Search “DEXA scan cost” and you get two answers that are hundreds of dollars apart, both of them correct. That is not a data problem. There are genuinely two different DEXA markets in the United States, and knowing which one you are shopping in is most of the battle.
One is the medical bone density scan, billed as CPT 77080, ordered by a doctor to look for osteoporosis and read by a radiologist. The other is the body-composition DEXA scan sold straight to consumers by fitness and wellness scan companies, which uses the same class of machine to report body fat percentage, lean mass and visceral fat. This guide prices both as of September 2026, explains why the gap exists, and covers what Medicare and commercial plans actually pay for.
What Does a DEXA Scan Cost Without Insurance?
Figures below are published self-pay prices and prepaid marketplace rates as of September 2026, alongside average submitted charges from the CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners file (2024 claims, released May 2026).
| Service / Type | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bone density DEXA, flat self-pay at an imaging center | $69 | n/a | $242 |
| Bone density DEXA, prepaid cash (MDsave) | $64 | $144 | $432 |
| Bone density DEXA, MDsave estimated national average | n/a | $335 | n/a |
| CPT 77080 in an office setting (average billed charge) | n/a | $219.45 | n/a |
| CPT 77080 in a facility setting (average billed charge) | n/a | $64.36 | n/a |
| CPT 77080, amount Medicare allows in an office setting | n/a | $29.74 | n/a |
| Body-composition DEXA at a scan company | $40 | $99 | $149 |
| Body-composition DEXA at an imaging center | n/a | $129 | n/a |
Sources: the $69 imaging-center floor is Excel Medical Imaging’s published self-pay rate and the $242 ceiling is Crown Valley Imaging’s starting self-pay price, both of which include the radiologist read; the prepaid range, $144 MDsave average and $335 estimated national average come from MDsave’s DEXA scan listing; billed-charge and Medicare-allowed figures are national averages in the CMS 2024 physician file; the body-composition range spans BodySpec’s published $40 membership rate through DexaFit St. Louis’s $99 new-client special to its $149 single-test price, and $129 is Excel Medical Imaging’s DEXA body fat composition study.
Those last two rows are not really competing with the first six. They are a different product with a different deliverable sold to a different buyer, which is why the ranges overlap in the middle and separate at the edges.
What Drives the Price
Whether a radiologist reads it
This is the single biggest cost line. A diagnostic bone density scan includes a professional interpretation that produces a T-score, and that read gets billed. Crown Valley Imaging’s $242 self-pay price explicitly bundles the hip and lumbar spine scan plus a board-certified radiologist’s interpretation including the T-score, the report to your ordering physician and your own copies. A body-composition scan produces a software-generated report and no physician read, which explains most of the gap.
Hospital outpatient versus freestanding center
The CMS 2024 physician file shows CPT 77080 with an average submitted charge of $219.45 in office (non-facility) settings and $64.36 in facility settings, where the facility figure covers only the professional component and the hospital bills its own technical charge on top of it. A freestanding imaging center that publishes one all-in number, like Excel Medical Imaging’s $69, never generates that second bill.
Which body sites get scanned
Standard osteoporosis screening covers the hip and lumbar spine. Whole-body scanning and body-composition analysis are priced separately at most centers: Excel Medical Imaging charges $69 for the DEXA and $129 for a DEXA body fat composition study, and the two are ordered differently even though the machine is the same. Ask which sites a quoted price covers before you assume the numbers are comparable.
Whether you buy one scan or a package
The body-composition market is built on repeat scanning, so it prices like a gym membership. BodySpec’s single scans start around $45 and fall to roughly $40 on a membership, and it puts its direct-to-consumer range at $40 to $60. DexaFit St. Louis runs a $99 new-client special against a $149 single-test price. If you only want one baseline number, ignore the package math and ask for the single rate.
Whether a referral is required
Requirement, not price, but it changes your path and often your total. Crown Valley Imaging requires a physician order for the diagnostic bone density study and sells its body composition study without one. The scan companies require nothing. If you need a doctor’s order first, budget for that visit too, which our doctor visit cost guide covers.
