Nuclear stress test cost in New Orleans, LA
In New Orleans-Metairie, LA, 5 hospitals list a cash price for Nuclear stress test imaging (SPECT), rest and stress studies: from $983.34 to $1,249.22, with a median of $1,079.10. The lowest listed price is at Childrens Hospital — $95.76 less than the median here. Across Louisiana, the median is $1,139.57 at 8 hospitals.
Cash prices at 5 facilities across 2 cities for code 78452, as an outpatient — the setting a self-pay patient normally buys. Collected Sep 23, 2026; the hospital files themselves were last updated between Jun 24, 2026 and Jul 1, 2026.
Where each hospital's price falls
Each dot is one hospital's cash price on a scale from the lowest to the highest in New Orleans-Metairie, LA.
Hospitals, cheapest first
| Hospital | Cash price | List price | Insurers pay | Off list | File date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Childrens Hospital lowest New Orleans, LA Nuclear Medicine Study Vessels of Heart Using Drugs or Exercise Multiple | $983.34 | $3,642.00 | $1,031.05–$3,642.00 | 73% | Jun 24, 2026 source file |
| New Orleans East Hospital New Orleans, LA Nuclear Medicine Study Vessels of Heart Using Drugs or Exercise Multiple | $1,038.24 | $6,489.00 | $1,155.78–$3,893.40 | 84% | Jun 24, 2026 source file |
| University Med Center New Orleans, LA Nuclear Medicine Study Vessels of Heart Using Drugs or Exercise Multiple | $1,079.10 | $4,905.00 | $1,147.65–$709.52 | 78% | Jul 1, 2026 source file |
| West Jefferson Medical Center Marrero, LA Nuclear Medicine Study Vessels of Heart Using Drugs or Exercise Multiple | $1,193.60 | $7,460.00 | $1,145.96–$860.88 | 84% | Jun 30, 2026 source file |
| Touro Infirmary New Orleans, LA Nuclear Medicine Study Vessels of Heart Using Drugs or Exercise Multiple | $1,249.22 | $8,923.00 | $1,147.65–$985.99 | 86% | Jul 1, 2026 source file |
Outpatient: lowest $983.34, median $1,079.10, highest $1,249.22 — a 1.3× difference within the same market.
Cash or insurance?
At 2 of 5 hospitals that publish insurer rates for this code here, the cash price is below the highest rate a health plan has negotiated, and at 3 it is below every plan's rate. If you have insurance but have not met your deductible, you usually pay your plan's negotiated rate, which falls somewhere in the "Insurers pay" column. Paying cash can cost less, but a cash payment usually does not count toward your deductible. Ask the hospital for both numbers before you book.
What it is
This is the imaging part of a nuclear stress test. A small amount of radioactive tracer is injected, and a special camera takes pictures of blood flow to the heart muscle at rest and after exercise or a stress medicine. It is used to look for blocked heart arteries.
What the price covers
The code covers the camera images and their processing. The radioactive tracer, the stress test itself (with ECG monitoring), any stress medicine and the physician's interpretation are often billed separately.
3 rows held back from this comparison
They are priced below $1 or below a tenth of the national median for code 78452 ($3,092.31). Such a line is almost always a physician's fee billed separately, an assistant's share or a placeholder — a real charge, but not the price of the procedure itself.
| East Jefferson General Hospital Metairie, LANuclear Medicine Study Vessels of Heart Using Drugs or Exercise Multiple | $234.08 | file |
| Lakeside Hospital Metairie, LANuclear Medicine Study Vessels of Heart Using Drugs or Exercise Multiple | $234.08 | file |
| Tulane Medical Center New Orleans, LANuclear Medicine Study Vessels of Heart Using Drugs or Exercise Multiple | $234.08 | file |