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Procedure price report · Pathology

Blood test for neurofilament light chain

CPT 0361Uthe billing code this page is about

A laboratory test that measures the amount of neurofilament light chain, a protein released when nerve cells are damaged, in a plasma sample.

Hospitals typically charge $643 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 197 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $656. Most fall between $254 and $1,111 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
197
States
30
Filings dated
Dec 2024 – Aug 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 197 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
$244$302$643$1,032$1,419

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($244 vs $1,419).

How the prices are spread

$39 – $56: 12 hospitals$39$56 – $81: 0 hospitals$81 – $116: 1 hospitals$81$116 – $168: 1 hospitals$168 – $243: 5 hospitals$168$243 – $351: 38 hospitals$351 – $507: 15 hospitals$351$507 – $732: 51 hospitals$732 – $1,058: 34 hospitals$732$1,058 – $1,528: 31 hospitals$1,058median $643price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (188 of 197 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$39$5612
$56$810
$81$1161
$116$1681
$168$2435
$243$35138
$351$50715
$507$73251
$732$1,05834
$1,058$1,52831

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $643.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $541 across 28 hospitalsMN$541Illinois: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: median $697 across 17 hospitalsWI$697Michigan: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNYMassachusetts: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNVWyoming: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $39 across 12 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable pricePANew Jersey: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNJConnecticut: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $244 across 21 hospitalsCA$244Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCONebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMOKentucky: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKYWest Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKSArkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $1,032 across 14 hospitalsNC$1,032South Carolina: median $1,419 across 12 hospitalsSC$1,419Oklahoma: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOKLouisiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: median $305 across 10 hospitalsMS$305Alabama: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceALGeorgia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceGAHawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTXFlorida: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $643. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Carolina SC12$1,419+121%$1,419 – $1,419
North Carolina NC14$1,032+61%$1,032 – $1,032
Wisconsin WI17$697+8%$531 – $697
Minnesota MN28$541−16%$501 – $709
Mississippi MS10$305−53%$267 – $559
California CA21$244−62%$244 – $244
Iowa IA12$39−94%$39 – $39
Illinois IL9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Jersey NJ6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Texas TX3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New York NY1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oklahoma OK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not 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 $643.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care150$542$244 – $1,187
Children’s3fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access44$661$531 – $716
Ownership
For-profit2fewer than 20 hospitals
Government12fewer than 20 hospitals
Non-profit183$633$244 – $1,152
System affiliation
Part of a system193$643$249 – $1,056
Independent4fewer than 20 hospitals

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,245
Median cash price$643
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

149 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $541 and the average of the middle 60% is $553; most fall between $244 and $1,246.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 149 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
$191$254$541$764$1,419

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($191 vs $1,419).

Of the 151 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 149 gave a usable cash price; 1 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 1 a list price only.

How complete is this

197 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (5%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 199 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted197
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here0
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded2
Hospitals that filed this code199

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 5, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 14, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Pathology family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as NEURFLMNT LT CHN DIG IA QUAN.

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, “Blood test for neurofilament light chain (CPT 0361U) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-0361u-blood-test-for-neurofilament-light-chain