CPT 78306: Full‑Body Bone Scan (Scintigraphy)
Medicare pays $180 and commercial payers pay $438 on average nationally for this procedure.
CPT code 78306 describes a full‑body bone scan (scintigraphy), a nuclear medicine imaging study in which a radionuclide is injected and planar or whole‑body images are acquired to evaluate the skeleton for metabolic activity, fractures, infection, or metastatic disease; service type: diagnostic nuclear medicine procedure; typical site of service: outpatient imaging center or hospital nuclear medicine department.
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National Reimbursement Benchmarks
Across payers the national mean for CPT 78306 shows a clear separation: Medicare’s mean of $180.50 sits well below BUCA’s average commercial mean of $438.20, indicating that commercial networks on average reimburse substantially more than Medicare for this code. Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealth Group have notably higher mean levels ($592.40 and $275.10 respectively), while Aetna and Cigna fall closer to Medicare’s mean but still above in some percentiles.
Dispersion measured as the interquartile range (P75–P25) highlights where variability concentrates. Blue Cross Blue Shield has the widest IQR at $276.60, followed by BUCA at $269.90 and UnitedHealth Group at $270.10, indicating broad contract variability. Aetna and Cigna are tighter with IQRs of $200.40 and $305.60 respectively — Cigna’s IQR is larger than Aetna’s despite lower overall means — and Medicare’s IQR is $218.50, placing it in the mid-range of dispersion.