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Procedure price report · Radioisotope scan and function studies

Nuclear tracer scan to locate a tumor, one area

CPT 78800the billing code this page is about

Flat (planar) imaging of a single body area after a radioactive tracer is given, to show where a tumor or tracer uptake is located.

Hospitals typically charge $946 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,089 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $979. Most fall between $478 and $1,679 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,089
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 2,089 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
$346$544$946$1,494$2,471

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.1× what the cheapest tenth charges ($346 vs $2,471).

How the prices are spread

$237 – $310: 61 hospitals$237$310 – $406: 124 hospitals$406 – $532: 219 hospitals$406$532 – $697: 200 hospitals$697 – $913: 317 hospitals$697$913 – $1,196: 316 hospitals$1,196 – $1,567: 271 hospitals$1,196$1,567 – $2,053: 205 hospitals$2,053 – $2,690: 93 hospitals$2,053$2,690 – $3,524: 81 hospitals$2,690median $946price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,887 of 2,089 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$237$31061
$310$406124
$406$532219
$532$697200
$697$913317
$913$1,196316
$1,196$1,567271
$1,567$2,053205
$2,053$2,69093
$2,690$3,52481

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$408
Median cash price$946
Cash as a multiple of Medicare2.3×

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 $946.

Alaska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $609 across 18 hospitalsME$609Vermont: 5 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 $986 across 41 hospitalsWA$986Idaho: median $1,425 across 13 hospitalsID$1,425Montana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $491 across 35 hospitalsMN$491Illinois: median $1,128 across 84 hospitalsIL$1,128Wisconsin: median $875 across 76 hospitalsWI$875Michigan: median $905 across 68 hospitalsMI$905New York: median $880 across 76 hospitalsNY$880Massachusetts: median $1,279 across 23 hospitalsMA$1,279Oregon: median $1,144 across 27 hospitalsOR$1,144Nevada: median $1,890 across 11 hospitalsNV$1,890Wyoming: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $1,089 across 10 hospitalsSD$1,089Iowa: median $793 across 27 hospitalsIA$793Indiana: median $726 across 65 hospitalsIN$726Ohio: median $1,114 across 112 hospitalsOH$1,114Pennsylvania: median $878 across 96 hospitalsPA$878New Jersey: median $517 across 57 hospitalsNJ$517Connecticut: median $1,252 across 18 hospitalsCT$1,252Rhode Island: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,204 across 168 hospitalsCA$1,204Utah: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $1,079 across 38 hospitalsCO$1,079Nebraska: median $764 across 26 hospitalsNE$764Missouri: median $712 across 46 hospitalsMO$712Kentucky: median $1,123 across 39 hospitalsKY$1,123West Virginia: median $1,214 across 18 hospitalsWV$1,214Virginia: median $718 across 54 hospitalsVA$718Maryland: median $958 across 37 hospitalsMD$958Delaware: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $1,078 across 38 hospitalsAZ$1,078New Mexico: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $518 across 27 hospitalsKS$518Arkansas: median $346 across 17 hospitalsAR$346Tennessee: median $426 across 49 hospitalsTN$426North Carolina: median $1,039 across 59 hospitalsNC$1,039South Carolina: median $887 across 44 hospitalsSC$887Oklahoma: median $606 across 26 hospitalsOK$606Louisiana: median $483 across 39 hospitalsLA$483Mississippi: median $492 across 33 hospitalsMS$492Alabama: median $726 across 26 hospitalsAL$726Georgia: median $780 across 67 hospitalsGA$780Hawaii: median $743 across 10 hospitalsHI$743Texas: median $1,186 across 169 hospitalsTX$1,186Florida: median $1,540 across 139 hospitalsFL$1,540
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $946. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Nevada NV11$1,890+100%$434 – $4,462
Florida FL139$1,540+63%$784 – $4,343
Idaho ID13$1,425+51%$865 – $1,425
Massachusetts MA23$1,279+35%$713 – $1,463
Connecticut CT18$1,252+32%$712 – $2,057
West Virginia WV18$1,214+28%$773 – $2,770
California CA168$1,204+27%$586 – $2,247
Texas TX169$1,186+25%$781 – $2,059
Oregon OR27$1,144+21%$464 – $1,489
Illinois IL84$1,128+19%$666 – $1,828
Kentucky KY39$1,123+19%$485 – $1,879
Ohio OH112$1,114+18%$663 – $1,824
South Dakota SD10$1,089+15%$950 – $1,089
Colorado CO38$1,079+14%$740 – $4,014
Arizona AZ38$1,078+14%$305 – $1,820
North Carolina NC59$1,039+10%$667 – $1,168
Washington WA41$986+4%$761 – $1,382
Maryland MD37$958+1%$673 – $1,338
Michigan MI68$905−4%$540 – $1,527
South Carolina SC44$887−6%$591 – $2,004
New York NY76$880−7%$476 – $1,663
Pennsylvania PA96$878−7%$471 – $1,714
Wisconsin WI76$875−7%$154 – $1,251
Iowa IA27$793−16%$443 – $950
Georgia GA67$780−18%$489 – $1,697
Nebraska NE26$764−19%$754 – $1,366
Hawaii HI10$743−21%$585 – $998
Alabama AL26$726−23%$356 – $1,105
Indiana IN65$726−23%$466 – $1,207
Virginia VA54$718−24%$452 – $1,169
Missouri MO46$712−25%$569 – $1,355
Maine ME18$609−36%$330 – $1,084
Oklahoma OK26$606−36%$267 – $819
Kansas KS27$518−45%$376 – $940
New Jersey NJ57$517−45%$439 – $1,274
Mississippi MS33$492−48%$316 – $1,120
Minnesota MN35$491−48%$226 – $989
Louisiana LA39$483−49%$280 – $927
Tennessee TN49$426−55%$196 – $778
Arkansas AR17$346−63%$237 – $788
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
Utah UT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK4not 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 $946.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,793$947$476 – $1,714
Children’s25$1,285$566 – $2,345
Critical access263$878$498 – $1,489
Ownership
For-profit321$1,366$592 – $3,419
Government262$789$460 – $1,280
Non-profit1,498$895$473 – $1,585
System affiliation
Part of a system1,792$956$479 – $1,714
Independent297$865$467 – $1,468

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,658
Median cash price$946
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

1,515 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,002 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,005; most fall between $491 and $1,638.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,515 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$584$1,002$1,494$2,231

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($355 vs $2,231).

Of the 1,668 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,515 gave a usable cash price; 86 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 67 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,089 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (53%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,305 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,089
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 — excluded79
Hospitals that filed this code2,305

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 Rp Loclzj Tum Plnr 1 Area Single Day 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 tracer scan to locate a tumor, one area (CPT 78800) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78800-nuclear-tracer-scan-to-locate-a-tumor-one-area