Usually yes, but only through the route the insurer sets — and the route is where claims fail rather than the scan itself.

What the policy documents actually say

Every policy we hold treats scans as a referred benefit, not something you can book yourself. AXA Health pays CT, MRI and PET scans in full, but only at a scanning centre listed in its Directory of Hospitals and only on a specialist's referral; a scan taken elsewhere attracts a cash payment instead of the full cost. WPA prices out-patient consultations with a specialist at £250 a year as standard, which is the gate you pass through before a scan is authorised at all.

The practical failure is booking first and claiming later. A self-referred scan at a walk-in imaging centre is normally outside cover even when the same scan at the same price would have been paid with a referral. Authorisation is the product.

If you are paying yourself, a scan is one of the cheaper private procedures: Nuffield Health Edinburgh publishes a CT scan without contrast of one area at £650 and a plain X-ray at £135.

There is a second trap in how scans are counted. On policies with an out-patient allowance, the scan and the consultation that triggered it often both draw on the same pot. Aviva's reduced out-patient limits of £500 or £1,000 are the clearest example: choosing one does not merely cap out-patient spending, it also removes in-patient, day-patient and out-patient cover for complications of pregnancy and childbirth and for surgical procedures on the teeth. A limit chosen to save premium quietly changes what is covered elsewhere.

Bupa's Direct Access route sidesteps part of this for specific problems. A phone or video assessment about cancer, or muscles, bones and joints, needs no GP referral, carries no excess, and does not come out of the out-patient allowance. If the assessment leads to imaging, the referral requirement has been satisfied by the insurer's own service rather than by a GP appointment you had to arrange and possibly pay for.

Questions to put to the insurer or broker

  • Which imaging centres are on the insurer's list near me?
  • Does the out-patient limit cover the consultation as well as the scan?
  • Is a GP referral enough, or must a specialist request it?

Related questions

Sources

  • Source: Aviva — Healthier Solutions Terms and conditions (2025-04), read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: AXA Health — Personal Health membership handbook, October 2024, read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: Bupa policy guide — Bupa By You health insurance (BINS 14718) (2024), read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: WPA — Private Medical Insurance — Insurance Product Information Document (Complete Health) (2025-11), read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: self-pay price list — Self-pay treatment prices — Nuffield Health Edinburgh, read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: self-pay price list — Self-pay treatment prices — Nuffield Health The Holly, read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: Spire Healthcare Edinburgh Hospitals Murrayfield And Shawfair Park self-pay price list — Self-pay treatment prices — spire edinburgh hospitals murrayfield and shawfair park, read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: Spire Healthcare St Anthonys self-pay price list — Self-pay treatment prices — Spire St Anthonys Hospital, read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: Spire Healthcare The Montefiore self-pay price list — Self-pay treatment prices — the montefiore hospital, read 4 September 2026.

The limit behind every answer here

None of this reaches a condition you already have. Cover is written for problems that arise after it starts, so anything you have symptoms of when you apply is excluded — permanently under full medical underwriting, or until a symptom-free period has passed under a moratorium. Chronic conditions are excluded by every insurer whose wording we hold. Figures quoted come from current policy documents and change at renewal, so check the document you are actually offered.

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