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Procedure price report · Radioisotope scan and function studies

First-pass nuclear heart pumping scan, single study

CPT 78481the billing code this page is about

Imaging that tracks a tracer during its first pass through the heart chambers to measure pumping strength; this code covers one study at rest or with stress.

Hospitals typically charge $918 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 648 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,036. Most fall between $439 and $2,194 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
648
States
46
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – 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 648 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
$275$540$918$1,701$3,303

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($275 vs $3,303).

How the prices are spread

$142 – $198: 9 hospitals$142$198 – $275: 25 hospitals$275 – $382: 33 hospitals$275$382 – $530: 58 hospitals$530 – $737: 93 hospitals$530$737 – $1,023: 104 hospitals$1,023 – $1,421: 89 hospitals$1,023$1,421 – $1,974: 66 hospitals$1,974 – $2,742: 35 hospitals$1,974$2,742 – $3,808: 72 hospitals$2,742median $918price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (584 of 648 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$142$1989
$198$27525
$275$38233
$382$53058
$530$73793
$737$1,023104
$1,023$1,42189
$1,421$1,97466
$1,974$2,74235
$2,742$3,80872

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$555
Median cash price$918
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.66×

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 $918.

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 8 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: median $982 across 22 hospitalsWA$982Idaho: 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: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $938 across 25 hospitalsIL$938Wisconsin: median $222 across 10 hospitalsWI$222Michigan: median $693 across 10 hospitalsMI$693New York: median $678 across 41 hospitalsNY$678Massachusetts: median $1,056 across 10 hospitalsMA$1,056Oregon: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 5 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 $918 across 19 hospitalsIA$918Indiana: median $996 across 22 hospitalsIN$996Ohio: median $1,323 across 31 hospitalsOH$1,323Pennsylvania: median $631 across 22 hospitalsPA$631New Jersey: median $596 across 26 hospitalsNJ$596Connecticut: 3 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 $2,254 across 78 hospitalsCA$2,254Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $1,001 across 15 hospitalsMO$1,001Kentucky: median $2,801 across 13 hospitalsKY$2,801West Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: median $745 across 14 hospitalsMD$745Delaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: median $1,286 across 21 hospitalsAZ$1,286New Mexico: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $790 across 10 hospitalsNC$790South Carolina: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $71 across 11 hospitalsOK$71Louisiana: median $452 across 10 hospitalsLA$452Mississippi: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $645 across 20 hospitalsGA$645Hawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $1,381 across 68 hospitalsTX$1,381Florida: median $1,648 across 44 hospitalsFL$1,648
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $918. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Kentucky KY13$2,801+205%$256 – $2,801
California CA78$2,254+145%$694 – $3,808
Florida FL44$1,648+79%$431 – $3,646
Texas TX68$1,381+50%$1,061 – $2,317
Ohio OH31$1,323+44%$817 – $1,564
Arizona AZ21$1,286+40%$402 – $2,941
Massachusetts MA10$1,056+15%$688 – $1,693
Missouri MO15$1,001+9%$384 – $1,423
Indiana IN22$996+9%$613 – $1,570
Washington WA22$982+7%$848 – $1,513
Illinois IL25$938+2%$456 – $1,703
Iowa IA19$9180%$115 – $1,318
North Carolina NC10$790−14%$668 – $792
Maryland MD14$745−19%$331 – $854
Michigan MI10$693−25%$525 – $747
New York NY41$678−26%$637 – $1,385
Georgia GA20$645−30%$499 – $1,453
Pennsylvania PA22$631−31%$439 – $5,320
New Jersey NJ26$596−35%$436 – $706
Louisiana LA10$452−51%$351 – $592
Wisconsin WI10$222−76%$222 – $1,590
Oklahoma OK11$71−92%$71 – $830
Minnesota MN9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not 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 $918.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care560$920$456 – $2,279
Children’s11fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access75$806$222 – $1,446
Ownership
For-profit116$1,560$645 – $3,492
Government71$729$395 – $1,423
Non-profit459$864$431 – $1,756
System affiliation
Part of a system563$923$439 – $2,254
Independent85$786$424 – $1,706

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,737
Median cash price$918
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

413 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,097 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,135; most fall between $448 and $2,238.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 413 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
$303$584$1,097$1,756$3,486

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($303 vs $3,486).

Of the 479 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 413 gave a usable cash price; 37 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 29 a list price only.

How complete is this

648 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 750 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted648
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here76
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 — excluded26
Hospitals that filed this code750

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 Card Bl Pool Planar 1 Stdy Wal Motn Eject Fract|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, “First-pass nuclear heart pumping scan, single study (CPT 78481) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78481-first-pass-nuclear-heart-pumping-scan-single-study