthem lists across its contracts, not contract-specific prices (why). Kaiser Permanente is not listed. Most Kaiser care is prepaid inside its own system, and it does not publish usable per-service rates.

Anthem Blue Cross negotiated rate for a chest CT in San Francisco

Across 202 billing entities in the San Francisco area, the middle of Anthem's rate menu for a chest CT at offices and imaging centers is $294, and the middle half of those values runs from $189 to $377. That office median is 1.7 times what Original Medicare pays. Anthem lists the same menu of rates under nearly every contract, so these figures show the middle of that menu, not the rate a specific provider is paid. For your plan's exact price, use Anthem's Find Care and cost estimates.

Blue Shield of California negotiated rate for a chest CT in San Francisco

Blue Shield of California pays a median of $236 for a chest CT at offices and imaging centers in the San Francisco area, with the middle half of 57 billing entities between $205 and $307. That office median is 1.4 times what Original Medicare pays. For your plan's exact price, use Blue Shield's Treatment Cost Estimator.

Aetna negotiated rate for a chest CT in San Francisco

Aetna pays a median of $271 for a chest CT at offices and imaging centers in the San Francisco area, with the middle half of 116 billing entities between $167 and $355. That office median is 1.6 times what Original Medicare pays. For your plan's exact price, use Aetna's Find Care cost estimates.

UnitedHealthcare negotiated rate for a chest CT in San Francisco

UnitedHealthcare pays a median of $236 for a chest CT at offices and imaging centers in the San Francisco area, with the middle half of 89 billing entities between $173 and $310. That office median is 1.4 times what Original Medicare pays. For your plan's exact price, use UnitedHealthcare's price transparency tool.

Cigna negotiated rate for a chest CT in San Francisco

Cigna pays a median of $279 for a chest CT at offices and imaging centers in the San Francisco area, with the middle half of 89 billing entities between $190 and $379. That office median is 1.6 times what Original Medicare pays. For your plan's exact price, use the myCigna cost estimator (sign in).

About a chest CT

A CT scan of the chest without contrast dye. It is used to look at the lungs in detail, for example to follow up a spot seen on an X-ray or to check for lung disease. Billing code: CPT 71250.

What the price covers

  • Rates here are for the whole service billed as one charge: the scan and the radiologist's reading.
  • A low-dose CT for lung cancer screening (CPT 71271) is a different code with different coverage rules.

What you would actually pay

The negotiated rate is the total the provider is paid. Your share depends on your plan. If you have not met your deductible, you usually pay the whole negotiated rate: at a $254 rate, that is $254. Once the deductible is met, coinsurance applies: at 20% coinsurance you would pay $51 and the insurer the rest. Plans with a flat copay for this service charge the copay instead.

Going out of network is different. The provider has no agreed rate with your insurer, so they can usually bill their full listed price. Federal and California law limit that in emergencies and for some out-of-network clinicians at in-network hospitals.

Paying without insurance

The rates on this page are what insurers pay in network, not cash prices. If you are paying yourself, they are still a useful benchmark: ask the provider for its self-pay price before you book and compare it with these rates and with Original Medicare's $174 for a chest CT in San Francisco. Many freestanding imaging centers post cash prices for scans. Hospitals must publish a discounted cash price under federal price transparency rules, and if you are uninsured or paying yourself, the No Surprises Act entitles you to a written good faith estimate before scheduled care.

Get the price for your exact plan

An insurer has many contracts, and each plan uses one of them. The figures on this page cover all of an insurer's contracts in the area. The price for your plan depends on which one applies, and that is set by your employer or the plan name on your insurance card.

Your insurer's own cost tool gives a plan-specific estimate once you sign in:

AI assistants can look it up too. Arlo's free price transparency API and the Arlo MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT take a service, a ZIP code and a plan, and return nearby in-network providers with their negotiated rates.

Where these numbers come from

Rates come from the price transparency files Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Cigna publish, for providers within 20 miles of downtown San Francisco. We clean the files before summarizing them and only show an insurer when enough providers report a rate. Medicare figures are from the 2026 Physician Fee Schedule. More on how these pages are built.