How Much Does a Nuclear Stress Test Cost in Illinois?
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$1,397Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, a nuclear stress test costs about $1,397 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). Outside a hospital, at an independent imaging center, lab or office, Medicare's full rate in Illinois averages $419, from $398 in Rest of Illinois to $442 in Suburban Chicago.
- ✓Your ZIP's wage-adjusted hospital and surgery center rates
- ✓Five nearby hospitals by name, with CMS star ratings
- ✓The add-on codes that typically land on the bill
- ✓A word-for-word script for asking for a good-faith estimate
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- ✓Everything in the Premium report
- ✓15 nearby hospitals instead of five
- ✓Filled good-faith-estimate request letter
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- ✓Printable PDF download
Illinois Medicare physician rate (2026)
-2.0% vs nationalAverage of 4 localities. Office range $398.05–$441.60.
What the whole procedure costs
The office rate above is what an imaging center, lab or office is paid for the whole test. In a hospital, the facility bills its own fee and the physician bills only the reading. These are 2026 national Medicare amounts.
This is Medicare's separate payment to the facility on top of the physician's fee. For a test like this the physician in a hospital bills only the reading (the professional component); outside a hospital one global fee covers the whole test, shown in the office rate above. Medicare allowed amounts are not what an uninsured patient is charged, and not a quote. Private plans typically allow more.
Your ZIP in Illinois
Enter a ZIP code to see which Illinois locality applies to you, whether Chicago proper, the suburban collar counties, the Metro East near St. Louis, or downstate cities like Springfield, Peoria, and Champaign.
What nuclear stress test costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in Illinois moves the bill more than anything else you control.
Rates for your ZIP, 5 named hospitals with CMS ratings, the add-on codes, and the scheduler script.
For example 60001.
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What these numbers are
Every figure on this page is a 2026 Medicare allowed amount: the physician line comes from the Physician Fee Schedule adjusted by geographic practice-cost indices, and the facility totals come from the CMS hospital outpatient (OPPS) and ambulatory surgery center rates. None of them is a hospital chargemaster price, your insurer's contracted rate, or a quote. Anesthesia, pathology, imaging reads and follow-up care are billed under their own codes when they apply, and an inpatient stay is paid a different way again. In Illinois the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $343.66.
National vs Illinois
Where Illinois ranks for this CPT
CPT 78452 by Illinois locality
| Locality | Office |
|---|---|
| suburban chicago | $441.60 |
| chicago | $435.71 |
| east st. louis | $402.61 |
| rest of illinois | $398.05 |
PE GPCI ranges from 0.913 to 1.027 in Illinois. That index is why the same CPT is not one price statewide.
Nuclear Stress Test and how Illinois is priced
Illinois uses one of the more detailed locality maps in the Midwest: Chicago has its own locality, the suburban collar counties are priced separately, the East St. Louis area carries its own locality tied to the St. Louis market, and the rest of the state shares a fourth. Approved amounts step down noticeably from the city and suburbs to downstate, so the same procedure prices differently in Chicago, Naperville, Belleville, and Springfield. This four-way split makes Illinois one of the states where a ZIP-level check genuinely changes the answer. Downstate rates align more closely with neighboring rural states than with Chicagoland.
Chicago is one of the country's great medical hubs, with multiple academic medical centers and deep specialist supply, and its suburbs support large competing systems of their own. Downstate Illinois is a different market: smaller cities like Peoria, Springfield, and Champaign serve wide rural areas, and the Metro East suburbs orient toward St. Louis providers. Where you sit on that map shapes both price and choice.
This procedure: A nuclear stress test (SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging) shows how well blood reaches your heart muscle at rest versus under stress, revealing blocked arteries. A small amount of radioactive tracer is injected, a special camera images the heart at rest, then you exercise on a treadmill or receive a medication that mimics exercise, and imaging repeats. Plan for a half day; the multiple imaging sessions and waiting periods make it one of the longest routine cardiac tests.
What Is Nuclear Stress Test?
A nuclear stress test (SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging) shows how well blood reaches your heart muscle at rest versus under stress, revealing blocked arteries. A small amount of radioactive tracer is injected, a special camera images the heart at rest, then you exercise on a treadmill or receive a medication that mimics exercise, and imaging repeats. Plan for a half day; the multiple imaging sessions and waiting periods make it one of the longest routine cardiac tests.
What Affects the Cost
- –The radioactive tracer is a significant supply cost billed alongside the imaging, and tracer prices fluctuate with supply shortages.
- –Pharmacologic stress agents, used for patients who cannot exercise, are expensive drugs billed as additional lines.
- –Hospital outpatient cardiology departments charge substantially more than office-based nuclear labs.
- –Abnormal results commonly lead to cardiac catheterization, a much larger downstream expense.
- –The supervising cardiologist's stress supervision fee and the imaging interpretation fee are separate professional charges.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Has prior authorization been approved, and did my insurer suggest a cheaper test first?
- 2.Would a stress echocardiogram or exercise ECG answer the question for me at lower cost?
- 3.What do the tracer and any stress medication add to the bill?
- 4.Is this being done in an office-based lab or a hospital department, and what is the price at each?
- 5.If the result is abnormal, what is the next test and its typical cost?
Other featured procedures in Illinois
Nuclear Stress Test in other states
Nuclear Stress Test in Illinois: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, a nuclear stress test costs about $1,397 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). Outside a hospital, at an independent imaging center, lab or office, Medicare's full rate in Illinois averages $419, from $398 in Rest of Illinois to $442 in Suburban Chicago. Enter a ZIP for the exact Illinois locality.
Yes. CMS splits Illinois into 4 payment localities. For this CPT the office physician fee spans $43.55 from the lowest to highest locality. Enter a ZIP code to see which Illinois locality applies to you, whether Chicago proper, the suburban collar counties, the Metro East near St. Louis, or downstate cities like Springfield, Peoria, and Champaign.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $84 for the office physician line or $15 for the hospital physician line in Illinois. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.
It depends on where the test is done. At an independent imaging center, lab or office, $419.49 is Medicare's full rate in Illinois, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $75.83) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to about $1,397. Illinois ranks #25 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (within 2% of the national office rate of $427.87).