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Procedure price report · Radioisotope pulmonary scan

Nuclear lung scan of air flow (ventilation)

CPT 78579the billing code this page is about

A nuclear medicine scan in which an inhaled radioactive gas or aerosol shows how air is distributed through the lungs.

Hospitals typically charge $857 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,892 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $918. Most fall between $473 and $1,637 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,892
States
50
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 1,892 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
$355$522$857$1,403$2,243

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($355 vs $2,243).

How the prices are spread

$273 – $354: 94 hospitals$273$354 – $460: 162 hospitals$460 – $598: 248 hospitals$460$598 – $777: 227 hospitals$777 – $1,010: 291 hospitals$777$1,010 – $1,312: 250 hospitals$1,312 – $1,705: 181 hospitals$1,312$1,705 – $2,215: 151 hospitals$2,215 – $2,877: 69 hospitals$2,215$2,877 – $3,739: 31 hospitals$2,877median $857price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,704 of 1,892 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$273$35494
$354$460162
$460$598248
$598$777227
$777$1,010291
$1,010$1,312250
$1,312$1,705181
$1,705$2,215151
$2,215$2,87769
$2,877$3,73931

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$408
Median cash price$857
Cash as a multiple of Medicare2.1×

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 $857.

Alaska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $790 across 14 hospitalsME$790Vermont: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $865 across 41 hospitalsWA$865Idaho: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $589 across 44 hospitalsMN$589Illinois: median $1,005 across 67 hospitalsIL$1,005Wisconsin: median $1,224 across 65 hospitalsWI$1,224Michigan: median $596 across 47 hospitalsMI$596New York: median $833 across 72 hospitalsNY$833Massachusetts: median $1,193 across 34 hospitalsMA$1,193Oregon: median $989 across 27 hospitalsOR$989Nevada: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 7 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 $814 across 36 hospitalsIA$814Indiana: median $637 across 63 hospitalsIN$637Ohio: median $863 across 109 hospitalsOH$863Pennsylvania: median $757 across 89 hospitalsPA$757New Jersey: median $473 across 46 hospitalsNJ$473Connecticut: median $637 across 10 hospitalsCT$637Rhode Island: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,159 across 159 hospitalsCA$1,159Utah: median $757 across 29 hospitalsUT$757Colorado: median $1,232 across 43 hospitalsCO$1,232Nebraska: median $836 across 30 hospitalsNE$836Missouri: median $724 across 40 hospitalsMO$724Kentucky: median $935 across 35 hospitalsKY$935West Virginia: median $1,164 across 11 hospitalsWV$1,164Virginia: median $711 across 34 hospitalsVA$711Maryland: median $1,003 across 33 hospitalsMD$1,003Delaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $729 across 34 hospitalsAZ$729New Mexico: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $922 across 19 hospitalsKS$922Arkansas: median $509 across 13 hospitalsAR$509Tennessee: median $452 across 47 hospitalsTN$452North Carolina: median $669 across 53 hospitalsNC$669South Carolina: median $903 across 21 hospitalsSC$903Oklahoma: median $370 across 26 hospitalsOK$370Louisiana: median $416 across 21 hospitalsLA$416Mississippi: median $385 across 26 hospitalsMS$385Alabama: median $552 across 24 hospitalsAL$552Georgia: median $743 across 64 hospitalsGA$743Hawaii: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $962 across 173 hospitalsTX$962Florida: median $1,737 across 107 hospitalsFL$1,737
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $857. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL107$1,737+103%$827 – $7,133
Colorado CO43$1,232+44%$576 – $3,029
Wisconsin WI65$1,224+43%$694 – $1,505
Massachusetts MA34$1,193+39%$618 – $1,474
West Virginia WV11$1,164+36%$635 – $1,582
California CA159$1,159+35%$566 – $2,247
Illinois IL67$1,005+17%$555 – $1,783
Maryland MD33$1,003+17%$687 – $1,367
Oregon OR27$989+15%$532 – $1,639
Texas TX173$962+12%$596 – $2,077
Kentucky KY35$935+9%$473 – $1,417
Kansas KS19$922+8%$376 – $1,438
South Carolina SC21$903+5%$565 – $2,094
Washington WA41$865+1%$556 – $1,096
Ohio OH109$863+1%$480 – $1,771
Nebraska NE30$836−2%$457 – $1,514
New York NY72$833−3%$476 – $1,638
Iowa IA36$814−5%$457 – $1,090
Maine ME14$790−8%$276 – $1,574
Pennsylvania PA89$757−12%$458 – $1,893
Utah UT29$757−12%$757 – $890
Georgia GA64$743−13%$551 – $1,545
Arizona AZ34$729−15%$302 – $1,349
Missouri MO40$724−15%$462 – $1,177
Virginia VA34$711−17%$452 – $956
North Carolina NC53$669−22%$511 – $1,098
Indiana IN63$637−26%$505 – $1,259
Connecticut CT10$637−26%$441 – $723
Michigan MI47$596−30%$439 – $995
Minnesota MN44$589−31%$194 – $884
Alabama AL24$552−36%$356 – $1,318
Arkansas AR13$509−41%$335 – $1,028
New Jersey NJ46$473−45%$353 – $1,734
Tennessee TN47$452−47%$308 – $722
Louisiana LA21$416−51%$248 – $772
Mississippi MS26$385−55%$277 – $485
Oklahoma OK26$370−57%$329 – $932
Hawaii HI9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not 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 $857.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,573$856$471 – $1,643
Children’s30$921$540 – $1,771
Critical access282$857$518 – $1,426
Ownership
For-profit288$1,225$577 – $4,093
Government252$762$448 – $1,271
Non-profit1,345$847$462 – $1,545
System affiliation
Part of a system1,640$862$476 – $1,666
Independent252$830$467 – $1,432

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,465
Median cash price$857
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

1,370 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $890 and the average of the middle 60% is $951; most fall between $508 and $1,619.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,370 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
$377$565$890$1,385$1,967

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($377 vs $1,967).

Of the 1,503 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,370 gave a usable cash price; 69 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 64 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,892 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (48%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,097 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,892
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here137
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 — excluded68
Hospitals that filed this code2,097

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 pulmonary scan family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Pulmonary Ventilation Imaging|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, “Nuclear lung scan of air flow (ventilation) (CPT 78579) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78579-nuclear-lung-scan-of-air-flow-ventilation