How much does a PET scan cost? More than almost any other imaging exam, and with a wider spread. The price depends on three things: who pays (Medicare, a commercial insurer or the patient directly), where the scan is done (a freestanding center, a hospital outpatient department or an academic cancer center) and which tracer is used (FDG for most cancer staging, or a PSMA, amyloid or cardiac agent that costs far more). A whole-body PET/CT that costs $1,800 in cash at one center can be billed at $5,500 at a hospital for the same images, and the tracer may or may not be in the quoted number. This guide lays out the 2026 numbers by setting, payer and scan type, explains what Medicare actually pays and why, shows what the tracer adds and how prior authorization works, and then turns to the facility side: what the PET/CT scanner behind the exam costs and how many scans it takes to pay for one.
Medical Outfitters sells, installs and services medical imaging equipment across the United States, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, including refurbished PET/CT systems through MO Select, and supplies the Mammotome Neoprobe gamma detection system for nuclear medicine in the operating room. We wrote this for both sides of the PET price: the patient or practice manager trying to understand a bill, and the facility owner or radiology manager deciding whether a PET/CT will pay for itself. If you are pricing the machine rather than the exam, the PET/CT scanner cost guide has the full bands.
- Without insurance: $1,300 to $3,800 at a freestanding center and $2,800 to $7,600 at a hospital outpatient department, with a national average near $4,200 (CoveredUSA, July 2026).
- Medicare: $1,460.92 to the hospital for CPT 78815 under APC 5594 (CMS Addendum B, October 2026), plus a $109.55 read; the national unadjusted patient copay is $292.19.
- The tracer: FDG adds $300 to $1,200 when billed separately (CoveredUSA); Medicare packages it into the hospital rate, while PSMA agents are paid per millicurie on top.
- With insurance: prior authorization is nearly universal, copays run about $100 to $500 after the deductible, and a high-deductible plan exposes the full negotiated rate of about $1,800 to $4,500 (CoveredUSA).
- The scanner: $450,000 to $800,000 for a refurbished mid-tier time-of-flight PET/CT, delivered, installed and warrantied, per the Medical Outfitters PET/CT cost guide.
How Much Does a PET Scan Cost in 2026? Prices by Setting and Scan Type
Start with the cash price, because it is the number most people mean when they ask about PET scan cost. CoveredUSA’s July 2026 national pricing guide, which draws on the CMS 2026 fee schedules, the hospital outpatient final rule, FAIR Health consumer data and hospital price-transparency files, puts a PET scan at $1,300 to $7,600 without insurance, with a national average near $4,200. The setting moves the price more than anything else: about $1,300 to $3,800 at an independent or freestanding imaging center, $2,800 to $7,600 in a hospital outpatient department, $3,500 to $8,500 at an academic or NCI-designated cancer center, and $1,500 to $3,200 on a mobile PET unit serving rural and underserved areas. The same guide gives a whole-body oncology PET/CT as an example: about $1,800 at a freestanding center against about $5,500 at a hospital outpatient department.
The scan type moves the price next, because the tracer and the protocol change. A whole-body FDG PET/CT for cancer staging is the most common study and the least expensive; a brain amyloid scan for a dementia workup uses a costly tracer and sits at the top of the range. CoveredUSA’s 2026 cash ranges by scan type are in the table below.
| PET exam | Common CPT code | Cash range without insurance, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Oncology whole-body PET/CT (FDG) | 78815 | $1,300 to $4,600 |
| Cardiac PET (perfusion) | 78491 / 78492 | $2,500 to $5,500 |
| Brain FDG PET (dementia or epilepsy workup) | 78608 | $3,000 to $6,000 |
| Amyloid PET | 78811 to 78816 with an amyloid agent | $4,500 to $7,600 |
| PET/MRI | Billed per protocol | $3,800 to $8,500 |
Source: CoveredUSA, “PET Scan Cost in 2026”, July 2026 (cash ranges by scan type); CPT codes per the CMS 2026 outpatient rate file. Ranges are self-pay prices; insured patients pay a share of a negotiated rate instead, which the sections below explain.
