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Procedure price report · Radioisotope scan and function studies

Salivary gland function study using a radioactive tracer

CPT 78232the billing code this page is about

A nuclear medicine test that measures how well the salivary glands take up and release an injected radioactive tracer, such as before and after a stimulant.

Hospitals typically charge $658 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 381 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $700. Most fall between $367 and $1,371 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
381
States
40
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 381 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
$153$408$658$1,155$1,983

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($153 vs $1,983).

How the prices are spread

$50 – $75: 15 hospitals$50$75 – $114: 11 hospitals$114 – $172: 9 hospitals$114$172 – $261: 14 hospitals$261 – $394: 28 hospitals$261$394 – $597: 98 hospitals$597 – $904: 67 hospitals$597$904 – $1,368: 52 hospitals$1,368 – $2,072: 40 hospitals$1,368$2,072 – $3,136: 28 hospitals$2,072median $658price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (362 of 381 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$50$7515
$75$11411
$114$1729
$172$26114
$261$39428
$394$59798
$597$90467
$904$1,36852
$1,368$2,07240
$2,072$3,13628

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$408
Median cash price$658
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.61×

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 $658.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $91 across 12 hospitalsIL$91Wisconsin: median $867 across 12 hospitalsWI$867Michigan: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $476 across 29 hospitalsNY$476Massachusetts: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 1 hospital 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 $50 across 11 hospitalsIA$50Indiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $1,802 across 16 hospitalsOH$1,802Pennsylvania: median $472 across 26 hospitalsPA$472New Jersey: median $473 across 21 hospitalsNJ$473Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,740 across 40 hospitalsCA$1,740Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCONebraska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: median $478 across 14 hospitalsMD$478Delaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKSArkansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $33 across 11 hospitalsOK$33Louisiana: median $249 across 12 hospitalsLA$249Mississippi: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMSAlabama: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $719 across 16 hospitalsGA$719Hawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $1,124 across 42 hospitalsTX$1,124Florida: median $790 across 38 hospitalsFL$790
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $658. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Ohio OH16$1,802+174%$658 – $1,802
California CA40$1,740+165%$382 – $3,136
Texas TX42$1,124+71%$780 – $1,894
Wisconsin WI12$867+32%$731 – $913
Florida FL38$790+20%$403 – $1,873
Georgia GA16$719+9%$719 – $1,575
Maryland MD14$478−27%$248 – $707
New York NY29$476−28%$259 – $1,068
New Jersey NJ21$473−28%$445 – $1,570
Pennsylvania PA26$472−28%$455 – $836
Louisiana LA12$249−62%$170 – $608
Illinois IL12$91−86%$91 – $1,155
Iowa IA11$50−92%$50 – $50
Oklahoma OK11$33−95%$33 – $408
North Carolina NC9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA1not 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 $658.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care350$657$365 – $1,458
Children’s13fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access18fewer than 20 hospitals
Ownership
For-profit57$719$319 – $1,983
Government40$562$401 – $1,118
Non-profit284$652$361 – $1,382
System affiliation
Part of a system333$694$379 – $1,458
Independent48$527$259 – $1,068

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,226
Median cash price$658
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

257 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $790 and the average of the middle 60% is $878; most fall between $382 and $1,575.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 257 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
$158$461$790$1,371$2,098

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($158 vs $2,098).

Of the 313 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 257 gave a usable cash price; 44 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 12 a list price only.

How complete is this

381 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (10%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 446 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted381
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 — excluded12
Hospitals that filed this code446

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 23, 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 Salivary Gland Function Study.

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 function study using a radioactive tracer (CPT 78232) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78232-salivary-gland-function-study-using-a-radioactive-tracer