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Procedure price report · Other radioisotope scan

Nuclear medicine liver scan, images only

CPT 78201the billing code this page is about

A nuclear medicine scan of the liver using an injected radioactive tracer, producing still images without a separate study of blood flow.

Hospitals typically charge $1,094 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,216 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,152. Most fall between $536 and $2,164 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,216
States
50
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – 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 1,216 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
$376$600$1,094$1,901$3,112

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($376 vs $3,112).

How the prices are spread

$257 – $341: 44 hospitals$257$341 – $451: 66 hospitals$451 – $597: 128 hospitals$451$597 – $790: 148 hospitals$790 – $1,045: 147 hospitals$790$1,045 – $1,383: 166 hospitals$1,383 – $1,830: 129 hospitals$1,383$1,830 – $2,422: 124 hospitals$2,422 – $3,206: 94 hospitals$2,422$3,206 – $4,243: 53 hospitals$3,206median $1,094price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,099 of 1,216 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$257$34144
$341$45166
$451$597128
$597$790148
$790$1,045147
$1,045$1,383166
$1,383$1,830129
$1,830$2,422124
$2,422$3,20694
$3,206$4,24353

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$555
Median cash price$1,094
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.97×

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 $1,094.

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $983 across 32 hospitalsWA$983Idaho: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $795 across 15 hospitalsMN$795Illinois: median $1,509 across 44 hospitalsIL$1,509Wisconsin: median $1,029 across 44 hospitalsWI$1,029Michigan: median $593 across 22 hospitalsMI$593New York: median $678 across 50 hospitalsNY$678Massachusetts: median $1,795 across 15 hospitalsMA$1,795Oregon: median $804 across 18 hospitalsOR$804Nevada: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $1,849 across 11 hospitalsSD$1,849Iowa: median $257 across 24 hospitalsIA$257Indiana: median $635 across 49 hospitalsIN$635Ohio: median $1,315 across 53 hospitalsOH$1,315Pennsylvania: median $977 across 61 hospitalsPA$977New Jersey: median $629 across 41 hospitalsNJ$629Connecticut: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,659 across 115 hospitalsCA$1,659Utah: median $574 across 23 hospitalsUT$574Colorado: median $1,190 across 33 hospitalsCO$1,190Nebraska: median $394 across 14 hospitalsNE$394Missouri: median $1,070 across 22 hospitalsMO$1,070Kentucky: median $804 across 19 hospitalsKY$804West Virginia: median $1,721 across 11 hospitalsWV$1,721Virginia: median $1,143 across 33 hospitalsVA$1,143Maryland: median $1,064 across 22 hospitalsMD$1,064Delaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $1,283 across 27 hospitalsAZ$1,283New Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $797 across 13 hospitalsKS$797Arkansas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $489 across 27 hospitalsTN$489North Carolina: median $885 across 17 hospitalsNC$885South Carolina: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $540 across 21 hospitalsOK$540Louisiana: median $520 across 24 hospitalsLA$520Mississippi: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: median $798 across 10 hospitalsAL$798Georgia: median $1,109 across 40 hospitalsGA$1,109Hawaii: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $1,279 across 103 hospitalsTX$1,279Florida: median $2,003 across 78 hospitalsFL$2,003
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,094. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL78$2,003+83%$1,105 – $3,731
South Dakota SD11$1,849+69%$1,578 – $3,149
Massachusetts MA15$1,795+64%$1,496 – $2,995
West Virginia WV11$1,721+57%$606 – $2,825
California CA115$1,659+52%$897 – $2,750
Illinois IL44$1,509+38%$770 – $2,415
Ohio OH53$1,315+20%$954 – $1,860
Arizona AZ27$1,283+17%$435 – $3,112
Texas TX103$1,279+17%$778 – $2,162
Colorado CO33$1,190+9%$756 – $2,661
Virginia VA33$1,143+5%$536 – $1,254
Georgia GA40$1,109+1%$454 – $1,619
Missouri MO22$1,070−2%$647 – $2,089
Maryland MD22$1,064−3%$520 – $1,506
Wisconsin WI44$1,029−6%$89 – $1,839
Washington WA32$983−10%$848 – $2,600
Pennsylvania PA61$977−11%$626 – $3,910
North Carolina NC17$885−19%$584 – $1,054
Kentucky KY19$804−26%$438 – $2,161
Oregon OR18$804−26%$712 – $1,094
Alabama AL10$798−27%$484 – $1,722
Kansas KS13$797−27%$613 – $1,139
Minnesota MN15$795−27%$597 – $1,813
New York NY50$678−38%$521 – $2,194
Indiana IN49$635−42%$307 – $1,117
New Jersey NJ41$629−42%$423 – $1,912
Michigan MI22$593−46%$383 – $1,199
Utah UT23$574−47%$574 – $676
Oklahoma OK21$540−51%$476 – $1,097
Louisiana LA24$520−52%$259 – $1,458
Tennessee TN27$489−55%$452 – $1,901
Nebraska NE14$394−64%$357 – $631
Iowa IA24$257−76%$50 – $1,136
North Dakota ND9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not 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 $1,094.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,048$1,109$540 – $2,267
Children’s16fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access146$860$441 – $1,813
Ownership
For-profit187$1,736$694 – $3,680
Government127$995$511 – $1,770
Non-profit896$1,010$517 – $2,003
System affiliation
Part of a system1,069$1,101$533 – $2,194
Independent147$995$542 – $2,041

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,951
Median cash price$1,094
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

887 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,190 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,195; most fall between $540 and $2,109.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 887 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
$383$631$1,190$1,868$2,750

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($383 vs $2,750).

Of the 998 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 887 gave a usable cash price; 69 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 42 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,216 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (31%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,364 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,216
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here100
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 — excluded48
Hospitals that filed this code1,364

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 radioisotope scan family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Liver Imaging Static Only|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, “Nuclear medicine liver scan, images only (CPT 78201) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78201-nuclear-medicine-liver-scan-images-only