Procedures · Published rates

Diagnostic colonoscopy cost in Palo Alto, CA

What Diagnostic colonoscopy costs across 1 Palo Alto-area hospital, taken straight from each hospital's official price file.

Typical price range $1,368–$13,678 high end capped — single-payer outlier; full range in the table below

Published span $1,368–$22,145 full published range

Hospitals 1 with a published price

Updated June 17, 2026

Note: The headline range is capped at $13,678 (10× the published low of $1,368). The hospital’s file shows a high of $22,145, which reflects a single high-rate payer contract rather than a typical price. The price table below shows the full published range.

Based on the de-identified negotiated rates hospitals publish for this scan.

What this scan is

A diagnostic colonoscopy lets a doctor examine the lining of the colon with a thin, flexible camera, often to investigate symptoms such as bleeding or pain. (A screening colonoscopy for someone without symptoms is billed differently.) Its price varies widely between hospitals.

Cost without insurance in Palo Alto

Most hospitals publish de-identified negotiated rates rather than a single self-pay price. Those rates — shown per hospital below — are the best public signal of what Diagnostic colonoscopy costs here, and a cash price is often negotiable toward them. Always ask the billing office about self-pay rates and financial assistance.

Typical range · 1 hospital $1,368–$13,678 (capped)

Stanford Health Care - Stanford Hospital $1,368–$22,145

→ $22,145

* Chart axis capped at $15,000 to show the typical range clearly. The published high ($22,145) is a de-identified max that may reflect a single high-rate payer contract. The price table below shows the full published figures.

Each bar is a hospital's published negotiated range; the tinted band marks the typical range ($1,368–$13,678).

Hospital	Published price	Basis	Setting	Source
Stanford Health Care - Stanford Hospital	$1,368–$22,145	Negotiated	Outpatient	file · 2026-06-17

What affects the price

Facility vs. physician fees. A scan can be billed as a facility charge, a radiologist's reading fee, or both. Published cash prices usually cover the facility component.
With or without contrast. Adding contrast dye is a different billing code and costs more; the prices here are for the scan without contrast.
Setting. The same scan can be priced differently for outpatient vs. inpatient care. We show the outpatient cash price where a hospital publishes one.
The hospital itself. Each hospital sets its own chargemaster, so cash prices for the identical code can vary several-fold across town.

How to use this data

Use the range as a planning estimate, then call the hospitals near the lower end and ask for their cash or self-pay price for billing code 70551, plus any financial-assistance options. Bring the figure you see here as a reference. These are published rates, not a quote — confirm before you book.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Diagnostic colonoscopy cost in Palo Alto, CA?

Across 1 hospital in the Palo Alto area, the published price for Diagnostic colonoscopy typically runs $1,368–$22,145, and spans $1,368–$22,145 across all 1. These figures are de-identified negotiated rates taken directly from each hospital's price file.

How much does Diagnostic colonoscopy cost without insurance?

Most hospitals don't publish a single self-pay price, so we show the de-identified rates they do publish — roughly $1,368–$22,145 in Palo Alto. A cash price is often negotiable toward that range: ask the hospital's billing office for its self-pay rate and whether financial assistance is available.

Why does the price vary so much between hospitals?

Published rates reflect each hospital's own chargemaster, facility and physician fees, and local market. For the same billing code, rates can differ several-fold between nearby hospitals — which is exactly why comparing them is useful.

Are these prices a guarantee of what I'll pay?

No. These are figures drawn from each hospital's published price file on the dates shown — not a quote. Your final bill can differ. Confirm directly with the provider and your insurer. See our methodology for how we source and compute these numbers.

Sources

Every price on this page traces to a hospital's official machine-readable file:

Stanford Health Care - Stanford Hospital — machine-readable price file, ingested 2026-06-17.

See our methodology for how the typical range is computed.

Informational only. Prices are estimates from published hospital data and may not reflect your final bill. Not medical, legal, or insurance advice. Confirm with the provider and your insurer.