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Procedure price report · Other therapeutic procedures, hemic and lymphatic system

Receiving and preparing CAR-T cells for infusion

CPT 38227the billing code this page is about

The finished engineered cell product is received back at the hospital, thawed and readied for infusion; the infusion itself is billed separately.

Hospitals typically charge $1,614 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 306 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,710. Most fall between $398 and $3,600 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
306
States
45
Filings dated
Jun 2025 – 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 306 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
$315$494$1,614$3,160$4,929

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 16× what the cheapest tenth charges ($315 vs $4,929).

How the prices are spread

$101 – $160: 9 hospitals$101$160 – $254: 5 hospitals$254 – $404: 33 hospitals$254$404 – $643: 36 hospitals$643 – $1,022: 21 hospitals$643$1,022 – $1,624: 38 hospitals$1,624 – $2,581: 23 hospitals$1,624$2,581 – $4,103: 78 hospitals$4,103 – $6,523: 22 hospitals$4,103$6,523 – $10,369: 11 hospitals$6,523median $1,614price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (276 of 306 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$101$1609
$160$2545
$254$40433
$404$64336
$643$1,02221
$1,022$1,62438
$1,624$2,58123
$2,581$4,10378
$4,103$6,52322
$6,523$10,36911

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $1,614.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNYMassachusetts: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIAIndiana: median $710 across 15 hospitalsIN$710Ohio: median $1,296 across 19 hospitalsOH$1,296Pennsylvania: median $503 across 18 hospitalsPA$503New Jersey: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNJConnecticut: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $398 across 29 hospitalsCA$398Utah: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $595 across 10 hospitalsVA$595Maryland: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $2,841 across 16 hospitalsNC$2,841South Carolina: median $4,929 across 10 hospitalsSC$4,929Oklahoma: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceOKLouisiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceALGeorgia: median $3,182 across 14 hospitalsGA$3,182Hawaii: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $2,920 across 38 hospitalsTX$2,920Florida: median $3,382 across 28 hospitalsFL$3,382
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,614. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Carolina SC10$4,929+205%$2,726 – $4,929
Florida FL28$3,382+110%$341 – $4,518
Georgia GA14$3,182+97%$3,182 – $4,620
Texas TX38$2,920+81%$2,920 – $4,243
North Carolina NC16$2,841+76%$955 – $2,841
Ohio OH19$1,296−20%$229 – $3,032
Indiana IN15$710−56%$539 – $942
Virginia VA10$595−63%$595 – $1,368
Pennsylvania PA18$503−69%$123 – $2,679
California CA29$398−75%$398 – $1,177
Arizona AZ9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Illinois IL8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New York NY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Iowa IA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Jersey NJ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY1not 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 $1,614.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care271$1,614$398 – $3,382
Children’s21$3,180$2,179 – $7,923
Critical access11fewer than 20 hospitals
Ownership
For-profit31$2,920$146 – $6,318
Government38$2,580$676 – $3,182
Non-profit234$1,296$398 – $3,382
System affiliation
Part of a system284$1,368$398 – $3,382
Independent22$2,200$1,177 – $4,518

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$2,673
Median cash price$1,614
Cash as a share of list, median hospital60%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 40%. 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

228 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,775 and the average of the middle 60% is $2,018; most fall between $481 and $3,600.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 228 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
$398$569$1,775$3,180$4,929

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($398 vs $4,929).

Of the 263 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 228 gave a usable cash price; 18 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 17 a list price only.

How complete is this

306 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (8%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 357 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted306
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here8
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 — excluded43
Hospitals that filed this code357

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 Other therapeutic procedures, hemic and lymphatic system family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as HC T Cell Handling.

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, “Receiving and preparing CAR-T cells for infusion (CPT 38227) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-38227-receiving-and-preparing-car-t-cells-for-infusion