HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

Procedure price report · Radioisotope scan and function studies

Tracer injection into a vein for a probe-only tumor study

CPT 78808the billing code this page is about

Covers the injection of a radioactive tracer into a vein when the tracer is detected with a hand-held probe during a procedure instead of by imaging.

Hospitals typically charge $476 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 999 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $532. Most fall between $260 and $919 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
999
States
50
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – 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 999 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
$185$300$476$844$1,264

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($185 vs $1,264).

How the prices are spread

$115 – $151: 29 hospitals$115$151 – $199: 51 hospitals$199 – $262: 75 hospitals$199$262 – $345: 119 hospitals$345 – $454: 133 hospitals$345$454 – $599: 129 hospitals$599 – $789: 135 hospitals$599$789 – $1,039: 99 hospitals$1,039 – $1,368: 104 hospitals$1,039$1,368 – $1,802: 33 hospitals$1,368median $476price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (907 of 999 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$115$15129
$151$19951
$199$26275
$262$345119
$345$454133
$454$599129
$599$789135
$789$1,03999
$1,039$1,368104
$1,368$1,80233

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$408
Median cash price$476
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.16×

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 $476.

Alaska: 4 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: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $366 across 29 hospitalsWA$366Idaho: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $345 across 12 hospitalsMN$345Illinois: median $740 across 40 hospitalsIL$740Wisconsin: median $441 across 38 hospitalsWI$441Michigan: median $432 across 21 hospitalsMI$432New York: median $476 across 27 hospitalsNY$476Massachusetts: median $1,236 across 14 hospitalsMA$1,236Oregon: median $749 across 25 hospitalsOR$749Nevada: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $446 across 16 hospitalsIA$446Indiana: median $266 across 43 hospitalsIN$266Ohio: median $671 across 44 hospitalsOH$671Pennsylvania: median $595 across 32 hospitalsPA$595New Jersey: median $445 across 22 hospitalsNJ$445Connecticut: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $915 across 66 hospitalsCA$915Utah: median $367 across 28 hospitalsUT$367Colorado: median $609 across 27 hospitalsCO$609Nebraska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $315 across 20 hospitalsMO$315Kentucky: median $449 across 19 hospitalsKY$449West Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $452 across 29 hospitalsVA$452Maryland: median $229 across 15 hospitalsMD$229Delaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $491 across 23 hospitalsAZ$491New Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $252 across 34 hospitalsTN$252North Carolina: median $336 across 22 hospitalsNC$336South Carolina: median $250 across 11 hospitalsSC$250Oklahoma: median $146 across 18 hospitalsOK$146Louisiana: median $288 across 29 hospitalsLA$288Mississippi: median $203 across 13 hospitalsMS$203Alabama: median $440 across 14 hospitalsAL$440Georgia: median $552 across 33 hospitalsGA$552Hawaii: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $605 across 84 hospitalsTX$605Florida: median $790 across 68 hospitalsFL$790
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $476. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Massachusetts MA14$1,236+160%$569 – $1,464
California CA66$915+92%$424 – $1,092
Florida FL68$790+66%$586 – $1,311
Oregon OR25$749+58%$412 – $895
Illinois IL40$740+56%$187 – $881
Ohio OH44$671+41%$452 – $1,802
Colorado CO27$609+28%$389 – $1,042
Texas TX84$605+27%$373 – $1,367
Pennsylvania PA32$595+25%$408 – $1,350
Georgia GA33$552+16%$281 – $1,265
Arizona AZ23$491+3%$186 – $1,072
New York NY27$4760%$476 – $990
Virginia VA29$452−5%$198 – $717
Kentucky KY19$449−6%$258 – $1,071
Iowa IA16$446−6%$81 – $868
New Jersey NJ22$445−6%$439 – $536
Wisconsin WI38$441−7%$211 – $648
Alabama AL14$440−7%$288 – $637
Michigan MI21$432−9%$333 – $550
Utah UT28$367−23%$312 – $466
Washington WA29$366−23%$257 – $761
Minnesota MN12$345−27%$284 – $532
North Carolina NC22$336−29%$336 – $396
Missouri MO20$315−34%$235 – $637
Louisiana LA29$288−40%$109 – $600
Indiana IN43$266−44%$190 – $564
Tennessee TN34$252−47%$184 – $452
South Carolina SC11$250−47%$220 – $338
Maryland MD15$229−52%$99 – $338
Mississippi MS13$203−57%$139 – $280
Oklahoma OK18$146−69%$93 – $496
Maine ME8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not 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 $476.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care900$500$273 – $968
Children’s8fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access85$344$211 – $734
Ownership
For-profit127$595$338 – $1,367
Government120$410$254 – $742
Non-profit746$473$257 – $915
System affiliation
Part of a system914$476$260 – $950
Independent85$491$204 – $785

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$996
Median cash price$476
Cash as a share of list, median hospital59%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 41%. 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

767 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $502 and the average of the middle 60% is $543; most fall between $281 and $926.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 767 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
$197$312$502$843$1,229

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($197 vs $1,229).

Of the 832 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 767 gave a usable cash price; 48 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 17 a list price only.

How complete is this

999 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (25%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,082 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted999
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here66
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 — excluded17
Hospitals that filed this code1,082

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 Injection of radioactive contrast into a vein for non-imaging gamma probe.

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, “Tracer injection into a vein for a probe-only tumor study (CPT 78808) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-78808-tracer-injection-into-a-vein-for-a-probe-only-tumor-study