HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

Procedure price report · Radioisotope pulmonary scan

Unlisted nuclear medicine procedure of the lungs

CPT 78599the billing code this page is about

Used when a nuclear medicine lung study has no specific billing code of its own.

Hospitals typically charge $546 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 212 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $580. Most fall between $203 and $925 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
212
States
33
Filings dated
Dec 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 212 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
$158$362$546$862$1,324

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($158 vs $1,324).

How the prices are spread

$72 – $97: 3 hospitals$72$97 – $131: 8 hospitals$131 – $177: 1 hospitals$131$177 – $240: 22 hospitals$240 – $324: 6 hospitals$240$324 – $437: 19 hospitals$437 – $591: 46 hospitals$437$591 – $798: 36 hospitals$798 – $1,079: 27 hospitals$798$1,079 – $1,457: 25 hospitals$1,079median $546price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (193 of 212 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$72$973
$97$1318
$131$1771
$177$24022
$240$3246
$324$43719
$437$59146
$591$79836
$798$1,07927
$1,079$1,45725

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$408
Median cash price$546
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.34×

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 $546.

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 4 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: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $476 across 26 hospitalsNY$476Massachusetts: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceORNevada: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNVWyoming: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIAIndiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $101 across 17 hospitalsPA$101New Jersey: median $445 across 14 hospitalsNJ$445Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $182 across 23 hospitalsCA$182Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWVVirginia: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceARTennessee: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $366 across 10 hospitalsOK$366Louisiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceALGeorgia: median $546 across 10 hospitalsGA$546Hawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $767 across 23 hospitalsTX$767Florida: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $546. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Texas TX23$767+40%$389 – $767
Georgia GA10$5460%$546 – $546
New York NY26$476−13%$203 – $476
New Jersey NJ14$445−18%$123 – $473
Oklahoma OK10$366−33%$362 – $682
California CA23$182−67%$182 – $182
Pennsylvania PA17$101−81%$64 – $895
Colorado CO9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Illinois IL7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not 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 $546.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care189$546$182 – $921
Children’s4fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access19fewer than 20 hospitals
Ownership
For-profit23$577$255 – $975
Government28$491$403 – $767
Non-profit161$546$182 – $925
System affiliation
Part of a system192$546$182 – $921
Independent20$795$403 – $1,354

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,399
Median cash price$546
Cash as a share of list, median hospital50%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 50%. 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

146 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $656 and the average of the middle 60% is $534; most fall between $182 and $921.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 146 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
$101$182$656$879$1,263

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($101 vs $1,263).

Of the 155 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 146 gave a usable cash price; 3 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 6 a list price only.

How complete is this

212 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (5%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 224 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted212
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here5
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 — excluded7
Hospitals that filed this code224

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 24, 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 pulmonary scan family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as UNLISTED RESP PX DX NUC MED.

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, “Unlisted nuclear medicine procedure of the lungs (CPT 78599) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78599-unlisted-nuclear-medicine-procedure-of-the-lungs