Two things in these figures matter more than any single number. First, the hospital range starts roughly where the freestanding range ends, for the identical scan on comparable equipment. Second, a cash quote may or may not include the tracer and the radiologist’s read: CoveredUSA notes that the tracer is billed separately in many settings and that a separate professional interpretation fee of $75 to $150 can apply. A PET CT scan cost, or any price for PET scan services, is only comparable when the scan, the tracer and the read are all in it.
What Medicare Pays for a PET Scan: CPT 78815, APC 5594 and the Read
Medicare PET scan payment works two ways depending on the setting, and the hospital number is the clearest public price for PET in the country. In a hospital outpatient department the scan is paid under the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System. The CMS Addendum B rate file for October 2026 places CPT 78815 (PET with concurrently acquired CT, skull base to mid-thigh, the standard oncology study) in APC 5594, Level 4 Nuclear Medicine and Related Services, at a national payment of $1,460.92 with a relative weight of 15.9812 and a national unadjusted patient copayment of $292.19. The limited-area and whole-body PET/CT codes (78814 and 78816), PET-only codes 78812 and 78813, brain PET (78608) and cardiac PET (78491 and 78492) sit in the same APC at the same rate; limited-area PET without CT (78811) sits one level down in APC 5593 at $1,322.69.
The radiologist or nuclear medicine physician bills the read separately under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. In the CMS 2026 relative value file (RVU26D, October update), the professional component of 78815 carries 3.28 RVUs, which at the 2026 conversion factor of $33.4009 is $109.55 nationally before geographic adjustment. Medicare’s total for a hospital PET/CT is therefore about $1,570 before the patient’s share is taken out.
In a freestanding imaging center or physician office, the technical component and the global code for PET are not set nationally. The same CMS relative value file lists the global and technical lines for 78815 with status C, carrier-priced, which means each Medicare Administrative Contractor sets the rate for its region; SNMMI confirmed in its summary of the 2026 proposals that all PET and PET/CT codes remain contractor-priced. CoveredUSA’s 2026 guide estimates Medicare’s freestanding PET/CT payment at about $1,075, against about $1,450 at a hospital, which lines up with the Addendum B figure.
Coverage rules sit behind the rate. Under National Coverage Determination 220.6.17, Medicare covers FDG PET for most solid tumors with one scan to guide the initial treatment strategy (billed with the PI modifier) and, since June 11, 2013, three scans to guide subsequent treatment after initial therapy for the same cancer (PS modifier); a fourth subsequent scan needs the KX modifier and is decided by the local contractor, per CMS transmittals and contractor guidance from CGS and First Coast. Non-hospital facilities must also be accredited by a CMS-designated organization to bill Medicare for the technical component of PET, a requirement in force since January 1, 2012, as the Medical Outfitters PET/CT cost guide notes alongside CT, MRI and nuclear medicine.
The Tracer: What FDG, PSMA and Amyloid Agents Add to the Bill
Every PET scan needs a radioactive tracer, and the tracer is the line that makes PET different from every other imaging bill. FDG, the glucose analog used for most cancer studies, has a half-life of about 110 minutes, which the Medical Outfitters PET/CT cost guide notes is why it cannot be stockpiled: it is ordered per dose against the day’s patient list and delivered by courier from a regional radiopharmacy, and a canceled patient is a lost dose. CoveredUSA’s July 2026 guide puts the FDG tracer cost at $300 to $1,200 per dose when it is billed separately from the imaging fee.
How Medicare handles the tracer depends on its cost. In the hospital outpatient system, CMS packages low-cost diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals into the scan payment: the October 2026 Addendum B lists FDG (HCPCS A9552) with status indicator N, packaged, so the $1,460.92 APC rate already covers it. CMS pays separately only for diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals whose per-day cost exceeds a threshold, which the 2026 final rule raised to $655 from $630, according to SNMMI’s summary of the rule. Above that line sit the newer agents: the same rate file pays piflufolastat F 18 (Pylarify, a PSMA agent for prostate cancer, HCPCS A9595) at $346.49 per millicurie and gallium Ga-68 PSMA-11 (A9593) at $550.13 per millicurie, on top of the scan. The PSMA PET scan cost to Medicare, and to the patient through the 20 percent share, is therefore considerably more than an FDG study.
