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Procedure price report · Other diagnostic ultrasound or optical coherence tomography (OCT)

Doppler ultrasound of the baby's brain artery

CPT 76821the billing code this page is about

Ultrasound with Doppler that measures blood flow in the middle cerebral artery of a fetus during pregnancy.

Hospitals typically charge $282 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,447 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $305. Most fall between $144 and $552 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,447
States
50
Filings dated
Dec 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 1,447 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
$115$163$282$477$782

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($115 vs $782).

How the prices are spread

$84 – $108: 53 hospitals$84$108 – $141: 153 hospitals$141 – $183: 148 hospitals$141$183 – $238: 161 hospitals$238 – $309: 190 hospitals$238$309 – $401: 194 hospitals$401 – $521: 167 hospitals$401$521 – $677: 108 hospitals$677 – $880: 98 hospitals$677$880 – $1,143: 33 hospitals$880median $282price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,305 of 1,447 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$84$10853
$108$141153
$141$183148
$183$238161
$238$309190
$309$401194
$401$521167
$521$677108
$677$88098
$880$1,14333

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$107
Median cash price$282
Cash as a multiple of Medicare2.6×

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 $282.

Alaska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $284 across 40 hospitalsWA$284Idaho: median $310 across 12 hospitalsID$310Montana: 8 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 $214 across 42 hospitalsMN$214Illinois: median $368 across 57 hospitalsIL$368Wisconsin: median $250 across 58 hospitalsWI$250Michigan: median $332 across 43 hospitalsMI$332New York: median $196 across 62 hospitalsNY$196Massachusetts: median $445 across 28 hospitalsMA$445Oregon: median $314 across 30 hospitalsOR$314Nevada: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $336 across 12 hospitalsSD$336Iowa: median $274 across 27 hospitalsIA$274Indiana: median $190 across 50 hospitalsIN$190Ohio: median $477 across 77 hospitalsOH$477Pennsylvania: median $239 across 76 hospitalsPA$239New Jersey: median $128 across 43 hospitalsNJ$128Connecticut: median $244 across 15 hospitalsCT$244Rhode Island: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $404 across 103 hospitalsCA$404Utah: median $426 across 14 hospitalsUT$426Colorado: median $433 across 36 hospitalsCO$433Nebraska: median $168 across 14 hospitalsNE$168Missouri: median $271 across 32 hospitalsMO$271Kentucky: median $427 across 20 hospitalsKY$427West Virginia: median $135 across 10 hospitalsWV$135Virginia: median $370 across 37 hospitalsVA$370Maryland: median $401 across 24 hospitalsMD$401Delaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $166 across 31 hospitalsAZ$166New Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $224 across 18 hospitalsKS$224Arkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $122 across 13 hospitalsTN$122North Carolina: median $201 across 45 hospitalsNC$201South Carolina: median $384 across 34 hospitalsSC$384Oklahoma: median $221 across 23 hospitalsOK$221Louisiana: median $152 across 28 hospitalsLA$152Mississippi: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $257 across 47 hospitalsGA$257Hawaii: median $338 across 11 hospitalsHI$338Texas: median $333 across 84 hospitalsTX$333Florida: median $271 across 71 hospitalsFL$271
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $282. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Ohio OH77$477+69%$185 – $646
Massachusetts MA28$445+57%$201 – $668
Colorado CO36$433+53%$275 – $624
Kentucky KY20$427+51%$109 – $438
Utah UT14$426+51%$139 – $533
California CA103$404+43%$203 – $823
Maryland MD24$401+42%$183 – $597
South Carolina SC34$384+36%$301 – $470
Virginia VA37$370+31%$353 – $489
Illinois IL57$368+30%$145 – $1,052
Hawaii HI11$338+20%$336 – $380
South Dakota SD12$336+19%$303 – $390
Texas TX84$333+18%$213 – $507
Michigan MI43$332+18%$198 – $782
Oregon OR30$314+11%$232 – $519
Idaho ID12$310+10%$204 – $441
Washington WA40$2840%$166 – $388
Iowa IA27$274−3%$78 – $428
Missouri MO32$271−4%$143 – $380
Florida FL71$271−4%$130 – $1,003
Georgia GA47$257−9%$136 – $552
Wisconsin WI58$250−12%$216 – $608
Connecticut CT15$244−14%$168 – $315
Pennsylvania PA76$239−15%$124 – $702
Kansas KS18$224−21%$175 – $590
Oklahoma OK23$221−22%$57 – $225
Minnesota MN42$214−24%$117 – $229
North Carolina NC45$201−29%$144 – $247
New York NY62$196−31%$126 – $464
Indiana IN50$190−33%$106 – $396
Nebraska NE14$168−41%$91 – $224
Arizona AZ31$166−41%$128 – $738
Louisiana LA28$152−46%$82 – $323
West Virginia WV10$135−52%$84 – $282
New Jersey NJ43$128−55%$118 – $152
Tennessee TN13$122−57%$94 – $257
Alabama AL9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not 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 $282.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,235$282$138 – $552
Children’s33$529$287 – $710
Critical access174$250$176 – $456
Ownership
For-profit135$339$146 – $849
Government178$250$136 – $462
Non-profit1,129$284$144 – $537
System affiliation
Part of a system1,280$285$142 – $552
Independent167$270$157 – $543

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$520
Median cash price$282
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

1,083 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $312 and the average of the middle 60% is $324; most fall between $152 and $562.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,083 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
$118$175$312$494$760

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($118 vs $760).

Of the 1,189 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,083 gave a usable cash price; 66 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 40 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,447 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (37%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,590 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,447
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here97
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 — excluded46
Hospitals that filed this code1,590

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 ultrasound or optical coherence tomography (OCT) family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Doppler Velocimetry Fetal Middle Cerebral Art|TECHNICAL 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, “Doppler ultrasound of the baby's brain artery (CPT 76821) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-76821-doppler-ultrasound-of-the-baby-s-brain-artery