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Procedure price report · Other diagnostic radiology and related techniques

Lower back X-ray, bending views only

CPT 72120the billing code this page is about

X-ray of the lumbar spine taken only in bending positions, with at least four views or three views plus a moving-picture study.

Hospitals typically charge $308 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,691 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $315. Most fall between $148 and $521 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,691
States
50
Filings dated
Nov 2023 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 24, 2026

Median: half of hospitals filed less, half more — and it is a price some hospital actually filed. Average of the middle 60%: the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain average, the lowest or the highest price: the extremes in hospital price files are chargemaster artefacts, not prices anyone pays.

What hospitals charge, from cheapest to most expensive

Cash price percentiles, outpatient, across 2,691 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$106$175$308$466$765

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($106 vs $765).

How the prices are spread

$73 – $96: 81 hospitals$73$96 – $125: 164 hospitals$125 – $164: 228 hospitals$125$164 – $214: 288 hospitals$214 – $280: 321 hospitals$214$280 – $366: 391 hospitals$366 – $479: 470 hospitals$366$479 – $627: 211 hospitals$627 – $819: 165 hospitals$627$819 – $1,072: 107 hospitals$819median $308price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,426 of 2,691 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$73$9681
$96$125164
$125$164228
$164$214288
$214$280321
$280$366391
$366$479470
$479$627211
$627$819165
$819$1,072107

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$107
Median cash price$308
Cash as a multiple of Medicare2.9×

The Medicare figure is the national unadjusted OPPS rate for this code — what Medicare itself pays a hospital before local wage adjustment. It is a benchmark, not a price anyone is charged.

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $308.

Alaska: median $285 across 14 hospitalsAK$285Maine: median $211 across 20 hospitalsME$211Vermont: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $320 across 15 hospitalsNH$320Washington: median $324 across 63 hospitalsWA$324Idaho: median $400 across 15 hospitalsID$400Montana: median $217 across 15 hospitalsMT$217North Dakota: median $212 across 19 hospitalsND$212Minnesota: median $219 across 84 hospitalsMN$219Illinois: median $387 across 107 hospitalsIL$387Wisconsin: median $304 across 96 hospitalsWI$304Michigan: median $219 across 74 hospitalsMI$219New York: median $271 across 87 hospitalsNY$271Massachusetts: median $370 across 48 hospitalsMA$370Oregon: median $233 across 41 hospitalsOR$233Nevada: median $426 across 15 hospitalsNV$426Wyoming: median $291 across 12 hospitalsWY$291South Dakota: median $438 across 28 hospitalsSD$438Iowa: median $261 across 53 hospitalsIA$261Indiana: median $258 across 84 hospitalsIN$258Ohio: median $331 across 120 hospitalsOH$331Pennsylvania: median $280 across 109 hospitalsPA$280New Jersey: median $135 across 45 hospitalsNJ$135Connecticut: median $337 across 21 hospitalsCT$337Rhode Island: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $453 across 192 hospitalsCA$453Utah: median $395 across 29 hospitalsUT$395Colorado: median $329 across 52 hospitalsCO$329Nebraska: median $470 across 62 hospitalsNE$470Missouri: median $241 across 59 hospitalsMO$241Kentucky: median $361 across 53 hospitalsKY$361West Virginia: median $282 across 27 hospitalsWV$282Virginia: median $348 across 62 hospitalsVA$348Maryland: median $255 across 35 hospitalsMD$255Delaware: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $189 across 37 hospitalsAZ$189New Mexico: median $241 across 24 hospitalsNM$241Kansas: median $300 across 55 hospitalsKS$300Arkansas: median $112 across 30 hospitalsAR$112Tennessee: median $150 across 72 hospitalsTN$150North Carolina: median $328 across 88 hospitalsNC$328South Carolina: median $325 across 44 hospitalsSC$325Oklahoma: median $201 across 49 hospitalsOK$201Louisiana: median $175 across 51 hospitalsLA$175Mississippi: median $145 across 40 hospitalsMS$145Alabama: median $259 across 29 hospitalsAL$259Georgia: median $331 across 76 hospitalsGA$331Hawaii: median $321 across 19 hospitalsHI$321Texas: median $426 across 164 hospitalsTX$426Florida: median $549 across 138 hospitalsFL$549
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $308. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL138$549+78%$384 – $1,380
Nebraska NE62$470+53%$309 – $546
California CA192$453+47%$248 – $836
South Dakota SD28$438+42%$391 – $637
Nevada NV15$426+38%$113 – $607
Texas TX164$426+38%$224 – $806
Idaho ID15$400+30%$261 – $441
Utah UT29$395+28%$214 – $395
Illinois IL107$387+26%$157 – $595
Massachusetts MA48$370+20%$244 – $560
Kentucky KY53$361+17%$152 – $519
Virginia VA62$348+13%$190 – $571
Connecticut CT21$337+10%$215 – $455
Georgia GA76$331+8%$112 – $434
Ohio OH120$331+8%$202 – $477
Colorado CO52$329+7%$274 – $765
North Carolina NC88$328+7%$204 – $565
South Carolina SC44$325+6%$181 – $544
Washington WA63$324+5%$185 – $453
Hawaii HI19$321+4%$208 – $460
New Hampshire NH15$320+4%$73 – $650
Wisconsin WI96$304−1%$98 – $395
Kansas KS55$300−2%$178 – $442
Wyoming WY12$291−6%$102 – $515
Alaska AK14$285−8%$108 – $749
West Virginia WV27$282−8%$177 – $366
Pennsylvania PA109$280−9%$125 – $470
New York NY87$271−12%$126 – $668
Iowa IA53$261−15%$146 – $514
Alabama AL29$259−16%$123 – $419
Indiana IN84$258−16%$184 – $385
Maryland MD35$255−17%$171 – $322
Missouri MO59$241−22%$157 – $364
New Mexico NM24$241−22%$155 – $376
Oregon OR41$233−24%$184 – $350
Michigan MI74$219−29%$141 – $542
Minnesota MN84$219−29%$88 – $320
Montana MT15$217−30%$117 – $310
North Dakota ND19$212−31%$151 – $319
Maine ME20$211−31%$117 – $494
Oklahoma OK49$201−35%$162 – $300
Arizona AZ37$189−39%$96 – $1,016
Louisiana LA51$175−43%$117 – $282
Tennessee TN72$150−51%$78 – $210
Mississippi MS40$145−53%$110 – $229
New Jersey NJ45$135−56%$103 – $385
Arkansas AR30$112−64%$83 – $173
Rhode Island RI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price