Amyloid PET for Alzheimer’s disease is the most expensive common PET exam in cash terms, $4,500 to $7,600 per CoveredUSA, because the agents are costly and the scan is often done at academic centers. CoveredUSA notes that CMS retired the amyloid PET coverage-with-evidence-development requirement in October 2023, including the once-per-lifetime cap, which widened Medicare access as new anti-amyloid therapies arrived.
For a patient, the practical point is to ask whether a quoted PET price includes the tracer, and which one. For a facility, the tracer is a per-dose cost on every scanning day with a matching revenue line, and the supply contract with the radiopharmacy belongs in the business plan next to the service contract. The PET/CT scanner buying guide covers the radiopharmacy and cyclotron routes and how uptake-room scheduling protects the doses.
PET Scan Cost With Insurance: Prior Authorization, Deductibles and Coinsurance
For an insured patient, the price of a PET scan is the rate the facility negotiated with the insurer, and the bill is a share of that rate set by the plan. Under Original Medicare the arithmetic is fixed: Part B pays 80 percent of the approved amount after the annual Part B deductible, which CMS set at $283 for 2026, and the patient pays 20 percent. At a hospital, the national unadjusted copayment for CPT 78815 is $292.19 per the October 2026 Addendum B, plus 20 percent of the radiologist’s $109.55 read, about $22. A Medicare Supplement plan usually covers that share; a Medicare Advantage plan replaces it with the plan’s own cost sharing, and CoveredUSA notes that Medicare Advantage plans must cover the same PET benefit as Original Medicare.
Commercial insurance pays more and passes more of the cost to the patient. CoveredUSA’s 2026 guide describes how the plan design decides the bill:
- Copay plan, deductible met: an advanced-imaging copay of about $100 to $500 per scan.
- Coinsurance plan, deductible met: a percentage of the negotiated rate, commonly 20 percent, which on a rate of $1,800 to $4,500 is about $360 to $900.
- High-deductible plan, deductible not met: the full negotiated rate, about $1,800 to $4,500, counts against the deductible first.
The hurdle that catches more PET patients than the price is prior authorization: every prior authorization PET scan request is checked against the insurer’s criteria. CoveredUSA describes it as nearly universal for commercial and Medicare Advantage plans, and a scan done without approval can be denied in full, leaving the patient with the self-pay price. The ordering physician’s office normally files the request with the diagnosis, the indication (initial staging, restaging or treatment response) and the prior imaging, and the insurer applies criteria similar to Medicare’s coverage determination. A patient scheduled for a PET scan should confirm the authorization number before the appointment, and ask whether it covers the facility as well as the scan, because an approval tied to one in-network site does not follow the patient to another.
The hospital setting adds a facility charge with its own cost sharing, which is why two patients on the same plan can see bills more than a thousand dollars apart for the same PET/CT. Insurers increasingly steer scheduled PET to freestanding centers for that reason, and the same logic is behind the imaging-center and hospital gap in our guide to what a CT scan costs.
PET Scan Price Without Insurance: Cash Rates, Discounts and Your Rights
A self-pay patient faces two very different numbers. The chargemaster price is the hospital’s list price, the figure printed on an itemized bill before any discount. The self-pay or cash price is what the same facility accepts from a patient paying directly. CoveredUSA’s 2026 guide reports that hospital self-pay discount policies take 20 to 60 percent off the list price, and that independent centers’ flat cash prices run 30 to 60 percent below hospital chargemaster rates. Nobody should pay a chargemaster price for a scheduled PET scan, and the first question for any facility is what its self-pay price is for the exact CPT code, with the tracer and the read included.
Two federal rules give the self-pay patient leverage. Under the CMS Hospital Price Transparency rule, in force since January 1, 2021, every hospital must publish a machine-readable file of its standard charges, including the discounted cash price and the payer-specific negotiated rates, so the hospital’s own PET/CT price can be looked up before booking. And under the No Surprises Act, in force since January 1, 2022, any provider that schedules a service for an uninsured or self-pay patient must provide a written Good Faith Estimate: at least one business day before the service when it is booked three to nine business days ahead, and at least three business days before when it is booked ten or more business days out. If the final bill exceeds the estimate by $400 or more, the patient can open the federal patient-provider dispute resolution process within 120 days of the bill date, per CMS as summarized by CoveredUSA.
