HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

Procedure price report · Microscopic examination (bacterial smear, culture, toxicology)

Respiratory panel testing for 22 germs including COVID-19

CPT 0202Uthe billing code this page is about

A single laboratory test on a respiratory sample that looks for the genetic material of 22 viruses and bacteria that cause respiratory infection, including the COVID-19 virus.

Hospitals typically charge $591 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,188 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $603. Most fall between $332 and $957 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,188
States
50
Filings dated
Jun 2024 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 24, 2026

Median: half of hospitals filed less, half more — and it is a price some hospital actually filed. Average of the middle 60%: the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain average, the lowest or the highest price: the extremes in hospital price files are chargemaster artefacts, not prices anyone pays.

What hospitals charge, from cheapest to most expensive

Cash price percentiles, outpatient, across 1,188 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$201$382$591$859$1,273

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($201 vs $1,273).

How the prices are spread

$153 – $194: 44 hospitals$153$194 – $245: 32 hospitals$245 – $309: 61 hospitals$245$309 – $390: 116 hospitals$390 – $493: 171 hospitals$390$493 – $623: 147 hospitals$623 – $787: 205 hospitals$623$787 – $994: 131 hospitals$994 – $1,256: 92 hospitals$994$1,256 – $1,587: 71 hospitals$1,256median $591price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,070 of 1,188 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$153$19444
$194$24532
$245$30961
$309$390116
$390$493171
$493$623147
$623$787205
$787$994131
$994$1,25692
$1,256$1,58771

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $591.

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $616 across 32 hospitalsWA$616Idaho: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: median $644 across 10 hospitalsMT$644North Dakota: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $588 across 61 hospitalsMN$588Illinois: median $722 across 65 hospitalsIL$722Wisconsin: median $751 across 45 hospitalsWI$751Michigan: median $898 across 32 hospitalsMI$898New York: median $720 across 25 hospitalsNY$720Massachusetts: median $1,350 across 14 hospitalsMA$1,350Oregon: median $592 across 22 hospitalsOR$592Nevada: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $934 across 30 hospitalsSD$934Iowa: median $400 across 37 hospitalsIA$400Indiana: median $425 across 41 hospitalsIN$425Ohio: median $813 across 59 hospitalsOH$813Pennsylvania: median $739 across 32 hospitalsPA$739New Jersey: median $458 across 26 hospitalsNJ$458Connecticut: median $695 across 16 hospitalsCT$695Rhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $762 across 59 hospitalsCA$762Utah: median $382 across 28 hospitalsUT$382Colorado: median $699 across 27 hospitalsCO$699Nebraska: median $394 across 37 hospitalsNE$394Missouri: median $722 across 43 hospitalsMO$722Kentucky: median $478 across 15 hospitalsKY$478West Virginia: median $534 across 19 hospitalsWV$534Virginia: median $543 across 30 hospitalsVA$543Maryland: median $189 across 20 hospitalsMD$189Delaware: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $626 across 12 hospitalsAZ$626New Mexico: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: median $630 across 12 hospitalsAR$630Tennessee: median $313 across 36 hospitalsTN$313North Carolina: median $437 across 21 hospitalsNC$437South Carolina: median $604 across 18 hospitalsSC$604Oklahoma: median $684 across 14 hospitalsOK$684Louisiana: median $471 across 17 hospitalsLA$471Mississippi: median $350 across 12 hospitalsMS$350Alabama: median $688 across 15 hospitalsAL$688Georgia: median $398 across 38 hospitalsGA$398Hawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $296 across 71 hospitalsTX$296Florida: median $571 across 34 hospitalsFL$571
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $591. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Massachusetts MA14$1,350+128%$685 – $1,573
South Dakota SD30$934+58%$783 – $1,100
Michigan MI32$898+52%$539 – $1,733
Ohio OH59$813+38%$488 – $957
California CA59$762+29%$299 – $779
Wisconsin WI45$751+27%$352 – $775
Pennsylvania PA32$739+25%$288 – $1,258
Illinois IL65$722+22%$325 – $1,078
Missouri MO43$722+22%$470 – $1,044
New York NY25$720+22%$116 – $1,400
Colorado CO27$699+18%$417 – $1,273
Connecticut CT16$695+18%$625 – $1,300
Alabama AL15$688+16%$442 – $1,081
Oklahoma OK14$684+16%$591 – $893
Montana MT10$644+9%$302 – $850
Arkansas AR12$630+7%$591 – $789
Arizona AZ12$626+6%$413 – $1,133
Washington WA32$616+4%$371 – $833
South Carolina SC18$604+2%$460 – $925
Oregon OR22$5920%$371 – $813
Minnesota MN61$5880%$420 – $887
Florida FL34$571−3%$449 – $1,250
Virginia VA30$543−8%$121 – $1,199
West Virginia WV19$534−10%$534 – $574
Kentucky KY15$478−19%$214 – $543
Louisiana LA17$471−20%$195 – $797
New Jersey NJ26$458−22%$458 – $536
North Carolina NC21$437−26%$398 – $660
Indiana IN41$425−28%$248 – $616
Iowa IA37$400−32%$305 – $469
Georgia GA38$398−33%$332 – $707
Nebraska NE37$394−33%$191 – $610
Utah UT28$382−35%$382 – $450
Mississippi MS12$350−41%$251 – $488
Tennessee TN36$313−47%$121 – $846
Texas TX71$296−50%$191 – $1,541
Maryland MD20$189−68%$93 – $410
Kansas KS9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price

