CMS Opens Door for AI Cardiac Screening Revenue

Every chest CT is now a billable cardiac screening opportunity — here's how to capture the reimbursement CMS just unlocked

Every chest CT just became a billable heart screening. Here's what that means for your revenue.

Starting April 1, 2026, CMS is paying hospitals and imaging centers to use AI for detecting coronary artery calcium and aortic valve calcium on routine chest CT scans. This is not a pilot program. It is a permanent reimbursement pathway that applies to the tens of millions of chest CTs performed annually across the United States.

📊 The financial opportunity is significant and largely uncaptured. Consider the scale: roughly 6 to 8 million low-dose chest CTs are performed annually for lung cancer screening alone. Add in chest CTs ordered for pulmonary nodule follow-up, pre-surgical evaluation, trauma, and other indications and the total volume approaches 30 to 40 million scans per year. Every one of those scans captures the heart in the field of view. Until April 1, 2026, that cardiac data was systematically ignored from a billing perspective.

Bunkerhill Health was the first company to secure b…