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Procedure price report · Diagnostic ultrasound or optical coherence tomography (OCT) of head and neck

Ultrasound of the brain through the skull

CPT 76506the billing code this page is about

An ultrasound study of the brain and its fluid spaces, including midline structure measurements, done with image recording.

Hospitals typically charge $454 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,392 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $475. Most fall between $222 and $862 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,392
States
50
Filings dated
Mar 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 2,392 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
$138$257$454$753$1,312

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($138 vs $1,312).

How the prices are spread

$110 – $145: 148 hospitals$110$145 – $192: 139 hospitals$192 – $253: 164 hospitals$192$253 – $334: 289 hospitals$334 – $442: 308 hospitals$334$442 – $583: 366 hospitals$583 – $770: 302 hospitals$583$770 – $1,017: 212 hospitals$1,017 – $1,343: 112 hospitals$1,017$1,343 – $1,773: 114 hospitals$1,343median $454price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,154 of 2,392 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$110$145148
$145$192139
$192$253164
$253$334289
$334$442308
$442$583366
$583$770302
$770$1,017212
$1,017$1,343112
$1,343$1,773114

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$107
Median cash price$454
Cash as a multiple of Medicare4.2×

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 $454.

Alaska: median $360 across 14 hospitalsAK$360Maine: median $198 across 14 hospitalsME$198Vermont: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $664 across 11 hospitalsNH$664Washington: median $394 across 56 hospitalsWA$394Idaho: median $386 across 16 hospitalsID$386Montana: median $359 across 11 hospitalsMT$359North Dakota: median $483 across 12 hospitalsND$483Minnesota: median $267 across 59 hospitalsMN$267Illinois: median $520 across 85 hospitalsIL$520Wisconsin: median $409 across 82 hospitalsWI$409Michigan: median $608 across 60 hospitalsMI$608New York: median $297 across 90 hospitalsNY$297Massachusetts: median $591 across 39 hospitalsMA$591Oregon: median $457 across 38 hospitalsOR$457Nevada: median $430 across 14 hospitalsNV$430Wyoming: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $577 across 13 hospitalsSD$577Iowa: median $398 across 38 hospitalsIA$398Indiana: median $404 across 71 hospitalsIN$404Ohio: median $464 across 110 hospitalsOH$464Pennsylvania: median $417 across 95 hospitalsPA$417New Jersey: median $142 across 55 hospitalsNJ$142Connecticut: median $321 across 17 hospitalsCT$321Rhode Island: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $617 across 196 hospitalsCA$617Utah: median $603 across 35 hospitalsUT$603Colorado: median $532 across 51 hospitalsCO$532Nebraska: median $481 across 34 hospitalsNE$481Missouri: median $447 across 41 hospitalsMO$447Kentucky: median $430 across 44 hospitalsKY$430West Virginia: median $331 across 21 hospitalsWV$331Virginia: median $441 across 54 hospitalsVA$441Maryland: median $722 across 34 hospitalsMD$722Delaware: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $312 across 42 hospitalsAZ$312New Mexico: median $282 across 19 hospitalsNM$282Kansas: median $683 across 34 hospitalsKS$683Arkansas: median $163 across 16 hospitalsAR$163Tennessee: median $164 across 61 hospitalsTN$164North Carolina: median $320 across 74 hospitalsNC$320South Carolina: median $492 across 45 hospitalsSC$492Oklahoma: median $240 across 42 hospitalsOK$240Louisiana: median $249 across 39 hospitalsLA$249Mississippi: median $169 across 39 hospitalsMS$169Alabama: median $332 across 24 hospitalsAL$332Georgia: median $753 across 77 hospitalsGA$753Hawaii: median $384 across 14 hospitalsHI$384Texas: median $559 across 198 hospitalsTX$559Florida: median $915 across 134 hospitalsFL$915
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $454. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL134$915+102%$470 – $1,720
Georgia GA77$753+66%$165 – $1,099
Maryland MD34$722+59%$506 – $983
Kansas KS34$683+51%$354 – $1,667
New Hampshire NH11$664+46%$416 – $939
California CA196$617+36%$286 – $1,263
Michigan MI60$608+34%$257 – $674
Utah UT35$603+33%$377 – $709
Massachusetts MA39$591+30%$371 – $994
South Dakota SD13$577+27%$399 – $756
Texas TX198$559+23%$318 – $1,690
Colorado CO51$532+17%$334 – $715
Illinois IL85$520+15%$265 – $1,186
South Carolina SC45$492+9%$422 – $756
North Dakota ND12$483+7%$312 – $564
Nebraska NE34$481+6%$385 – $649
Ohio OH110$464+2%$270 – $642
Oregon OR38$457+1%$287 – $519
Missouri MO41$447−2%$293 – $869
Virginia VA54$441−3%$270 – $1,113
Nevada NV14$430−5%$218 – $933
Kentucky KY44$430−5%$304 – $852
Pennsylvania PA95$417−8%$138 – $970
Wisconsin WI82$409−10%$257 – $630
Indiana IN71$404−11%$173 – $568
Iowa IA38$398−12%$289 – $544
Washington WA56$394−13%$287 – $543
Idaho ID16$386−15%$287 – $441
Hawaii HI14$384−15%$309 – $503
Alaska AK14$360−21%$214 – $973
Montana MT11$359−21%$313 – $384
Alabama AL24$332−27%$128 – $491
West Virginia WV21$331−27%$161 – $441
Connecticut CT17$321−29%$215 – $518
North Carolina NC74$320−29%$179 – $587
Arizona AZ42$312−31%$215 – $1,517
New York NY90$297−34%$126 – $795
New Mexico NM19$282−38%$138 – $495
Minnesota MN59$267−41%$170 – $309
Louisiana LA39$249−45%$111 – $380
Oklahoma OK42$240−47%$201 – $520
Maine ME14$198−56%$163 – $797
Mississippi MS39$169−63%$111 – $340
Tennessee TN61$164−64%$102 – $408
Arkansas AR16$163−64%$128 – $235
New Jersey NJ55$142−69%$118 – $310
Wyoming WY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not 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 $454.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,966$462$217 – $878
Children’s66$462$332 – $1,113
Critical access352$415$242 – $663
Ownership
For-profit347$716$272 – $1,934
Government329$364$191 – $632
Non-profit1,708$447$225 – $772
System affiliation
Part of a system2,038$462$221 – $862
Independent354$392$224 – $795

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$761
Median cash price$454
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

1,709 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $477 and the average of the middle 60% is $497; most fall between $249 and $862.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,709 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
$154$282$477$758$1,156

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($154 vs $1,156).

Of the 1,874 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,709 gave a usable cash price; 90 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 75 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,392 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (60%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,627 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,392
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here150
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded84
Hospitals that filed this code2,627

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 Diagnostic ultrasound or optical coherence tomography (OCT) of head and neck family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Echoencephalography Real Time Imaging.

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, “Ultrasound of the brain through the skull (CPT 76506) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-76506-ultrasound-of-the-brain-through-the-skull