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Procedure price report · Other diagnostic radiology and related techniques

Dye X-ray study of the elbow joint

CPT 73085the billing code this page is about

Covers the X-ray imaging and interpretation of the elbow joint after contrast dye is injected into it; the injection is billed separately.

Hospitals typically charge $650 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,868 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $695. Most fall between $356 and $1,317 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,868
States
50
Filings dated
Jan 2024 – 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 1,868 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
$230$410$650$1,119$2,028

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($230 vs $2,028).

How the prices are spread

$180 – $243: 104 hospitals$180$243 – $327: 122 hospitals$327 – $441: 244 hospitals$327$441 – $594: 299 hospitals$594 – $801: 292 hospitals$594$801 – $1,079: 227 hospitals$1,079 – $1,454: 167 hospitals$1,079$1,454 – $1,959: 123 hospitals$1,959 – $2,639: 71 hospitals$1,959$2,639 – $3,555: 33 hospitals$2,639median $650price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,682 of 1,868 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$180$243104
$243$327122
$327$441244
$441$594299
$594$801292
$801$1,079227
$1,079$1,454167
$1,454$1,959123
$1,959$2,63971
$2,639$3,55533

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$356
Median cash price$650
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.82×

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 $650.

Alaska: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $344 across 12 hospitalsME$344Vermont: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $549 across 12 hospitalsNH$549Washington: median $723 across 35 hospitalsWA$723Idaho: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $383 across 20 hospitalsMN$383Illinois: median $766 across 72 hospitalsIL$766Wisconsin: median $761 across 49 hospitalsWI$761Michigan: median $480 across 42 hospitalsMI$480New York: median $547 across 63 hospitalsNY$547Massachusetts: median $1,082 across 34 hospitalsMA$1,082Oregon: median $704 across 28 hospitalsOR$704Nevada: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $503 across 24 hospitalsIA$503Indiana: median $554 across 60 hospitalsIN$554Ohio: median $708 across 96 hospitalsOH$708Pennsylvania: median $612 across 85 hospitalsPA$612New Jersey: median $468 across 39 hospitalsNJ$468Connecticut: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,581 across 145 hospitalsCA$1,581Utah: median $508 across 22 hospitalsUT$508Colorado: median $838 across 41 hospitalsCO$838Nebraska: median $343 across 21 hospitalsNE$343Missouri: median $817 across 49 hospitalsMO$817Kentucky: median $570 across 30 hospitalsKY$570West Virginia: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $746 across 40 hospitalsVA$746Maryland: median $125 across 21 hospitalsMD$125Delaware: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $405 across 33 hospitalsAZ$405New Mexico: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $629 across 26 hospitalsKS$629Arkansas: median $205 across 17 hospitalsAR$205Tennessee: median $227 across 45 hospitalsTN$227North Carolina: median $562 across 62 hospitalsNC$562South Carolina: median $952 across 50 hospitalsSC$952Oklahoma: median $451 across 31 hospitalsOK$451Louisiana: median $443 across 35 hospitalsLA$443Mississippi: median $425 across 36 hospitalsMS$425Alabama: median $489 across 36 hospitalsAL$489Georgia: median $446 across 73 hospitalsGA$446Hawaii: median $982 across 14 hospitalsHI$982Texas: median $594 across 166 hospitalsTX$594Florida: median $984 across 118 hospitalsFL$984
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $650. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA145$1,581+143%$520 – $3,696
Massachusetts MA34$1,082+66%$727 – $1,803
Florida FL118$984+51%$521 – $3,582
Hawaii HI14$982+51%$545 – $1,745
South Carolina SC50$952+47%$595 – $1,464
Colorado CO41$838+29%$590 – $1,892
Missouri MO49$817+26%$478 – $1,203
Illinois IL72$766+18%$504 – $1,360
Wisconsin WI49$761+17%$269 – $965
Virginia VA40$746+15%$331 – $798
Washington WA35$723+11%$608 – $1,123
Ohio OH96$708+9%$625 – $1,602
Oregon OR28$704+8%$288 – $1,132
Kansas KS26$629−3%$332 – $1,434
Pennsylvania PA85$612−6%$383 – $1,702
Texas TX166$594−9%$431 – $1,382
Kentucky KY30$570−12%$382 – $1,616
North Carolina NC62$562−14%$324 – $625
Indiana IN60$554−15%$357 – $824
New Hampshire NH12$549−15%$366 – $1,524
New York NY63$547−16%$355 – $1,271
Utah UT22$508−22%$503 – $701
Iowa IA24$503−23%$230 – $805
Alabama AL36$489−25%$313 – $739
Michigan MI42$480−26%$311 – $870
New Jersey NJ39$468−28%$395 – $2,242
Oklahoma OK31$451−31%$251 – $604
Georgia GA73$446−31%$183 – $1,349
Louisiana LA35$443−32%$196 – $674
Mississippi MS36$425−35%$248 – $612
Arizona AZ33$405−38%$266 – $1,652
Minnesota MN20$383−41%$296 – $655
Maine ME12$344−47%$295 – $1,044
Nebraska NE21$343−47%$230 – $620
Tennessee TN45$227−65%$183 – $496
Arkansas AR17$205−68%$190 – $519
Maryland MD21$125−81%$75 – $781
Connecticut CT9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not 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 $650.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,582$637$355 – $1,351
Children’s57$1,003$543 – $1,652
Critical access224$645$309 – $1,097
Ownership
For-profit300$870$385 – $2,315
Government256$491$307 – $888
Non-profit1,307$658$360 – $1,207
System affiliation
Part of a system1,576$663$369 – $1,357
Independent292$564$328 – $1,109

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,178
Median cash price$650
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

1,345 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $672 and the average of the middle 60% is $715; most fall between $378 and $1,271.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,345 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
$244$424$672$1,117$1,739

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.1× what the cheapest tenth charges ($244 vs $1,739).

Of the 1,491 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,345 gave a usable cash price; 80 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 65 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,868 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (47%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,096 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,868
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here141
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded86
Hospitals that filed this code2,096

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 Elbow Arthrography Rs&I|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, “Dye X-ray study of the elbow joint (CPT 73085) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-73085-dye-x-ray-study-of-the-elbow-joint