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Procedure price report · Radioisotope pulmonary scan

Measured comparison of air and blood flow between the lungs

CPT 78598the billing code this page is about

A nuclear medicine study that calculates the percentage of both air movement and blood flow going to each lung or lung region, including imaging if performed.

Hospitals typically charge $1,423 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,811 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,475. Most fall between $694 and $2,560 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,811
States
50
Filings dated
Jan 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 1,811 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
$512$800$1,423$2,244$3,784

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($512 vs $3,784).

How the prices are spread

$393 – $511: 92 hospitals$393$511 – $664: 156 hospitals$664 – $864: 171 hospitals$664$864 – $1,123: 196 hospitals$1,123 – $1,459: 230 hospitals$1,123$1,459 – $1,896: 264 hospitals$1,896 – $2,465: 225 hospitals$1,896$2,465 – $3,204: 142 hospitals$3,204 – $4,164: 109 hospitals$3,204$4,164 – $5,413: 47 hospitals$4,164median $1,423price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,632 of 1,811 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$393$51192
$511$664156
$664$864171
$864$1,123196
$1,123$1,459230
$1,459$1,896264
$1,896$2,465225
$2,465$3,204142
$3,204$4,164109
$4,164$5,41347

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$555
Median cash price$1,423
Cash as a multiple of Medicare2.6×

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 $1,423.

Alaska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $535 across 14 hospitalsME$535Vermont: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $1,309 across 10 hospitalsNH$1,309Washington: median $1,234 across 39 hospitalsWA$1,234Idaho: median $1,761 across 11 hospitalsID$1,761Montana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $1,035 across 22 hospitalsMN$1,035Illinois: median $1,705 across 73 hospitalsIL$1,705Wisconsin: median $1,533 across 71 hospitalsWI$1,533Michigan: median $874 across 44 hospitalsMI$874New York: median $1,023 across 63 hospitalsNY$1,023Massachusetts: median $1,651 across 40 hospitalsMA$1,651Oregon: median $1,526 across 27 hospitalsOR$1,526Nevada: median $1,915 across 10 hospitalsNV$1,915Wyoming: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $1,301 across 26 hospitalsIA$1,301Indiana: median $1,737 across 62 hospitalsIN$1,737Ohio: median $1,664 across 86 hospitalsOH$1,664Pennsylvania: median $1,463 across 82 hospitalsPA$1,463New Jersey: median $629 across 45 hospitalsNJ$629Connecticut: median $1,268 across 18 hospitalsCT$1,268Rhode Island: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $2,012 across 154 hospitalsCA$2,012Utah: median $1,369 across 29 hospitalsUT$1,369Colorado: median $1,805 across 43 hospitalsCO$1,805Nebraska: median $1,516 across 29 hospitalsNE$1,516Missouri: median $1,034 across 41 hospitalsMO$1,034Kentucky: median $1,592 across 31 hospitalsKY$1,592West Virginia: median $1,134 across 17 hospitalsWV$1,134Virginia: median $1,174 across 40 hospitalsVA$1,174Maryland: median $1,643 across 33 hospitalsMD$1,643Delaware: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $1,250 across 35 hospitalsAZ$1,250New Mexico: median $819 across 11 hospitalsNM$819Kansas: median $1,910 across 20 hospitalsKS$1,910Arkansas: median $480 across 14 hospitalsAR$480Tennessee: median $691 across 47 hospitalsTN$691North Carolina: median $1,000 across 52 hospitalsNC$1,000South Carolina: median $1,564 across 29 hospitalsSC$1,564Oklahoma: median $787 across 24 hospitalsOK$787Louisiana: median $1,050 across 20 hospitalsLA$1,050Mississippi: median $627 across 26 hospitalsMS$627Alabama: median $1,092 across 18 hospitalsAL$1,092Georgia: median $1,002 across 62 hospitalsGA$1,002Hawaii: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $1,611 across 149 hospitalsTX$1,611Florida: median $3,018 across 99 hospitalsFL$3,018
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,423. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL99$3,018+112%$1,014 – $10,484
California CA154$2,012+41%$829 – $3,845
Nevada NV10$1,915+35%$590 – $3,439
Kansas KS20$1,910+34%$848 – $3,222
Colorado CO43$1,805+27%$1,137 – $3,879
Idaho ID11$1,761+24%$1,369 – $1,761
Indiana IN62$1,737+22%$898 – $2,722
Illinois IL73$1,705+20%$946 – $2,269
Ohio OH86$1,664+17%$862 – $2,467
Massachusetts MA40$1,651+16%$1,032 – $2,183
Maryland MD33$1,643+15%$1,076 – $2,367
Texas TX149$1,611+13%$902 – $3,480
Kentucky KY31$1,592+12%$585 – $2,560
South Carolina SC29$1,564+10%$744 – $3,017
Wisconsin WI71$1,533+8%$1,096 – $2,055
Oregon OR27$1,526+7%$1,274 – $2,330
Nebraska NE29$1,516+7%$1,213 – $2,848
Pennsylvania PA82$1,463+3%$642 – $3,560
Utah UT29$1,369−4%$1,135 – $1,611
New Hampshire NH10$1,309−8%$621 – $2,526
Iowa IA26$1,301−9%$878 – $2,046
Connecticut CT18$1,268−11%$849 – $2,417
Arizona AZ35$1,250−12%$498 – $2,132
Washington WA39$1,234−13%$1,055 – $1,848
Virginia VA40$1,174−17%$452 – $1,527
West Virginia WV17$1,134−20%$766 – $2,073
Alabama AL18$1,092−23%$355 – $3,784
Louisiana LA20$1,050−26%$304 – $1,333
Minnesota MN22$1,035−27%$595 – $1,823
Missouri MO41$1,034−27%$844 – $2,259
New York NY63$1,023−28%$637 – $2,219
Georgia GA62$1,002−30%$684 – $2,498
North Carolina NC52$1,000−30%$477 – $1,294
Michigan MI44$874−39%$686 – $1,589
New Mexico NM11$819−42%$767 – $1,672
Oklahoma OK24$787−45%$551 – $1,615
Tennessee TN47$691−51%$452 – $1,428
New Jersey NJ45$629−56%$528 – $718
Mississippi MS26$627−56%$451 – $768
Maine ME14$535−62%$431 – $1,507
Arkansas AR14$480−66%$207 – $1,047
Hawaii HI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD3not 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 $1,423.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,565$1,402$691 – $2,560
Children’s28$1,453$771 – $4,320
Critical access212$1,493$807 – $2,358
Ownership
For-profit269$1,735$817 – $5,832
Government211$1,014$640 – $1,954
Non-profit1,325$1,425$679 – $2,417
System affiliation
Part of a system1,595$1,428$697 – $2,580
Independent216$1,202$690 – $2,291

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$2,503
Median cash price$1,423
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

1,341 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,539 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,528; most fall between $771 and $2,562.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,341 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
$554$878$1,539$2,255$3,480

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($554 vs $3,480).

Of the 1,471 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,341 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 61 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,811 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (46%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,997 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,811
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here120
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded65
Hospitals that filed this code1,997

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 Quant Diff Pulm Prfusion & Ventlaj W/WO Imagin|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, “Measured comparison of air and blood flow between the lungs (CPT 78598) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78598-measured-comparison-of-air-and-blood-flow-between-the-lungs