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Procedure price report · Diagnostic procedures on ear

Biopsy of the outer ear canal

CPT 69105the billing code this page is about

Removal of a small tissue sample from the external ear canal so it can be examined in a laboratory.

Hospitals typically charge $1,211 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 651 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,217. Most fall between $236 and $2,791 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
651
States
49
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – 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 651 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
$124$263$1,211$2,300$4,477

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 36× what the cheapest tenth charges ($124 vs $4,477).

How the prices are spread

$97 – $146: 43 hospitals$97$146 – $219: 50 hospitals$219 – $329: 64 hospitals$219$329 – $493: 58 hospitals$493 – $740: 21 hospitals$493$740 – $1,111: 47 hospitals$1,111 – $1,667: 68 hospitals$1,111$1,667 – $2,501: 113 hospitals$2,501 – $3,754: 63 hospitals$2,501$3,754 – $5,634: 66 hospitals$3,754median $1,211price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (593 of 651 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$97$14643
$146$21950
$219$32964
$329$49358
$493$74021
$740$1,11147
$1,111$1,66768
$1,667$2,501113
$2,501$3,75463
$3,754$5,63466

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$1,585
Median cash price$1,211
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.76×

The Medicare figure is the national unadjusted OPPS rate for this code — what Medicare itself pays a hospital before local wage adjustment. It is a benchmark, not a price anyone is charged.

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $1,211.

Alaska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $1,275 across 10 hospitalsWA$1,275Idaho: median $3,330 across 11 hospitalsID$3,330Montana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $245 across 23 hospitalsMN$245Illinois: median $578 across 29 hospitalsIL$578Wisconsin: median $381 across 48 hospitalsWI$381Michigan: median $128 across 31 hospitalsMI$128New York: median $1,753 across 40 hospitalsNY$1,753Massachusetts: median $2,309 across 10 hospitalsMA$2,309Oregon: median $358 across 13 hospitalsOR$358Nevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $344 across 20 hospitalsIA$344Indiana: median $878 across 19 hospitalsIN$878Ohio: median $1,769 across 23 hospitalsOH$1,769Pennsylvania: median $1,795 across 26 hospitalsPA$1,795New Jersey: median $4,350 across 33 hospitalsNJ$4,350Connecticut: 5 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 $3,063 across 56 hospitalsCA$3,063Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: median $322 across 10 hospitalsNE$322Missouri: median $201 across 16 hospitalsMO$201Kentucky: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $1,890 across 14 hospitalsVA$1,890Maryland: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $211 across 12 hospitalsKS$211Arkansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $1,384 across 14 hospitalsNC$1,384South Carolina: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $105 across 14 hospitalsOK$105Louisiana: median $1,401 across 17 hospitalsLA$1,401Mississippi: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $2,743 across 30 hospitalsTX$2,743Florida: median $2,598 across 17 hospitalsFL$2,598
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,211. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Jersey NJ33$4,350+259%$1,640 – $6,864
Idaho ID11$3,330+175%$1,119 – $4,054
California CA56$3,063+153%$937 – $5,634
Texas TX30$2,743+126%$1,391 – $4,064
Florida FL17$2,598+114%$1,052 – $2,628
Massachusetts MA10$2,309+91%$1,759 – $3,377
Virginia VA14$1,890+56%$549 – $1,890
Pennsylvania PA26$1,795+48%$1,307 – $2,300
Ohio OH23$1,769+46%$467 – $2,121
New York NY40$1,753+45%$263 – $1,937
Louisiana LA17$1,401+16%$719 – $2,554
North Carolina NC14$1,384+14%$673 – $2,532
Washington WA10$1,275+5%$259 – $2,475
Indiana IN19$878−28%$115 – $1,186
Illinois IL29$578−52%$115 – $2,169
Wisconsin WI48$381−69%$248 – $1,396
Oregon OR13$358−70%$259 – $374
Iowa IA20$344−72%$201 – $344
Nebraska NE10$322−73%$94 – $404
Minnesota MN23$245−80%$160 – $313
Kansas KS12$211−83%$158 – $434
Missouri MO16$201−83%$158 – $1,982
Michigan MI31$128−89%$79 – $2,133
Oklahoma OK14$105−91%$105 – $3,020
Colorado CO9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not 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 $1,211.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care504$1,585$263 – $3,184
Children’s11fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access134$313$144 – $1,526
Ownership
For-profit51$1,769$374 – $4,064
Government100$748$194 – $1,895
Non-profit498$1,177$236 – $3,063
System affiliation
Part of a system519$1,349$248 – $3,063
Independent132$776$190 – $2,121

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,585
Median cash price$1,211
Cash as a share of list, median hospital61%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 39%. 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

415 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,195 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,237; most fall between $221 and $3,003.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 415 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
$115$259$1,195$2,598$4,064

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 35× what the cheapest tenth charges ($115 vs $4,064).

Of the 462 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 415 gave a usable cash price; 28 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 19 a list price only.

How complete is this

651 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (16%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 728 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted651
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here57
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded19
Hospitals that filed this code728

Sections not shown for this setting

  • 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 Diagnostic procedures on ear family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as PR Biopsy of Ext Auditory Canal.

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, “Biopsy of the outer ear canal (CPT 69105) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-69105-biopsy-of-the-outer-ear-canal