HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

Procedure price report · Other radioisotope scan

Nuclear scan for stomach lining tissue in the wrong place

CPT 78261the billing code this page is about

A nuclear medicine imaging study using a radioactive tracer that concentrates in stomach lining tissue, used to find such tissue outside the stomach.

Hospitals typically charge $610 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 307 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $751. Most fall between $352 and $1,517 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
307
States
42
Filings dated
Jun 2024 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 23, 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 307 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
$179$407$610$1,363$2,727

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 15× what the cheapest tenth charges ($179 vs $2,727).

How the prices are spread

$76 – $109: 14 hospitals$76$109 – $156: 2 hospitals$156 – $222: 11 hospitals$156$222 – $318: 9 hospitals$318 – $455: 48 hospitals$318$455 – $651: 62 hospitals$651 – $932: 32 hospitals$651$932 – $1,333: 38 hospitals$1,333 – $1,906: 33 hospitals$1,333$1,906 – $2,727: 33 hospitals$1,906median $610price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (282 of 307 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$76$10914
$109$1562
$156$22211
$222$3189
$318$45548
$455$65162
$651$93232
$932$1,33338
$1,333$1,90633
$1,906$2,72733

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$408
Median cash price$610
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.49×

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 $610.

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: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 1 hospital 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 $995 across 11 hospitalsMN$995Illinois: median $189 across 11 hospitalsIL$189Wisconsin: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $476 across 28 hospitalsNY$476Massachusetts: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $76 across 18 hospitalsIA$76Indiana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceINOhio: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $1,186 across 22 hospitalsPA$1,186New Jersey: median $445 across 15 hospitalsNJ$445Connecticut: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $2,260 across 48 hospitalsCA$2,260Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCONebraska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 4 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: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: median $1,288 across 12 hospitalsMD$1,288Delaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $48 across 11 hospitalsOK$48Louisiana: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMSAlabama: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $497 across 10 hospitalsGA$497Hawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $955 across 16 hospitalsTX$955Florida: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $610. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA48$2,260+271%$511 – $2,727
Maryland MD12$1,288+111%$931 – $1,431
Pennsylvania PA22$1,186+94%$408 – $1,238
Minnesota MN11$995+63%$610 – $995
Texas TX16$955+57%$830 – $1,976
Georgia GA10$497−18%$497 – $497
New York NY28$476−22%$475 – $1,458
New Jersey NJ15$445−27%$439 – $473
Illinois IL11$189−69%$189 – $909
Iowa IA18$76−88%$76 – $1,475
Oklahoma OK11$48−92%$48 – $780
Wisconsin WI9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not 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 $610.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care262$577$393 – $1,526
Children’s10fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access35$638$257 – $1,266
Ownership
For-profit48$710$393 – $2,260
Government39$527$419 – $1,199
Non-profit220$610$325 – $1,517
System affiliation
Part of a system262$565$347 – $1,635
Independent45$652$356 – $1,022

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,275
Median cash price$610
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

181 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $917 and the average of the middle 60% is $929; most fall between $393 and $1,638.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 181 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
$76$434$917$1,516$2,727

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 36× what the cheapest tenth charges ($76 vs $2,727).

Of the 233 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 181 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 12 a list price only.

How complete is this

307 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (8%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 376 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted307
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here58
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 — excluded11
Hospitals that filed this code376

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 23, 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 Other radioisotope scan family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as PR Gastric Mucosa Imaging.

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 scan for stomach lining tissue in the wrong place (CPT 78261) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78261-nuclear-scan-for-stomach-lining-tissue-in-the-wrong-place