Chest CT, with/without dye cost in San Jose, CA
In San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, 6 hospitals list a cash price for chest CT scan without and with contrast: from $3,204.50 to $25,540.90, with a median of $4,673.00. The lowest listed price is at El Camino Hospital — $1,468.50 less than the median here. Across California, the median is $3,099.41 at 208 hospitals.
Cash prices at 6 facilities across 6 cities for code 71270, as an outpatient — the setting a self-pay patient normally buys. Collected Sep 27, 2026; the hospital files themselves were last updated between Mar 31, 2026 and Sep 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 THORAX W/WO CONTR | $3,204.50 | $12,818.00 | — | 75% | Apr 1, 2026 source file |
| Kaiser Foundation Hospital - San Jose San Jose, CA · (408) 972-7000 DIAGNOSTIC COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY THORAX C-/C+ | $4,379.20 | $7,820.00 | $300.00–$940.00 | 44% | — source file |
| Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Santa Clara Santa Clara, CA · (408) 236-6400 DIAGNOSTIC COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY THORAX C-/C+ | $4,379.20 | $7,820.00 | $300.00–$940.00 | 44% | — source file |
| Stanford Health Care Stanford, CA · (650) 723-4000 CT Thorax WO/W Cont | $4,966.80 | $12,417.00 | — | 60% | Apr 1, 2026 source file |
| Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford Palo Alto, CA · (650) 497-8000 HC CT Chest W&WO Contrast | $6,629.50 | $13,259.00 | $6,442.55 | 50% | Mar 31, 2026 source file |
| Good Samaritan Hospital Los Gatos, CA · (408) 559-2011 Computed tomography, thorax, diagnostic; without contrast material, followed by contrast material(s) and further sections | $25,540.90 | $25,540.90 | $1,022.34–$3,781.86 | — | Sep 1, 2026 source file |
| Good Samaritan Hospital Los Gatos, CA · (408) 559-2011 CT CHEST W&W/O CONT | $25,540.90 | $25,540.90 | $3,831.14–$25,540.90 | — | Sep 1, 2026 source file |
Outpatient: lowest $3,204.50, median $4,673.00, highest $25,540.90 — a 8.0× difference within the same market.
As an inpatient, the same code is billed by 4 facilities here, median $4,379.20. Inpatient and outpatient prices are not comparable and are kept on separate pages: the inpatient charge covers admission, not the same purchase.
Cash or insurance?
At 0 of 4 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 chest CT takes pictures before and after contrast dye. It is used for some lung and chest wall masses and blood vessel problems that a single scan cannot explain.
What the price covers
The hospital price usually covers the scan and any contrast dye. The radiologist's reading is often billed separately.