Cash Price vs. Insurance
For bone density, insurance is usually the better deal if you qualify. Medicare Part B covers bone mass measurement once every 24 months, and more often if medically necessary, for people who meet at least one qualifying condition: being estrogen-deficient and at risk for osteoporosis, having X-rays that show possible osteoporosis, osteopenia or vertebral fractures, taking prednisone or steroid-type drugs, having primary hyperparathyroidism, or being monitored to see whether osteoporosis drug therapy is working. If the provider accepts assignment, you pay nothing.
Commercial plans generally track the same logic, because the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gave osteoporosis screening a B grade in its January 2025 final recommendation for women 65 and older, and for postmenopausal women under 65 at increased fracture risk, naming DXA bone mineral density as the screening test. A B grade is what triggers no-cost-sharing preventive coverage in ACA-compliant plans. If you are insured and you fit the criteria, use the benefit.
If you are uninsured, the math is less painful than usual. The Medicare-allowed amount for CPT 77080 in an office setting averaged $29.74 in 2024 claims data, which is a rate no cash payer can access, but published self-pay rates in the $69 to $129 band are close enough that bone density is one of the few tests where being uninsured does not cost you a fortune.
Body composition is simpler: it is elective, nothing covers it, and the cash price is the only price. That is exactly why those companies publish it openly.
How to Pay Less
- Decide which scan you actually need before you shop. If a doctor ordered it to check bone health, you need the medical scan with the radiologist read. If you want body fat and lean mass numbers for training, the $40 to $99 scan companies do that job and the medical route adds nothing for the extra money.
- Ask freestanding imaging centers for the all-in self-pay price for CPT 77080. The phrase that works is “what is your self-pay price for CPT 77080, all in, including the read.” Centers with a published rate quote it immediately. Check whatever number you are given against our fair price checker.
- Compare a prepaid marketplace against the local walk-in rate. MDsave’s national DEXA range is $64 to $432 with a $144 average, against a $335 estimated national average for the same scan bought the usual way. If your local center will not put a number in writing, prepaying is usually cheaper than showing up and hoping.
- Pull the hospital’s own posted cash rate before you book there. Hospital outpatient departments are where a $69 scan becomes a several-hundred-dollar line item, and every hospital is required to post its standard charges. Our hospital price transparency guide explains how to find and read the file.
- If a bill arrives above the quote, work it. Request an itemized hospital bill so you can see whether a separate reading fee was tacked on, then use our medical bill negotiation guide to push the balance back down to the published self-pay number. For large balances, check our hospital charity care guide and the charity care checker.
- Spend HSA or FSA dollars on it. Both scan types are generally eligible medical expenses, and paying with pre-tax money is effectively a 20 to 30 percent discount depending on your bracket.
How It Compares to Other Scans
A DEXA sits at the cheap end of imaging. At $69 to $242 cash it is far below a CT scan or an MRI, and in the same neighborhood as a plain X-ray or an ultrasound.
It is also one of the few screening tests insurance genuinely pays for, which is the opposite of a coronary calcium score, where Medicare’s own coverage policy treats the test as a non-covered screening service. If you are pricing a batch of preventive tests, check coverage test by test rather than assuming a pattern.
This is a cost guide and not medical guidance. Whether and when to get a bone density scan is a conversation for a clinician. What it should cost, and which of the two DEXA markets you are actually buying in, is what this page is for.
Bottom Line
A medical bone density DEXA scan is a $69 to $242 cash purchase if you call a freestanding imaging center and ask for the flat self-pay rate, and a $64 to $432 purchase on a prepaid marketplace where the average is $144. A fitness body-composition DEXA is a separate $40 to $149 product with no referral, no radiologist and no insurance in the picture. Neither one should cost you several hundred dollars unless you let it be billed as a hospital outpatient study. Ask which scan is being quoted, get the number all in, and this becomes one of the easiest prices in healthcare to pin down.