How much does a mammogram cost without insurance?
A screening mammogram for someone with no symptoms and a diagnostic mammogram investigating a finding are different codes at different prices. Free and low-cost screening programmes exist in most states and are consistently underused.
We are not going to make up an average
Nearly every “average cost” figure you will find for this procedure traces back to sites citing each other rather than to data. This one does not publish a number it cannot source. What it does instead is better: below is how to get the actual price your provider has already published — federal rules require it to exist, and it is specific to the facility that will bill you.
How to find the real price for you
- 1
Get the code from your order
A screening mammogram is 77067 (bilateral); diagnostic mammography is 77065 or 77066. Digital breast tomosynthesis — 3D mammography — may be included or billed as an add-on depending on the facility.
- 2
Open the hospital's standard charges file
Every hospital must publish one, usually linked from a page called “price transparency” or “standard charges.” Search it for the code — not the words — and look for the column marked discounted cash price. Ignore the gross charge: that is the chargemaster figure almost nobody pays.
- 3
Watch for this specifically
Before paying anything, check the CDC's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program and your state health department — free or low-cost screening is available in every state for people who meet the income and age criteria, and many people who qualify never find out. If you are paying, search the hospital file for 77067 and confirm separately whether tomosynthesis is bundled.
- 4
Ask for it in writing, in advance
If you are uninsured or self-pay, ask for a Good Faith Estimate before scheduling. That document is what a later bill gets measured against — and if the bill lands $400 or more above it, a federal dispute process opens for 120 calendar days. How that works.
What drives the price
- Screening versus diagnostic. If a screening finds something and additional views are taken, the encounter can be recoded as diagnostic, which prices higher.
- Whether 3D tomosynthesis is included in the base price or added as a separate charge.
- The setting: a dedicated breast imaging centre versus a hospital radiology department.
- Whether an ultrasound follows the same day, which is a separate study with its own code.
If the bill has already arrived
Start with the free-screening programmes rather than with negotiation; they exist precisely for this situation. If a screening was recoded as diagnostic after additional views, ask for the itemized bill and an explanation of the recode — that transition is where an expected price becomes an unexpected one.
Dispute a billing error →Before anything else, though: request the itemized bill and check it for errors. If the amount is simply unaffordable and the hospital is a nonprofit, the charity care screener is usually the more productive route.
Frequently asked questions
Are free mammograms actually available?
Why was my screening mammogram billed as diagnostic?
Is 3D mammography worth paying extra for?
Do I need a doctor's order for a screening mammogram?
Other procedures
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