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Procedure price report · Radioisotope scan and function studies

Nuclear study for protein loss through the intestines

CPT 78282the billing code this page is about

A nuclear medicine study that uses a radioactive tracer to detect and measure protein leaking from the bloodstream into the digestive tract.

Hospitals typically charge $491 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 166 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $645. Most fall between $198 and $1,217 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
166
States
29
Filings dated
Oct 2025 – 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 166 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
$39$383$491$1,217$2,621

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 67× what the cheapest tenth charges ($39 vs $2,621).

How the prices are spread

$27 – $42: 14 hospitals$27$42 – $67: 7 hospitals$67 – $106: 2 hospitals$67$106 – $167: 2 hospitals$167 – $265: 2 hospitals$167$265 – $418: 15 hospitals$418 – $662: 50 hospitals$418$662 – $1,047: 17 hospitals$1,047 – $1,657: 21 hospitals$1,047$1,657 – $2,621: 25 hospitals$1,657median $491price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (155 of 166 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$27$4214
$42$677
$67$1062
$106$1672
$167$2652
$265$41815
$418$66250
$662$1,04717
$1,047$1,65721
$1,657$2,62125

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$408
Median cash price$491
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.20×

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 $491.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 2 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: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $476 across 21 hospitalsNY$476Massachusetts: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceORNevada: 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 $39 across 11 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceINOhio: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figurePANew Jersey: median $445 across 12 hospitalsNJ$445Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $2,162 across 45 hospitalsCA$2,162Utah: 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: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKYWest Virginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWVVirginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVAMaryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: 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: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $27 across 10 hospitalsOK$27Louisiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceGAHawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTXFlorida: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $491. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA45$2,162+341%$963 – $2,621
New York NY21$476−3%$408 – $476
New Jersey NJ12$445−9%$445 – $473
Iowa IA11$39−92%$39 – $39
Oklahoma OK10$27−95%$27 – $27
Minnesota MN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Illinois IL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Pennsylvania PA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Texas TX6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN1not 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 $491.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care156$491$278 – $1,217
Children’s7fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access3fewer than 20 hospitals
Ownership
For-profit20$728$356 – $1,153
Government15fewer than 20 hospitals
Non-profit131$500$78 – $1,382
System affiliation
Part of a system145$499$198 – $1,217
Independent21$473$161 – $963

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$774
Median cash price$491
Cash as a share of list, median hospital56%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 44%. 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

102 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $768 and the average of the middle 60% is $739; most fall between $39 and $2,162.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 102 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
$39$139$768$1,491$2,621

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 67× what the cheapest tenth charges ($39 vs $2,621).

Of the 133 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 102 gave a usable cash price; 28 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 3 a list price only.

How complete is this

166 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (4%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 207 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted166
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here40
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 — excluded1
Hospitals that filed this code207

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 5, 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 Radioisotope scan and function studies family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as PR GI Protein Loss Exam.

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 study for protein loss through the intestines (CPT 78282) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78282-nuclear-study-for-protein-loss-through-the-intestines