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Procedure price report · Radioisotope scan and function studies

Nuclear test to check if an abdominal fluid shunt is open

CPT 78291the billing code this page is about

A nuclear medicine study that injects a radioactive tracer to see whether a peritoneal-venous shunt draining abdominal fluid is flowing freely.

Hospitals typically charge $790 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,163 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $858. Most fall between $441 and $1,571 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,163
States
50
Filings dated
Feb 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 1,163 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
$308$476$790$1,373$2,556

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($308 vs $2,556).

How the prices are spread

$209 – $280: 28 hospitals$209$280 – $375: 72 hospitals$375 – $502: 167 hospitals$375$502 – $672: 158 hospitals$672 – $900: 159 hospitals$672$900 – $1,205: 146 hospitals$1,205 – $1,613: 157 hospitals$1,205$1,613 – $2,161: 69 hospitals$2,161 – $2,894: 70 hospitals$2,161$2,894 – $3,875: 21 hospitals$2,894median $790price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,047 of 1,163 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$209$28028
$280$37572
$375$502167
$502$672158
$672$900159
$900$1,205146
$1,205$1,613157
$1,613$2,16169
$2,161$2,89470
$2,894$3,87521

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$408
Median cash price$790
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.93×

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 $790.

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $761 across 22 hospitalsWA$761Idaho: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $1,190 across 19 hospitalsMN$1,190Illinois: median $862 across 35 hospitalsIL$862Wisconsin: median $1,128 across 16 hospitalsWI$1,128Michigan: median $1,030 across 22 hospitalsMI$1,030New York: median $695 across 50 hospitalsNY$695Massachusetts: median $1,154 across 18 hospitalsMA$1,154Oregon: median $424 across 14 hospitalsOR$424Nevada: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $523 across 21 hospitalsIA$523Indiana: median $791 across 34 hospitalsIN$791Ohio: median $861 across 56 hospitalsOH$861Pennsylvania: median $594 across 53 hospitalsPA$594New Jersey: median $473 across 32 hospitalsNJ$473Connecticut: 7 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 $1,347 across 110 hospitalsCA$1,347Utah: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $838 across 28 hospitalsCO$838Nebraska: median $533 across 14 hospitalsNE$533Missouri: median $572 across 25 hospitalsMO$572Kentucky: median $746 across 32 hospitalsKY$746West Virginia: median $1,521 across 11 hospitalsWV$1,521Virginia: median $651 across 37 hospitalsVA$651Maryland: median $1,355 across 23 hospitalsMD$1,355Delaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $2,216 across 25 hospitalsAZ$2,216New Mexico: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $741 across 17 hospitalsKS$741Arkansas: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $452 across 30 hospitalsTN$452North Carolina: median $753 across 27 hospitalsNC$753South Carolina: median $805 across 16 hospitalsSC$805Oklahoma: median $71 across 16 hospitalsOK$71Louisiana: median $376 across 17 hospitalsLA$376Mississippi: median $301 across 13 hospitalsMS$301Alabama: median $356 across 11 hospitalsAL$356Georgia: median $523 across 41 hospitalsGA$523Hawaii: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $703 across 102 hospitalsTX$703Florida: median $1,181 across 98 hospitalsFL$1,181
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $790. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Arizona AZ25$2,216+180%$297 – $2,411
West Virginia WV11$1,521+93%$693 – $2,208
Maryland MD23$1,355+72%$555 – $1,803
California CA110$1,347+71%$551 – $2,621
Minnesota MN19$1,190+51%$493 – $1,354
Florida FL98$1,181+50%$790 – $3,059
Massachusetts MA18$1,154+46%$894 – $1,399
Wisconsin WI16$1,128+43%$723 – $1,870
Michigan MI22$1,030+30%$550 – $1,386
Illinois IL35$862+9%$425 – $1,337
Ohio OH56$861+9%$603 – $1,103
Colorado CO28$838+6%$711 – $1,856
South Carolina SC16$805+2%$539 – $1,433
Indiana IN34$7910%$677 – $1,247
Washington WA22$761−4%$573 – $1,153
North Carolina NC27$753−5%$563 – $800
Kentucky KY32$746−6%$401 – $1,221
Kansas KS17$741−6%$432 – $2,155
Texas TX102$703−11%$441 – $1,755
New York NY50$695−12%$475 – $1,638
Virginia VA37$651−18%$494 – $1,176
Pennsylvania PA53$594−25%$415 – $1,895
Missouri MO25$572−28%$460 – $1,000
Nebraska NE14$533−32%$530 – $1,020
Georgia GA41$523−34%$295 – $631
Iowa IA21$523−34%$92 – $636
New Jersey NJ32$473−40%$439 – $1,373
Tennessee TN30$452−43%$230 – $548
Oregon OR14$424−46%$424 – $753
Louisiana LA17$376−52%$293 – $552
Alabama AL11$356−55%$115 – $611
Mississippi MS13$301−62%$202 – $494
Oklahoma OK16$71−91%$71 – $819
Maine ME9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not 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 $790.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,050$790$441 – $1,554
Children’s21$921$520 – $2,326
Critical access87$796$438 – $1,425
Ownership
For-profit177$1,188$501 – $4,071
Government120$581$303 – $1,090
Non-profit861$789$445 – $1,425
System affiliation
Part of a system1,050$791$445 – $1,580
Independent113$676$403 – $1,351

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,524
Median cash price$790
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

859 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $830 and the average of the middle 60% is $886; most fall between $443 and $1,538.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 859 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
$295$493$830$1,386$2,351

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($295 vs $2,351).

Of the 952 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 859 gave a usable cash price; 47 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 46 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,163 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (29%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,294 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,163
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here81
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 — excluded50
Hospitals that filed this code1,294

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 Radioisotope scan and function studies family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as PR Leveen/Shunt Patency 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 test to check if an abdominal fluid shunt is open (CPT 78291) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78291-nuclear-test-to-check-if-an-abdominal-fluid-shunt-is-open