How Much Does a Nuclear Stress Test Cost in New Hampshire?
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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 New Hampshire averages $443.
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- ✓The add-on codes that typically land on the bill
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New Hampshire Medicare physician rate (2026)
+3.4% vs nationalSingle statewide locality.
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 New Hampshire
Check your ZIP for local context, whether you are in Manchester, Nashua, Concord, the Seacoast around Portsmouth, the Lakes Region, or the North Country.
What nuclear stress test costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in New Hampshire 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 00210.
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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 New Hampshire the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $367.48.
National vs New Hampshire
Where New Hampshire ranks for this CPT
Nuclear Stress Test and how New Hampshire is priced
New Hampshire is priced as one statewide locality with geographic indices above the national average, keeping company with its high-cost New England neighbors. From Nashua to the North Country, the fee schedule applies identical adjustments, even though the southern tier is economically an extension of greater Boston. CMS has never split the state, so the Massachusetts border is also a pricing border: cross it southbound and the metro Boston locality takes over. That makes New Hampshire a clear example of how locality lines, not just providers, shape what Medicare approves.
Southern New Hampshire residents routinely use Boston hospitals for complex care, accepting metro pricing in exchange for academic-center depth, while the state's own tertiary referral center sits in the west near the Vermont border. The Lakes Region and North Country rely on small rural hospitals with limited procedure menus. No state income or sales tax attracts retirees, steadily raising Medicare demand.
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 New Hampshire
Nuclear Stress Test in other states
Nuclear Stress Test in New Hampshire: 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 New Hampshire averages $443. New Hampshire is a single Medicare locality, so the physician rate is the same statewide.
Not on the physician fee schedule. New Hampshire uses one locality, so the Medicare physician rate is the same from one end of the state to the other. What still changes is site of service (office vs hospital) and any facility fee the hospital bills on its own claim.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $89 for the office physician line or $15 for the hospital physician line in New Hampshire. 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, $442.52 is Medicare's full rate in New Hampshire, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $75.04) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to about $1,397. New Hampshire ranks #40 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (3% above the national office rate of $427.87).