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

Complete echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) with Doppler, CPT 93306. Also called echo test, heart ultrasound, transthoracic echocardiogram. In-network rates by insurer.

Echocardiogram cost in San Francisco, 2026: in the San Francisco area, insurers pay a typical $357 for an echocardiogram at doctors' offices and imaging centers. By insurer, the typical office rate runs from $352 (Aetna) to $483 (Anthem Blue Cross). Original Medicare's rate is $260 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$483
$350 to $687		79
Blue Shield of California$354
$324 to $496		49
Aetna$352
$286 to $383		28
UnitedHealthcare$359
$323 to $530		19
Cigna$410
$351 to $601		17
Original Medicare$260-

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 an echocardiogram in San Francisco

Across 79 billing entities in the San Francisco area, the middle of Anthem's rate menu for an echocardiogram at offices and imaging centers is $483, and the middle half of those values runs from $350 to $687. That office median is 1.9 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 an echocardiogram in San Francisco

Blue Shield of California pays a median of $354 for an echocardiogram at offices and imaging centers in the San Francisco area, with the middle half of 49 billing entities between $324 and $496. 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 an echocardiogram in San Francisco

Aetna pays a median of $352 for an echocardiogram at offices and imaging centers in the San Francisco area, with the middle half of 28 billing entities between $286 and $383. That office median is 1.4 times what Original Medicare pays. For your plan's exact price, use Aetna's Find Care cost estimates.

UnitedHealthcare negotiated rate for an echocardiogram in San Francisco

UnitedHealthcare pays a median of $359 for an echocardiogram at offices and imaging centers in the San Francisco area, with the middle half of 19 billing entities between $323 and $530. 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 an echocardiogram in San Francisco

Cigna pays a median of $410 for an echocardiogram at offices and imaging centers in the San Francisco area, with the middle half of 17 billing entities between $351 and $601. 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 an echocardiogram

An ultrasound of the heart through the chest wall, including Doppler and color flow. It shows how well the heart pumps and how the valves work, and is ordered for murmurs, shortness of breath, or heart failure. Billing code: CPT 93306.

What the price covers

  • Rates here are for the whole service billed as one charge: the ultrasound and the doctor's reading, usually by a cardiologist.
  • A contrast agent or added strain imaging is billed separately. A stress echocardiogram and a transesophageal echo (through the throat) are different codes with different prices.

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 $357 rate, that is $357. Once the deductible is met, coinsurance applies: at 20% coinsurance you would pay $71 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 $260 for an echocardiogram 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.