Head CT without and with contrast cost in San Jose, CA — inpatient
In San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, 4 hospitals list a cash price for CT scan of the head without and with contrast as an inpatient: from $2,073.75 to $3,883.20, with a median of $3,550.40. The lowest listed price is at El Camino Hospital — $1,476.65 less than the median here. Across California, the median is $2,808.00 at 101 hospitals.
Cash prices at 4 facilities across 4 cities for code 70470, as an inpatient (admitted to hospital) . Collected Sep 23, 2026; the hospital files themselves were last updated between Apr 1, 2026 and Apr 1, 2026.
Where each hospital's price falls
Each dot is one hospital's cash price on a scale from the lowest to the highest in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA.
Hospitals, cheapest first
| Hospital | Cash price | List price | Insurers pay | Off list | File date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Camino Hospital lowest Mountain View, CA · (650) 940-7000 HC CT HEAD SCAN COMPLETE | $2,073.75 | $8,295.00 | — | 75% | Apr 1, 2026 source file |
| Kaiser Foundation Hospital - San Jose San Jose, CA · (408) 972-7000 CT HEAD/BRAIN W/O & W/CONTRAST MATERIAL | $3,550.40 | $6,340.00 | $249.00–$780.00 | 44% | — source file |
| Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Santa Clara Santa Clara, CA · (408) 236-6400 CT HEAD/BRAIN W/O & W/CONTRAST MATERIAL | $3,550.40 | $6,340.00 | $249.00–$780.00 | 44% | — source file |
| Stanford Health Care Stanford, CA · (650) 723-4000 CT Head WO/W Contrast | $3,883.20 | $9,708.00 | — | 60% | Apr 1, 2026 source file |
Inpatient: lowest $2,073.75, median $3,550.40, highest $3,883.20 — a 1.9× difference within the same market.
As an outpatient, the same code is billed by 5 facilities here, median $3,550.40 — that is the price to compare if you are not being admitted.
Cash or insurance?
At 0 of 2 hospitals that publish insurer rates for this code here, the cash price is below the highest rate a health plan has negotiated, and at none is it below every plan's rate. If you have insurance but have not met your deductible, you usually pay your plan's negotiated rate, which falls somewhere in the "Insurers pay" column. Paying cash can cost less, but a cash payment usually does not count toward your deductible. Ask the hospital for both numbers before you book.
What it is
This head CT takes images first without contrast dye and then with it, to compare the two.
What the price covers
The price usually covers the scan and the contrast dye. The radiologist's reading may be billed separately.