An angiogram is where cardiac testing stops being cheap. An EKG is a $50 line item and an echocardiogram is a few hundred dollars, but a coronary angiogram means a catheter, a cath lab, a sedation team, and a recovery bay, and the price jumps by an order of magnitude. It is also the point where a diagnostic visit can turn into a treatment visit without anyone stopping to renegotiate the bill.
This guide covers real prices for a diagnostic coronary angiogram (also called a cardiac catheterization or left heart cath, CPT 93458), the CT angiogram that increasingly substitutes for it, and what happens to the number when a stent goes in during the same appointment. Figures below are 2026 CMS national averages and published cash prices verified as of August 2026.
What Does an Angiogram Cost Without Insurance?
Two kinds of figures matter here. The CMS Procedure Price Lookup gives an all-in 2026 national average (facility fee plus doctor fee) for outpatient procedures, which is the closest thing to an official benchmark. Cash-price platforms show what self-pay patients actually pay when the price is set in advance.
| Service | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coronary angiogram, CPT 93458, ambulatory surgery center (2026 Medicare all-in) | n/a | $2,717 | n/a |
| Coronary angiogram, CPT 93458, hospital outpatient (2026 Medicare all-in) | n/a | $4,322 | n/a |
| Cardiac cath with coronary angiogram, prepaid cash | $3,755 | $5,635 | $7,596 |
| Left heart catheterization, average cash price by state | $4,500 | n/a | $6,397 |
| Diagnostic heart catheterization, average cash price across facilities | n/a | $8,052 | n/a |
| Estimated national average, non-discounted benchmark | n/a | $10,653 | n/a |
| CT angiogram of the heart, CPT 75574, prepaid cash | $252 | $611 | $1,447 |
| CT angiogram, CPT 75574 (2026 Medicare all-in, surgery center to hospital) | $517 | n/a | $681 |
| Angiogram plus one stent, CPT 92928 (2026 Medicare all-in, surgery center to hospital) | $7,771 | n/a | $12,257 |
| Cardiac cath as an inpatient stay, DRG 287 and DRG 286 (average billed charge) | $63,889 | n/a | $112,267 |
Sources: CMS Procedure Price Lookup 2026 national averages; MDsave national cash listings for the catheter-based angiogram ($3,755 to $7,596, national average $5,635, against an estimated national average of $10,653) and for cardiac CT coronary angiography ($252 to $1,447, national average $611, against an estimated national average of $1,314); Sidecar Health’s state-level cash prices for a left heart catheterization ($4,500 in Iowa to $6,397 in Alaska); Turquoise Health’s cross-facility average cash price of $8,052; inpatient billed charges from the CMS Medicare Inpatient Hospitals by Geography and Service file (2024 claims, released April 2026).
Note the spread. These sources disagree by roughly a factor of four on what a diagnostic angiogram “costs,” from $2,717 as a 2026 Medicare all-in national average to $10,653 as MDsave’s estimate of the non-discounted going rate, with Turquoise Health’s $8,052 average cash price sitting in between. That gap is not measurement error. It is the difference between a negotiated rate, a prepaid cash rate, and a chargemaster price, and which one you get depends almost entirely on what you arrange before you show up.
What Drives the Price
Ambulatory surgery center vs. hospital
This is the largest controllable factor. In 2026 CMS data the same CPT 93458 averages $2,717 at an ambulatory surgery center and $4,322 at a hospital outpatient department, about 59% more for the hospital. The physician fee is identical at $1,010 in both settings. The entire difference is the facility fee: $1,707 at the surgery center against $3,312 at the hospital.
Diagnostic study vs. intervention
A coronary angiogram is a look. If the cardiologist opens a narrowed artery in the same session, the visit is billed as a percutaneous coronary intervention instead, and the stent hardware rides along. Under 2026 CMS rates, CPT 92928 (angioplasty with one stent in one artery) averages $7,771 at a surgery center and $12,257 at a hospital outpatient department. That is roughly 2.8 times the diagnostic angiogram in the same setting, and it is a decision made while you are on the table.
Whether you get admitted
Outpatient pricing evaporates if the visit becomes an inpatient stay. In CMS 2024 Medicare claims data (released April 2026), hospitals submitted average charges of $63,889 for DRG 287 (circulatory disorders with cardiac catheterization, no major complication) and $112,267 for DRG 286 (the same stay with a major complication coded). Average total payments on those stays were $10,451 and $21,752 respectively, which shows how far submitted charges sit above what anyone actually collects. Uninsured patients get billed off the charge column unless they push back.
