Scans and calibrations: What insurance pays for and how much they pay.

The four stakeholders behind every scan and calibration line

Whether a scan or calibration gets paid, and for how much, is decided by four different parties. Their priorities rarely line up. In 65% of the cases we reviewed where the shop’s and the insurer’s estimates disagreed on scans or calibrations, the insurer’s was the one that paid less. Knowing which party made the cut is critical to fighting back.

1. What do the automakers require for a repair?

Scans: before and after, on almost every brand

Nearly every major automaker now calls for a diagnostic scan before the repair, to find the faults the collision left, and another after it, to prove the repair didn’t leave new ones. In their own words:

Not every maker uses the same word for both scans, and some use “recommends” for one and “required” for the other. In your estimate, quote the maker’s own word for that make and model year. The adjuster will.

Calibrations: triggered by the repair, not the collision

A calibration is called for by what happens during the repair. The events automakers name most often:

• Windshield replaced or removed on a car with a camera behind the glass. GM: it is “critical that a service point calibration/learn procedure is performed whenever a front view windshield camera or sensor is removed, reinstalled, or replaced, or when the windshield itself is removed and replaced.”[7]
• Bumper, grille or bracket work where a radar or camera is mounted, including a bumper beam or sensor bracket removed and reinstalled.[9]
• Wheel alignment, suspension or ride-height changes. Nissan: “After any ADAS component removal, replacement, and even vehicle alignment, the proper calibration procedure must be performed.”[8]
• The sensor or camera itself removed, replaced or moved, or a fault code that calls for it.

A few makers also say who may do the work. Rivian “requires that all scans and calibrations are performed by Rivian Certified Technicians,”[10] so the work needs a Rivian-certified technician, in your shop or through a sublet.

2. What does the estimating system leave out?

The estimating systems price repairs from published times. A scan has no published time at all, and calibrations are written as their own lines, which is why both are argued so often. Answers from the Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG), where the estimating providers respond to shops’ questions, settle the three arguments we see most:

• “That’s included in the scan.” CCC/MOTOR “does not define what operations are included or not included in Scan related operations as there is NO labor time published to scan a vehicle in CCC/MOTOR Guides,” and scan labor, including battery support, “would be an ‘ON THE SPOT EVALUATION’ for labor and rate.”[11] CCC has said the same since 2018: with so many scan tools and vehicles, “MOTOR recommends an on-the-spot evaluation to determine an appropriate estimated time to perform diagnostic scans for each repair.”[23]
• “Research time is included.” MOTOR’s Guide to Estimating lists “Repair information retrieval/lookup” as not included, and service information subscriptions are not included either.[12]
• “Taking it to the dealer is part of the sublet.” Asked about subletting a car to a dealer for a scan, MOTOR answered: “Transportation is NOT INCLUDED in sublet operations.”[13]

What insurers pay, and where they cut

Whether insurers pay for scans is mostly settled. In the “Who Pays for What?” survey results reported in January 2026, 92% of shops that negotiated a pre-repair scan were paid by the largest insurers, 93% were paid always or most of the time for a post-repair scan, and 90% for calibrations. In-process scans are the exception, at 28%.[15] Those figures count only shops that asked. Where the money goes missing is in the hours and the count.

Scans: the hours

Scans rarely go missing. The insurer’s estimate had no pre-repair scan on only 7% of the cases where the shop wrote one, and no post-repair scan on only 8%. But pay attention to the hours.

• 9 out of 10 scan lines on insurers’ estimates in our data were written at exactly 0.5 hour (831 of 925).

The hours you write are close to a ceiling, so write the time the scan actually takes and keep the scan report that shows it.

Where the scan was sublet, the median was $130 on the shop’s estimate and $125 on the insurer’s.

Calibrations: the count

Calibrations are where most of the money goes missing, because many of them never make the insurer’s estimate. CCC found that 51.5% of calibrations in 2025 were added as supplements rather than written on the first estimate.[16] Our data shows the same gap from the shop side:

When the shop wrote it, how often was it missing from the insurer’s estimate?

596 short-pay cases, November 2025 to September 2026. Share of cases where the shop’s estimate had the item and the insurer’s estimate on file had no line of that kind.