The practical sequence for a self-pay patient is short. Ask the ordering physician for the CPT code and the tracer. Call two or three accredited freestanding imaging centers and the hospital and ask each for its all-in self-pay price for that code, tracer and read included. Ask about prompt-pay discounts for payment on the day. Request the Good Faith Estimate in writing. A mobile PET unit, where one serves the area, is another lower-cost route: CoveredUSA puts its cash range at $1,500 to $3,200.
Why a PET Scan Costs More Than a CT or MRI
A PET scan costs several times a CT, and the reasons are structural rather than a matter of markup. Medicare’s own rates show the gap: the October 2026 Addendum B pays $1,460.92 for a hospital PET/CT, while the American College of Radiology’s summary of the 2026 outpatient final rule puts the highest imaging-without-contrast level at $558.25. Four costs explain the difference.
The tracer. Every patient gets a dose of a short-lived radioactive drug, produced in a cyclotron, prepared in a licensed radiopharmacy and delivered the same day. No other routine imaging exam carries a manufactured, decaying drug as part of each scan.
Time in the building. CoveredUSA notes that the tracer needs 45 to 90 minutes to distribute after injection, the imaging takes 20 to 45 minutes and the whole visit runs two to three hours. The patient occupies a shielded uptake room for longer than the scan, which, as the Medical Outfitters PET/CT cost guide explains, means the number of uptake rooms rather than the scanner’s speed usually sets how many patients a day a department can image.
The suite. PET tracers emit 511 keV annihilation photons, far more penetrating than the X-rays a CT room is built for, so the scan room, uptake rooms and hot lab need a physicist’s shielding design with heavier lead or concrete, per the Medical Outfitters guide. A radioactive materials license, a radiation safety officer, daily quality control against sealed sources and an accreditation survey come with it.
The scanner. A PET/CT is a CT scanner and a ring of PET detectors in one gantry, and it is among the most capital-intensive purchases in imaging, as the next section shows.
Those costs are why PET reimbursement is high and why PET is concentrated in hospitals and larger imaging centers. They are also why the price spread is so wide: a hospital spreads the suite, the license and the staff over its whole cost base and negotiates from a higher starting point, while a freestanding center built around a refurbished scanner and a radiopharmacy contract can charge a fraction of the hospital price and still cover its costs.
What a PET/CT Scanner Costs and How the Scan Pays for It
Every PET scan price above is revenue to the facility that owns the scanner, and the cost of PET scanner hardware is the other half of the equation. The Medical Outfitters PET/CT scanner cost guide gives the PET CT scanner cost as a system price, delivered, installed and warrantied, in three tiers:
| PET/CT tier | Typical models | Refurbished | New |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry and older | GE Discovery ST and STE, Siemens Biograph 6 and 16, Philips Gemini GXL | $200,000 to $450,000 | $500,000 to $950,000 |
| Mid-tier time-of-flight | GE Discovery 600 to 710, Siemens Biograph mCT, Philips Gemini TF and Ingenuity TF | $450,000 to $800,000 | $1,100,000 to $2,000,000 |
| Premium digital | GE Discovery MI and Omni Legend, Siemens Biograph Vision, Philips Vereos | $800,000 to $1,500,000 | $2,200,000 to $4,000,000 |
Source: Medical Outfitters PET/CT scanner cost guide (2026). New prices are comparison estimates through the manufacturers. Shielding, the hot lab, the uptake rooms, the license and the first service contract are quoted per project on top.