Hospitals like yours

The same distribution cut by the kind of hospital. Hospital type and ownership come from CMS; a hospital counts as part of a system when its price file is shared with at least one other hospital under the same brand. The national median is $308.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,985$317$144 – $555
Children’s56$440$230 – $625
Critical access642$292$156 – $460
Ownership
For-profit352$398$157 – $1,415
Government419$280$141 – $446
Non-profit1,912$301$147 – $498
System affiliation
Part of a system2,287$321$155 – $549
Independent404$252$129 – $457

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$516
Median cash price$308
Cash as a share of list, median hospital60%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 40%. The share is the median of each hospital’s own cash ÷ list ratio, over hospitals that filed both — not the ratio of the two medians above.

The same procedure, inpatient

1,924 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $341 and the average of the middle 60% is $332; most fall between $168 and $520.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,924 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$114$193$341$467$744

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($114 vs $744).

Of the 2,112 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,924 gave a usable cash price; 104 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 84 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,691 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (68%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,973 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,691
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here190
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded92
Hospitals that filed this code2,973

Sections not shown for this setting

  • Since our last snapshot: there is no earlier snapshot at least 90 days older than this one yet.

We last checked these hospitals’ price files for changes between September 4, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 24, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Other diagnostic radiology and related techniques family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Radex Spine Lumbosacral Only Bending 2/3 Views|PROFESSIONAL COMPONENT.

Method

Source
The machine-readable price files every U.S. hospital is required by CMS to publish, parsed per hospital. Nothing is surveyed, sampled or modelled.
What counts
One cash (self-pay) price per hospital for this code and setting. A hospital’s own filing can rule its number out — a placeholder, a “not applicable” note, a list price standing in for cash — and our plausibility checks can flag a price far below what every other hospital files. Both kinds are disclosed above and excluded from the statistics; on the compare tool a flagged price is still shown.
Statistics
Percentiles are discrete: each is a price some hospital filed. The average is the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain mean, the minimum or the maximum. A state needs 10 hospitals and a segment 20 to show a figure; otherwise the row shows its count and no number. Medicare is the national unadjusted OPPS rate where one exists.
Names
Procedure names on these pages are our own plain-language titles, not the AMA’s copyrighted CPT descriptors. The code is the identity.

The full rules — sources, statistics, thresholds, limitations — are on the methodology page.

Download this page’s figures: JSON · CSV. Aggregates only — the per-hospital prices are on the compare tool.

Cite: HospitalRates.com, “Lower back X-ray, bending views only (CPT 72120) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-72120-lower-back-x-ray-bending-views-only