Steering angle sensor59% Front camera58% Blind-spot / side radar47% 360 / surround camera45% Front radar44% Post-repair scan8% Pre-repair scan7%

“Missing” means no line of that kind on the insurer’s estimate on file for the case. Some of those calibrations may still arrive later as supplements, and each one is a supplement the shop has to ask for. A line that is there but lower counts as present here: a quarter of pre-repair scans and 28% of post-repair scans were on the insurer’s estimate at fewer hours or dollars than the shop wrote. Cases where the shop wrote each item: steering angle 53, front camera 55, blind-spot radar 53, 360 camera 67, front radar 78, post-repair scan 524, pre-repair scan 524.

Price is the smaller part of the calibration fight. Where both estimates priced a calibration as sublet, the median was $390 on both sides, and the insurer wrote less on 22% of those pairs.

Sublet, transport and markup

When a scan or calibration goes to a dealer or a mobile vendor, it is billed as sublet from the vendor’s invoice. Three things decide what gets paid on top of the invoice:

• Transport to and from the vendor is not included in a sublet line[13] and has to be written separately. 70% of shops that negotiate for it are paid always or most of the time.[18]
• Markup and handling are not defined by any estimating provider. The DEG answer says to “check with state laws regarding who is liable of sublet repairs.”[14] When a shop sublets a calibration, it is still the shop that answers for it.
• Your DRP agreement, if you have one, may name the vendor, the price or a no-markup rule. Those terms bind the shops that signed, not every shop.

What state law says, and what it doesn’t

State law is thinner than most shops expect, and stronger in a few places than most insurers admit.

• No state requires a scan after a collision repair, and no state has a general law making insurers pay for scans. Bills to do it have failed. New Hampshire’s 2019 bill, which would have made insurers reimburse scans and calibrations required by an automaker’s procedure, passed the legislature and was vetoed; the override failed. It did not become law.[22]
• Several states have windshield calibration laws. They mostly govern the glass installer, not the collision repair.
• California requires the insurer’s estimate to allow repairs to accepted trade standards, which point to the automaker’s service specifications or generally accepted industry specifications, and bars an insurer estimate that deviates from its own estimating software’s guidelines when that would leave the repair short.[19] [20]
• Rhode Island makes it an unfair claims practice to refuse to pay for “documented procedures identified as required or recommended by the original equipment manufacturer,” and to refuse documented sublet services, naming “electronic calibrations” and “diagnostic work,” together with “an automotive industry standard markup.”[21]

This section summarizes public law for education. It is not legal advice.

What gets scans and calibrations paid

Here is what a well-written scan and calibration section looks like on an estimate. Every item is its own line, every calibration names the line that triggers it, and the automaker’s document rides in the line note.

Sample estimate excerpt2024 Ford Explorer XLT · front-end repair

	Line	Oper	Description	Labor	Price $
1	1	Rpr	Pre-repair diagnostic scan (scan report attached)	0.5 M
	14	Repl	Windshield	1.8 G
2	15	Subl	Calibrate lane keeping camera · windshield replaced, line 14		375.00
			3Line note: Ford ADAS Job Aid (Sept. 29, 2026) lists windshield replacement as a lane keeping camera calibration trigger.
	22	R&I	Front bumper reinforcement	1.2 B
2	23	Subl	Calibrate front radar (CCM) · bumper reinforcement R&I, line 22		390.00
			3Line note: Ford ADAS Job Aid (Sept. 29, 2026) requires radar alignment when the front bumper beam is removed and installed.
4	24	Subl	Transport to calibration vendor and return		80.00
1	31	Rpr	Post-repair diagnostic scan (scan report attached)	0.5 M

1. 1Each scan on its own line, with the scan report attached.
2. 2One calibration per sensor, each naming the line that triggers it.
3. 3The automaker’s document cited in the line note.
4. 4Sublet at the vendor’s invoice, with transport written as its own line.