The guide places most freestanding centers adding PET in the refurbished mid-tier band, a time-of-flight system with a 64-slice CT, two uptake rooms and a radiopharmacy contract, because a certified refurbished PET/CT typically saves 40 to 60 percent against new. The payback arithmetic follows from the exam prices. Take $625,000, the middle of the refurbished mid-tier band, and assume a net margin per exam after the tracer, the read and the technologist of $400 or $600; those two figures are assumptions for illustration, not quoted rates, and a real plan uses the site’s own payer mix. At $400 net the equipment line is recovered after about 1,560 exams, at $600 after about 1,040. On five scanning days a week, that is roughly nine months at eight patients a day and $400 net, or eighteen months at four a day.
The volume, not the price per exam, decides the answer, and the uptake rooms cap the volume. One uptake room limits a fast scanner to a handful of patients a day; two or three let the scanner work while the next patients take up their doses. That is why the cost guide advises planning the suite, the tracer supply and the referral base before choosing the scanner, and why a mobile PET/CT on rent or lease is the usual way to test demand before a fixed room is built.
For a facility choosing between new and refurbished, the reimbursement settles much of it. Medicare pays the same $1,460.92 hospital rate for a 78815 study whether it was acquired on a new digital scanner or a refurbished time-of-flight system, so for routine FDG oncology a refurbished mid-tier scanner earns the same revenue per exam at a fraction of the price. A digital system earns its premium in throughput, lower injected dose and the sensitivity that PSMA, amyloid and cardiac protocols reward. Medical Outfitters sources and installs refurbished GE and Siemens PET/CT systems through MO Select and can source Philips and Canon systems refurbished on request; we do not sell GE, Siemens, Philips or Canon PET/CT systems new.
Pricing the PET Scan and the Scanner With Medical Outfitters
If you arrived here as a patient, the short version is to confirm the prior authorization, ask for the CPT code and the tracer, call an accredited freestanding center for its all-in self-pay price, and insist on a Good Faith Estimate. If you arrived as a facility owner or radiology manager, the exam prices on this page are your revenue side and the PET/CT scanner cost guide is the cost side: price bands by tier, what a quote includes, the suite and the tracer supply. The PET/CT scanner buying guide takes the purchase step by step, our nuclear medicine category lists current systems and the Neoprobe cost guide covers gamma detection in surgery. The MO Select standard is described on the refurbished imaging equipment page, the CT half of the gantry in the CT scanner cost guide and what a CT scan machine is, and moving a scanner in our guide to rigging and relocation. Send us your expected patients per day and payer mix and we will price a specific system, delivered, installed and warrantied: contact Medical Outfitters.
- CMS, OPPS Addendum B, October 2026: APC assignments, payment rates and copayments for CPT 78811 to 78816, 78608, 78491 and 78492; status of A9552, A9593 and A9595. cms.gov
- CMS, 2026 Physician Fee Schedule relative value file RVU26D: professional RVUs for 78815, carrier-priced status of the global and technical lines, the $33.4009 conversion factor. cms.gov
- CoveredUSA, “PET Scan Cost in 2026”, July 5, 2026: cash ranges by setting and scan type, Medicare estimates, tracer and read fees, insurance cost sharing, prior authorization and Good Faith Estimate rules. coveredusa.org
- SNMMI, “CMS Releases Final CY 2026 OPPS: Implications for Nuclear Medicine”: the $655 per-day radiopharmaceutical threshold and contractor pricing of PET codes. snmmi.org
- CMS, NCD 220.6.17 transmittal and CGS contractor guidance: FDG PET coverage for oncologic conditions, PI, PS and KX modifiers. cgsmedicare.com
- American College of Radiology, “CY 2026 HOPPS Final Rule Preliminary Summary”: imaging APC rates used for the CT comparison. acr.org
- Medical Outfitters, PET/CT Scanner Cost and Price Guide (2026): system price tiers, the suite, tracer supply and accreditation. medicaloutfitters.com
- PET/CT scanner cost and price guide (2026)
- PET/CT scanner buying guide: detectors, time-of-flight, siting
- Nuclear medicine equipment
- Refurbished medical imaging equipment: the MO Select standard
- How much does a CT scan cost in 2026
- What is a CT scan machine
- CT scanner cost and price guide (2026)
- Neoprobe cost and gamma probe buying guide
- What is a Neoprobe? Gamma detection in surgery
- How to move an MRI or CT scanner
- CT scanner service, repair and maintenance
- MRI, CT and X-ray machines for sale in Florida
- Price a PET/CT system for your site
PET Scan Cost: Common Questions
How much does a PET scan cost in 2026?
