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Procedure price report · Radioisotope scan and function studies

Thyroid cancer spread scan, limited area

CPT 78015the billing code this page is about

Nuclear medicine imaging with a radioactive tracer to look for thyroid cancer that has spread, covering a limited region of the body rather than head to toe.

Hospitals typically charge $761 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 646 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $830. Most fall between $439 and $1,437 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
646
States
44
Filings dated
Dec 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 646 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
$311$472$761$1,253$2,168

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($311 vs $2,168).

How the prices are spread

$154 – $207: 15 hospitals$154$207 – $277: 13 hospitals$277 – $372: 26 hospitals$277$372 – $498: 112 hospitals$498 – $668: 85 hospitals$498$668 – $896: 85 hospitals$896 – $1,201: 72 hospitals$896$1,201 – $1,610: 108 hospitals$1,610 – $2,158: 33 hospitals$1,610$2,158 – $2,893: 33 hospitals$2,158median $761price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (582 of 646 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$154$20715
$207$27713
$277$37226
$372$498112
$498$66885
$668$89685
$896$1,20172
$1,201$1,610108
$1,610$2,15833
$2,158$2,89333

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$408
Median cash price$761
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.86×

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 $761.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $761 across 18 hospitalsWA$761Idaho: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: median $549 across 10 hospitalsMN$549Illinois: median $694 across 20 hospitalsIL$694Wisconsin: median $1,735 across 14 hospitalsWI$1,735Michigan: median $510 across 12 hospitalsMI$510New York: median $476 across 29 hospitalsNY$476Massachusetts: median $588 across 10 hospitalsMA$588Oregon: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $76 across 17 hospitalsIA$76Indiana: median $448 across 23 hospitalsIN$448Ohio: median $1,058 across 29 hospitalsOH$1,058Pennsylvania: median $624 across 38 hospitalsPA$624New Jersey: median $466 across 26 hospitalsNJ$466Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,253 across 85 hospitalsCA$1,253Utah: median $1,453 across 23 hospitalsUT$1,453Colorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: median $409 across 12 hospitalsNE$409Missouri: median $554 across 11 hospitalsMO$554Kentucky: median $672 across 18 hospitalsKY$672West Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $760 across 19 hospitalsVA$760Maryland: median $861 across 14 hospitalsMD$861Delaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: median $609 across 11 hospitalsAZ$609New Mexico: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $764 across 25 hospitalsNC$764South Carolina: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $55 across 15 hospitalsOK$55Louisiana: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $526 across 20 hospitalsGA$526Hawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $1,366 across 48 hospitalsTX$1,366Florida: median $1,207 across 31 hospitalsFL$1,207
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $761. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Wisconsin WI14$1,735+128%$1,120 – $2,131
Utah UT23$1,453+91%$1,453 – $1,709
Texas TX48$1,366+80%$838 – $2,624
California CA85$1,253+65%$511 – $2,621
Florida FL31$1,207+59%$1,028 – $1,287
Ohio OH29$1,058+39%$670 – $1,221
Maryland MD14$861+13%$427 – $1,234
North Carolina NC25$7640%$480 – $859
Washington WA18$7610%$661 – $1,025
Virginia VA19$7600%$682 – $1,173
Illinois IL20$694−9%$160 – $1,238
Kentucky KY18$672−12%$471 – $1,068
Pennsylvania PA38$624−18%$471 – $1,229
Arizona AZ11$609−20%$431 – $3,292
Massachusetts MA10$588−23%$548 – $1,304
Missouri MO11$554−27%$539 – $876
Minnesota MN10$549−28%$509 – $830
Georgia GA20$526−31%$498 – $1,466
Michigan MI12$510−33%$396 – $550
New York NY29$476−37%$475 – $1,068
New Jersey NJ26$466−39%$445 – $536
Indiana IN23$448−41%$386 – $677
Nebraska NE12$409−46%$393 – $690
Iowa IA17$76−90%$76 – $574
Oklahoma OK15$55−93%$55 – $502
Louisiana LA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV1not 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 $761.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care568$761$439 – $1,382
Children’s8fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access69$768$472 – $1,453
Ownership
For-profit80$841$389 – $1,877
Government72$549$404 – $1,068
Non-profit493$804$445 – $1,437
System affiliation
Part of a system576$788$441 – $1,437
Independent70$679$348 – $1,304

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,449
Median cash price$761
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

469 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,028 and the average of the middle 60% is $980; most fall between $498 and $1,475.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 469 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
$361$526$1,028$1,425$2,349

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($361 vs $2,349).

Of the 515 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 469 gave a usable cash price; 35 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 11 a list price only.

How complete is this

646 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (16%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 738 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted646
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here74
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 — excluded18
Hospitals that filed this code738

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 Radioisotope scan and function studies family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Thyroid Carcinoma Metastases Img Lmtd Area|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, “Thyroid cancer spread scan, limited area (CPT 78015) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78015-thyroid-cancer-spread-scan-limited-area