Tips for writing your estimate

• Scan before you write, and keep both reports. The pre-scan report shows what the collision did; the post-scan report proves the repair is complete. Attach both to the file.
• Write every scan and calibration as its own line, on the first estimate where you can. A calibration added later is a supplement the insurer gets to argue again.
• Name the trigger. Point each calibration at the line that causes it: the windshield replacement, the bumper beam R&I, the alignment.
• Attach the maker’s statement for that make and year, and quote its own word. “Ford requires” with the document attached beats “the manufacturer recommends” from memory.
• Leave off what the maker says isn’t needed. One unsupported calibration makes the supported ones harder to win.
• Ask for the hours you mean to be paid. Insurers rarely pay more than the line asks for.
• For sublet work, attach the vendor’s invoice and calibration report, and write transport and coordination as their own lines.
• Quote the estimating provider when told “it’s included.” A DEG answer is a citation the adjuster can check.

How Reclaimr helps

Before the estimate goes out

• Reclaimr reviews it for the scans and calibrations the repair calls for.
• It reads the factory options decoded from the VIN, so it suggests calibrations for the sensors that car actually has.
• It knows the automakers’ position statements and the estimating systems’ rules, and builds each justification from them.
• It shows the source behind every suggestion. You decide what goes on the estimate.

Suggested · Sublet$300

Front grille camera calibration missing

The truck is equipped with Surround View Camera, and the estimate replaces the grille with camera on line 20. The plan already carries a separate front radar calibration, but nothing addresses the front grille camera / 360-view calibration. Ford requires calibration for ADAS-related repairs on affected components, and Ford identifies the front parking aid camera as being in the grille.

Checked: The VIN decode confirms this truck has Surround View Camera.

Line to add: Calibrate front grille / surround view camera · Sublet $300

Ford ADAS Integrity Position Statement“Calibration must be performed on any affected component regardless of whether a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) is present.”

Ford ADAS component locations“Front Parking Aid Camera: In the center of the front grille below the center emblem.”

When the insurer short pays

• Reclaimr lines up your estimate against theirs, finds every scan and calibration they left off or cut, and writes the rebuttal line by line.
• It cites the automaker’s position statement and the estimating system’s guidance.

Pre-repair diagnostic scan · shop line 100 · $87.50

The insurance company’s denial of the pre-repair diagnostic scan is contrary to Ford’s own collision repair position statement and CCC/MOTOR guidance.

Ford’s position statement requires a pre-repair diagnostic scan for all 2010 and newer Ford vehicles involved in a collision. CCC/MOTOR further confirms scanning is not a published included operation and must be set by on-the-spot evaluation.

Supporting documentation

• Ford On Target scanning position statement: “All Ford Motor Company vehicles from and including model year 2010 forward involved in a collision require a pre-repair diagnostic scan during the estimation phase of a collision repair to properly identify all required repairs.”
• DEG Inquiry #20241: “CCC/MOTOR does not publish labor times for scanning operations for pre and post scan. This would be an on the spot evaluation.”

We respectfully request immediate reimbursement for Shop line 100 in the amount of $87.50 and recognition that a pre-repair diagnostic scan is required for proper and safe repair planning on this 2024 Ford F-150.

Three real short pays

Real cases from shops using Reclaimr. Shop, customer, claim and insurer details removed. Estimate lines and Reclaimr’s text are shown as written.

Questions shops ask

Sources and method

Reclaimr data: 596 short-pay cases at collision shops using Reclaimr, November 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026: cases with both the shop’s and the insurer’s estimate, excluding test and internal accounts and automatically imported estimates nobody worked. Scan and calibration lines were classified from their descriptions and checked by hand on a random sample of 64 lines (2 misclassified). “Missing” and “lower” compare the shop’s estimate and the insurer’s estimate each case is currently on. “1 out of 2” is 315 of 596 cases with at least one scan or calibration the insurer’s estimate left off or priced below the shop (333 of 596 on the insurer’s first estimate). Headlamp aiming, TPMS relearn, transport and battery support are not counted as calibrations. “Paid less” compares all scan lines together and all calibration lines together on each case: a missing family, fewer calibration lines, or fewer scan hours or dollars; a case counts when the insurer was lower on every family where the two differed (194 of 299 cases that differed; higher on every difference in 69, mixed in 36). “Back on a revised estimate” counts scan and calibration items missing or lower on the insurer’s first estimate, disputed by Reclaimr before the insurer’s next estimate, and present on a later insurer estimate at the shop’s amount or higher than before: 17 of 35 items (49%) in 22 cases. It shows the order of events, not the cause. Industry and legal figures are from the sources below.