Hospitals like yours

The same distribution cut by the kind of hospital. Hospital type and ownership come from CMS; a hospital counts as part of a system when its price file is shared with at least one other hospital under the same brand. The national median is $591.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care852$542$313 – $898
Children’s37$807$366 – $2,123
Critical access294$647$403 – $1,044
Ownership
For-profit152$665$331 – $1,352
Government150$534$354 – $931
Non-profit881$591$330 – $900
System affiliation
Part of a system1,037$574$328 – $935
Independent151$675$404 – $1,020

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,042
Median cash price$591
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. The share is the median of each hospital’s own cash ÷ list ratio, over hospitals that filed both — not the ratio of the two medians above.

The same procedure, inpatient

872 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $615 and the average of the middle 60% is $618; most fall between $332 and $999.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 872 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$199$382$615$882$1,259

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($199 vs $1,259).

Of the 911 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 872 gave a usable cash price; 0 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 39 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,188 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (30%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,243 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,188
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here1
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded8
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded46
Hospitals that filed this code1,243

Sections not shown for this setting

  • Against Medicare: Medicare has no separately payable national outpatient (OPPS) rate for this code, so there is nothing honest to compare against.
  • Since our last snapshot: there is no earlier snapshot at least 90 days older than this one yet.

We last checked these hospitals’ price files for changes between September 4, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 24, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Microscopic examination (bacterial smear, culture, toxicology) family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as NFCT DS 22 TRGT SARS-COV-2.

Method

Source
The machine-readable price files every U.S. hospital is required by CMS to publish, parsed per hospital. Nothing is surveyed, sampled or modelled.
What counts
One cash (self-pay) price per hospital for this code and setting. A hospital’s own filing can rule its number out — a placeholder, a “not applicable” note, a list price standing in for cash — and our plausibility checks can flag a price far below what every other hospital files. Both kinds are disclosed above and excluded from the statistics; on the compare tool a flagged price is still shown.
Statistics
Percentiles are discrete: each is a price some hospital filed. The average is the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain mean, the minimum or the maximum. A state needs 10 hospitals and a segment 20 to show a figure; otherwise the row shows its count and no number. Medicare is the national unadjusted OPPS rate where one exists.
Names
Procedure names on these pages are our own plain-language titles, not the AMA’s copyrighted CPT descriptors. The code is the identity.

The full rules — sources, statistics, thresholds, limitations — are on the methodology page.

Download this page’s figures: JSON · CSV. Aggregates only — the per-hospital prices are on the compare tool.

Cite: HospitalRates.com, “Respiratory panel testing for 22 germs including COVID-19 (CPT 0202U) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-0202u-respiratory-panel-testing-for-22-germs-including-covid-19