Nuclear stress test cost in San Jose, CA — inpatient
In San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, 4 hospitals list a cash price for nuclear stress test imaging (SPECT), rest and stress studies as an inpatient: from $3,575.75 to $6,450.00, with a median of $5,146.40. The lowest listed price is at El Camino Hospital — $1,570.65 less than the median here. Across California, the median is $3,676.40 at 95 hospitals.
Cash prices at 4 facilities across 4 cities for code 78452, as an inpatient (admitted to hospital) . Collected Sep 23, 2026; the hospital files themselves were last updated between Apr 1, 2026 and Apr 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 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA.
Hospitals, cheapest first
| Hospital | Cash price | List price | Insurers pay | Off list | File date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Camino Hospital lowest Mountain View, CA · (650) 940-7000 HC HEART SCAN SPECT MULTIPL | $3,575.75 | $14,303.00 | — | 75% | Apr 1, 2026 source file |
| Kaiser Foundation Hospital - San Jose San Jose, CA · (408) 972-7000 MYOCARDIAL SPECT MULTIPLE STUDIES | $5,146.40 | $9,190.00 | $1,742.00–$5,455.00 | 44% | — source file |
| Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Santa Clara Santa Clara, CA · (408) 236-6400 MYOCARDIAL SPECT MULTIPLE STUDIES | $5,146.40 | $9,190.00 | $1,742.00–$5,455.00 | 44% | — source file |
| Stanford Health Care Stanford, CA · (650) 723-4000 Myocard Tomo Multi | $6,450.00 | $16,125.00 | — | 60% | Apr 1, 2026 source file |
Inpatient: lowest $3,575.75, median $5,146.40, highest $6,450.00 — a 1.8× difference within the same market.
As an outpatient, the same code is billed by 5 facilities here, median $5,146.40 — that is the price to compare if you are not being admitted.
Cash or insurance?
At 2 of 2 hospitals that publish insurer rates for this code here, the cash price is below the highest rate a health plan has negotiated, and at none is it 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.