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Procedure price report · Other radioisotope scan

Salivary gland nuclear scan with repeated images over time

CPT 78231the billing code this page is about

A nuclear medicine study of the salivary glands in which a series of images is taken over a period of time after the tracer is given.

Hospitals typically charge $692 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 634 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $758. Most fall between $383 and $1,368 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
634
States
46
Filings dated
Jun 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 634 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
$257$439$692$1,186$1,802

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($257 vs $1,802).

How the prices are spread

$135 – $179: 11 hospitals$135$179 – $237: 16 hospitals$237 – $314: 31 hospitals$237$314 – $417: 55 hospitals$417 – $552: 93 hospitals$417$552 – $731: 94 hospitals$731 – $969: 78 hospitals$731$969 – $1,283: 92 hospitals$1,283 – $1,700: 64 hospitals$1,283$1,700 – $2,253: 38 hospitals$1,700median $692price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (572 of 634 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$135$17911
$179$23716
$237$31431
$314$41755
$417$55293
$552$73194
$731$96978
$969$1,28392
$1,283$1,70064
$1,700$2,25338

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$408
Median cash price$692
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.69×

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 $692.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $732 across 17 hospitalsWA$732Idaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $493 across 10 hospitalsMN$493Illinois: median $1,016 across 27 hospitalsIL$1,016Wisconsin: median $965 across 23 hospitalsWI$965Michigan: median $550 across 12 hospitalsMI$550New York: median $476 across 37 hospitalsNY$476Massachusetts: median $748 across 14 hospitalsMA$748Oregon: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceORNevada: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $54 across 14 hospitalsIA$54Indiana: median $703 across 19 hospitalsIN$703Ohio: median $1,148 across 27 hospitalsOH$1,148Pennsylvania: median $1,229 across 53 hospitalsPA$1,229New Jersey: median $445 across 25 hospitalsNJ$445Connecticut: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,378 across 66 hospitalsCA$1,378Utah: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $651 across 13 hospitalsVA$651Maryland: median $604 across 18 hospitalsMD$604Delaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: median $286 across 12 hospitalsAZ$286New Mexico: 2 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: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $508 across 13 hospitalsNC$508South Carolina: median $368 across 10 hospitalsSC$368Oklahoma: median $661 across 11 hospitalsOK$661Louisiana: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $643 across 23 hospitalsGA$643Hawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $748 across 70 hospitalsTX$748Florida: median $790 across 42 hospitalsFL$790
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $692. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA66$1,378+99%$566 – $1,845
Pennsylvania PA53$1,229+78%$471 – $2,399
Ohio OH27$1,148+66%$473 – $1,802
Illinois IL27$1,016+47%$90 – $1,252
Wisconsin WI23$965+39%$315 – $1,186
Florida FL42$790+14%$554 – $1,136
Massachusetts MA14$748+8%$431 – $1,188
Texas TX70$748+8%$367 – $997
Washington WA17$732+6%$591 – $858
Indiana IN19$703+2%$530 – $949
Oklahoma OK11$661−5%$36 – $1,244
Virginia VA13$651−6%$511 – $651
Georgia GA23$643−7%$585 – $1,561
Maryland MD18$604−13%$269 – $922
Michigan MI12$550−21%$426 – $600
North Carolina NC13$508−27%$424 – $598
Minnesota MN10$493−29%$493 – $522
New York NY37$476−31%$408 – $1,458
New Jersey NJ25$445−36%$272 – $1,065
South Carolina SC10$368−47%$280 – $479
Arizona AZ12$286−59%$216 – $491
Iowa IA14$54−92%$54 – $326
Louisiana LA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not 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 $692.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care566$656$385 – $1,374
Children’s19fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access47$833$325 – $1,146
Ownership
For-profit77$689$393 – $1,853
Government72$598$337 – $1,136
Non-profit483$703$391 – $1,368
System affiliation
Part of a system554$679$385 – $1,368
Independent80$808$347 – $1,252

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,306
Median cash price$692
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

457 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $858 and the average of the middle 60% is $882; most fall between $432 and $1,378.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 457 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
$281$501$858$1,244$1,802

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($281 vs $1,802).

Of the 507 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 457 gave a usable cash price; 40 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 10 a list price only.

How complete is this

634 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 701 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted634
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here53
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 — excluded14
Hospitals that filed this code701

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 Salivary Gland Imaging Serial Images|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, “Salivary gland nuclear scan with repeated images over time (CPT 78231) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78231-salivary-gland-nuclear-scan-with-repeated-images-over-time