How Much Does a Nuclear Stress Test Cost in Vermont?
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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 Vermont averages $422.
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- ✓The add-on codes that typically land on the bill
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Vermont Medicare physician rate (2026)
-1.4% 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 Vermont
Enter a ZIP code for your part of Vermont, whether Burlington and Chittenden County, Montpelier, Rutland, Brattleboro, or the Northeast Kingdom.
What nuclear stress test costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in Vermont 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 05001.
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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 Vermont the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $348.71.
National vs Vermont
Where Vermont ranks for this CPT
Nuclear Stress Test and how Vermont is priced
Vermont, with the second-smallest population in the country, is priced as one statewide locality with indices close to the national average, higher than northern New England's rural profile might suggest. Burlington and the smallest Northeast Kingdom towns share the same Medicare-approved amounts. No subdivision has ever been warranted for a state without a single large metro. The fee schedule's simplicity contrasts with the real-world challenge of delivering specialty care across the Green Mountains.
The state's academic medical center in Burlington handles most complex care and also serves northern New York across Lake Champlain, while community hospitals cover the rest of the state with limited procedure menus. Vermonters in the south and east regularly use Dartmouth-area or Boston providers over the border. An aging population, among the oldest in the nation, keeps Medicare central to the state's health economy.
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 Vermont
Nuclear Stress Test in other states
Nuclear Stress Test in Vermont: 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 Vermont averages $422. Vermont is a single Medicare locality, so the physician rate is the same statewide.
Not on the physician fee schedule. Vermont 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 $84 for the office physician line or $15 for the hospital physician line in Vermont. 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, $422.01 is Medicare's full rate in Vermont, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $73.30) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to about $1,397. Vermont ranks #28 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (within 2% of the national office rate of $427.87).