The unbundled extras
A cath lab visit is not one charge. Contrast dye, moderate sedation or anesthesia, pre-procedure labs, the recovery bay, and any imaging done alongside can each arrive separately, sometimes from separate companies. Sidecar Health notes explicitly that its cash-price figures exclude anesthesia, imaging, and accompanying doctor visit fees. Any quote you get should be tested with one question: what else will be billed, and by whom.
Geography
Cash prices for the same study vary about 40% across states. Sidecar Health’s database puts the average cash price for a left heart catheterization at $4,500 in Iowa and $6,397 in Alaska, with most states landing between $4,700 and $5,600. That is a narrower band than many hospital procedures, which tells you the catheter-based angiogram has a real market price and a five-figure bill is a setting problem rather than a market rate.
Cash Price vs. Insurance
For a planned angiogram, self-pay often wins on paper, and it almost always requires a decision made in advance. Prepaid cash listings at $3,755 to $7,596 land well below the $10,653 estimated national average, and a surgery center’s $2,717 all-in benchmark is lower still. Under a high-deductible plan you pay the negotiated rate in full until the deductible clears, so the real comparison is cash price against negotiated rate, not cash price against a copay.
The catch is bigger here than for a cheap test. Once a claim is filed, most facilities will not retroactively convert you to their self-pay rate, and a cardiac cath is exactly the kind of procedure that can escalate mid-stream into a stent, an admission, or both. A cash quote covers the diagnostic study. It does not cover what happens if the study finds something.
That risk is worth pricing rather than ignoring. If you are uninsured, ask the facility in writing what the self-pay price becomes if a stent is placed, and what happens to the quote if you are kept overnight. A facility that will not answer those two questions in writing has told you something useful about how the bill will look.
How to Pay Less
- Ask whether a CT angiogram answers the question. The non-invasive version is prepaid at $252 to $1,447 with a national average of $611, against $3,755 to $7,596 for the catheter study. Whether it is clinically appropriate is your cardiologist’s call, but it is a fair question to raise before scheduling, and the price difference is close to tenfold.
- Price the ambulatory surgery center. The 2026 CMS gap between settings is $2,717 versus $4,322 for the identical code, and cash prices follow the same pattern. Check any quote you are given against our fair price checker before you accept it.
- Buy it prepaid where that is offered. Prepaid platforms bundle the facility and physician fees into one price, which removes the most common source of surprise follow-up bills. MDsave’s national average for the angiogram is $5,635 against a $10,653 estimated national average.
- Pull the hospital’s posted cash rate. Hospitals are required to publish discounted cash prices for shoppable services, and 93458, 75574, and 92928 are all in those files. Our hospital price transparency guide walks through finding and reading them.
- Get the itemized bill before you pay anything. A cath bill runs to dozens of lines, and unbundled or duplicated charges are common. Start with an itemized hospital bill request, then work the number down using our medical bill negotiation guide.
- Apply for charity care if a hospital is involved. Nonprofit hospitals must maintain a written financial assistance policy, and the income thresholds are more generous than most people expect. Check eligibility with our charity care checker and see our hospital charity care guide.
- Know what the cheaper tests cost first. An angiogram is rarely the first cardiac test ordered. Our guides to echocardiogram cost, stress test cost, and EKG cost cover the earlier steps, and knowing those numbers helps you see where you are in the sequence and what the next step should reasonably run.
Bottom Line
A diagnostic coronary angiogram is a $2,700 to $10,700 procedure, and where it lands in that range depends almost entirely on setting and on whether the price was fixed in advance. Prepaid cash sits at $3,755 to $7,596, a surgery center beats a hospital outpatient department by about 37% on the 2026 CMS national average, and the non-invasive CT angiogram costs a fraction of either at $252 to $1,447 prepaid.
The number that ruins budgets is not the angiogram itself. It is the stent placed in the same session, which roughly triples the outpatient price to $7,771 to $12,257, or the admission, where average billed charges run $63,889 to $112,267. Ask what the price becomes under each of those scenarios before you schedule. If an implanted device is on the table, our pacemaker cost guide covers how device implant pricing is built and where the negotiating room is.