About $1,300 to $7,600 without insurance, according to CoveredUSA's July 2026 national pricing guide: roughly $1,300 to $3,800 at a freestanding imaging center and $2,800 to $7,600 in a hospital outpatient department, with a national average near $4,200. Medicare pays hospitals $1,460.92 for a whole-body PET/CT (CPT 78815) under the October 2026 CMS outpatient rate file, plus $109.55 for the radiologist's read, and the patient's national copay is $292.19.
How much does a PET scan cost without insurance?
Ask for the self-pay price, not the list price. CoveredUSA's 2026 guide puts cash prices at $1,300 to $3,800 at a freestanding center, $2,800 to $7,600 at a hospital outpatient department and $1,500 to $3,200 on a mobile PET unit. Hospital self-pay discounts take 20 to 60 percent off the list price. Confirm that the quote includes the tracer and the read, and request a written Good Faith Estimate, which the No Surprises Act requires for self-pay patients.
How much does a PET scan cost with insurance?
It depends on the plan. CoveredUSA reports advanced-imaging copays of about $100 to $500 after the deductible, while a high-deductible plan applies the full negotiated rate, about $1,800 to $4,500, to the deductible first. A coinsurance plan charges a percentage, commonly 20 percent, of the negotiated rate. Prior authorization is nearly universal for commercial and Medicare Advantage plans, and a scan without it can be denied, leaving the patient with the cash price.
How much does Medicare pay for a PET/CT scan?
In a hospital outpatient department, CMS pays $1,460.92 for CPT 78815 under APC 5594 in the October 2026 Addendum B, and the radiologist bills the read separately at $109.55 nationally under the 2026 fee schedule (3.28 RVUs at $33.4009). In a freestanding center the global rate is set by the local Medicare contractor; CoveredUSA estimates about $1,075. The patient pays 20 percent after the $283 Part B deductible, a national hospital copay of $292.19.
Is the tracer included in the price of a PET scan?
Sometimes. CoveredUSA's 2026 guide puts the FDG tracer at $300 to $1,200 when billed separately. In the Medicare hospital system FDG (HCPCS A9552) is packaged into the scan payment, so it is not billed on its own line. Costlier agents above the $655 per-day threshold are paid separately: the October 2026 Addendum B pays $346.49 per millicurie for Pylarify (A9595) and $550.13 per millicurie for Ga-68 PSMA-11 (A9593). Always ask which tracer a quote includes.
Why is a PET scan so expensive?
Because every scan carries a short-lived radioactive drug made in a cyclotron and delivered the same day, the patient occupies a shielded uptake room for 45 to 90 minutes before a 20 to 45 minute scan (CoveredUSA), and the suite needs heavy shielding, a hot lab, a radioactive materials license and a radiation safety program. The scanner itself, a CT and a ring of PET detectors in one gantry, costs $200,000 to $4 million or more per the Medical Outfitters PET/CT cost guide.
How many PET scans does Medicare cover for cancer?
Under National Coverage Determination 220.6.17, Medicare covers one FDG PET scan to guide the initial treatment strategy for a cancer (PI modifier) and, since June 11, 2013, three scans to guide subsequent treatment after initial therapy for the same cancer (PS modifier). A fourth subsequent scan needs the KX modifier and is decided by the local Medicare contractor. A new cancer diagnosis starts a new count. Non-hospital sites must be accredited to bill Medicare for PET.
How much does a PET/CT scanner cost?
The Medical Outfitters PET/CT cost guide puts a refurbished entry-level system at $200,000 to $450,000, a refurbished mid-tier time-of-flight system at $450,000 to $800,000 and a refurbished premium digital system at $800,000 to $1,500,000, delivered, installed and warrantied; new systems are estimated at $500,000 to $4,000,000 through the manufacturers. Shielding, the hot lab, uptake rooms, the license and the first service contract are quoted per project. Most freestanding centers buy refurbished mid-tier.
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