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Procedure price report · Other Laboratory

Lithium blood level test

CPT 80178the billing code this page is about

A blood test that measures the amount of lithium, used for mood disorders, in the blood.

Hospitals typically charge $58 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,339 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $62. Most fall between $27 and $117 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,339
States
50
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 25, 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 3,339 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
$16$32$58$101$180

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($16 vs $180).

How the prices are spread

$9 – $12: 95 hospitals$9$12 – $17: 121 hospitals$17 – $24: 191 hospitals$17$24 – $34: 325 hospitals$34 – $48: 467 hospitals$34$48 – $68: 552 hospitals$68 – $95: 515 hospitals$68$95 – $134: 365 hospitals$134 – $188: 231 hospitals$134$188 – $264: 149 hospitals$188median $58price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (3,011 of 3,339 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$9$1295
$12$17121
$17$24191
$24$34325
$34$48467
$48$68552
$68$95515
$95$134365
$134$188231
$188$264149

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $58.

Alaska: median $109 across 19 hospitalsAK$109Maine: median $54 across 28 hospitalsME$54Vermont: median $59 across 14 hospitalsVT$59New Hampshire: median $57 across 24 hospitalsNH$57Washington: median $56 across 77 hospitalsWA$56Idaho: median $47 across 25 hospitalsID$47Montana: median $71 across 30 hospitalsMT$71North Dakota: median $51 across 35 hospitalsND$51Minnesota: median $56 across 104 hospitalsMN$56Illinois: median $84 across 142 hospitalsIL$84Wisconsin: median $63 across 107 hospitalsWI$63Michigan: median $43 across 94 hospitalsMI$43New York: median $30 across 107 hospitalsNY$30Massachusetts: median $56 across 53 hospitalsMA$56Oregon: median $57 across 50 hospitalsOR$57Nevada: median $46 across 21 hospitalsNV$46Wyoming: median $36 across 16 hospitalsWY$36South Dakota: median $93 across 32 hospitalsSD$93Iowa: median $61 across 89 hospitalsIA$61Indiana: median $77 across 94 hospitalsIN$77Ohio: median $53 across 138 hospitalsOH$53Pennsylvania: median $44 across 122 hospitalsPA$44New Jersey: median $8 across 54 hospitalsNJ$8Connecticut: median $26 across 23 hospitalsCT$26Rhode Island: median $62 across 10 hospitalsRI$62California: median $100 across 158 hospitalsCA$100Utah: median $58 across 41 hospitalsUT$58Colorado: median $81 across 69 hospitalsCO$81Nebraska: median $93 across 80 hospitalsNE$93Missouri: median $50 across 78 hospitalsMO$50Kentucky: median $59 across 69 hospitalsKY$59West Virginia: median $53 across 43 hospitalsWV$53Virginia: median $60 across 73 hospitalsVA$60Maryland: median $41 across 41 hospitalsMD$41Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $98 across 42 hospitalsAZ$98New Mexico: median $72 across 30 hospitalsNM$72Kansas: median $56 across 91 hospitalsKS$56Arkansas: median $21 across 40 hospitalsAR$21Tennessee: median $33 across 83 hospitalsTN$33North Carolina: median $49 across 86 hospitalsNC$49South Carolina: median $75 across 53 hospitalsSC$75Oklahoma: median $46 across 73 hospitalsOK$46Louisiana: median $39 across 51 hospitalsLA$39Mississippi: median $32 across 53 hospitalsMS$32Alabama: median $48 across 44 hospitalsAL$48Georgia: median $71 across 110 hospitalsGA$71Hawaii: median $55 across 20 hospitalsHI$55Texas: median $96 across 242 hospitalsTX$96Florida: median $88 across 154 hospitalsFL$88
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $58. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Alaska AK19$109+88%$69 – $211
California CA158$100+72%$32 – $220
Arizona AZ42$98+68%$16 – $264
Texas TX242$96+65%$42 – $275
Nebraska NE80$93+60%$50 – $122
South Dakota SD32$93+59%$60 – $143
Florida FL154$88+51%$22 – $348
Illinois IL142$84+44%$45 – $141
Colorado CO69$81+39%$44 – $199
Indiana IN94$77+32%$15 – $123
South Carolina SC53$75+30%$47 – $142
New Mexico NM30$72+24%$44 – $142
Montana MT30$71+22%$36 – $98
Georgia GA110$71+21%$24 – $173
Wisconsin WI107$63+8%$38 – $100
Rhode Island RI10$62+7%$14 – $71
Iowa IA89$61+5%$44 – $74
Virginia VA73$60+4%$37 – $167
Kentucky KY69$59+2%$29 – $103
Vermont VT14$59+2%$18 – $113
Utah UT41$580%$49 – $81
New Hampshire NH24$57−2%$44 – $128
Oregon OR50$57−3%$41 – $78
Minnesota MN104$56−3%$30 – $76
Massachusetts MA53$56−4%$25 – $83
Washington WA77$56−4%$35 – $106
Kansas KS91$56−4%$35 – $73
Hawaii HI20$55−6%$41 – $78
Maine ME28$54−7%$29 – $104
Ohio OH138$53−8%$30 – $86
West Virginia WV43$53−9%$31 – $73
North Dakota ND35$51−12%$13 – $66
Missouri MO78$50−15%$33 – $92
North Carolina NC86$49−15%$35 – $73
Alabama AL44$48−17%$22 – $117
Idaho ID25$47−19%$29 – $90
Nevada NV21$46−20%$25 – $107
Oklahoma OK73$46−21%$24 – $104
Pennsylvania PA122$44−25%$10 – $98
Michigan MI94$43−26%$21 – $53
Maryland MD41$41−30%$31 – $49
Louisiana LA51$39−32%$16 – $64
Wyoming WY16$36−38%$32 – $77
Tennessee TN83$33−43%$13 – $69
Mississippi MS53$32−45%$17 – $56
New York NY107$30−48%$16 – $99
Connecticut CT23$26−55%$17 – $55
Arkansas AR40$21−63%$10 – $62
New Jersey NJ54$8−87%$7 – $33
Delaware DE7not 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 $58.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,299$57$25 – $129
Children’s66$59$32 – $161
Critical access964$60$33 – $96
Ownership
For-profit459$91$29 – $300
Government638$58$31 – $98
Non-profit2,232$56$26 – $107
System affiliation
Part of a system2,696$59$28 – $122
Independent643$53$27 – $100

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$95
Median cash price$58
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

2,251 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $60 and the average of the middle 60% is $65; most fall between $30 and $119.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,251 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
$18$35$60$105$171

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($18 vs $171).

Of the 2,484 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,251 gave a usable cash price; 121 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 112 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,339 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (84%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,644 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,339
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here170
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded134
Hospitals that filed this code3,644

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 July 20, 2026 and September 25, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 25, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Other Laboratory family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as HC Lithium.

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, “Lithium blood level test (CPT 80178) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-80178-lithium-blood-level-test