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Procedure price report · Pathology

Pathologist consultation, brief (5 to 20 minutes)

CPT 80503the billing code this page is about

A written opinion from a pathologist on lab or specimen results, including limited review of records; billed for 5 to 20 minutes of the pathologist's time on the day of the consultation.

Hospitals typically charge $75 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 586 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $88. Most fall between $49 and $155 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
586
States
47
Filings dated
Nov 2024 – 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 586 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
$31$56$75$139$214

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($31 vs $214).

How the prices are spread

$22 – $29: 17 hospitals$22$29 – $39: 51 hospitals$39 – $51: 30 hospitals$39$51 – $68: 123 hospitals$68 – $90: 87 hospitals$68$90 – $119: 61 hospitals$119 – $158: 76 hospitals$119$158 – $209: 53 hospitals$209 – $277: 26 hospitals$209$277 – $366: 7 hospitals$277median $75price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (531 of 586 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$22$2917
$29$3951
$39$5130
$51$68123
$68$9087
$90$11961
$119$15876
$158$20953
$209$27726
$277$3667

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$53
Median cash price$75
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.40×

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 $75.

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $113 across 31 hospitalsWA$113Idaho: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $126 across 15 hospitalsIL$126Wisconsin: median $88 across 10 hospitalsWI$88Michigan: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $63 across 30 hospitalsNY$63Massachusetts: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $97 across 16 hospitalsIA$97Indiana: median $90 across 23 hospitalsIN$90Ohio: median $79 across 22 hospitalsOH$79Pennsylvania: median $100 across 56 hospitalsPA$100New Jersey: median $60 across 23 hospitalsNJ$60Connecticut: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $139 across 29 hospitalsCA$139Utah: median $188 across 23 hospitalsUT$188Colorado: median $73 across 13 hospitalsCO$73Nebraska: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $80 across 12 hospitalsMO$80Kentucky: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $22 across 10 hospitalsVA$22Maryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $73 across 11 hospitalsKS$73Arkansas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $66 across 26 hospitalsTN$66North Carolina: median $132 across 30 hospitalsNC$132South Carolina: median $63 across 14 hospitalsSC$63Oklahoma: median $61 across 12 hospitalsOK$61Louisiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: median $35 across 10 hospitalsAL$35Georgia: median $31 across 23 hospitalsGA$31Hawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $59 across 48 hospitalsTX$59Florida: median $67 across 12 hospitalsFL$67
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $75. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT23$188+152%$188 – $221
California CA29$139+87%$125 – $139
North Carolina NC30$132+77%$66 – $404
Illinois IL15$126+69%$43 – $214
Washington WA31$113+51%$56 – $151
Pennsylvania PA56$100+34%$51 – $237
Iowa IA16$97+30%$68 – $97
Indiana IN23$90+21%$47 – $119
Wisconsin WI10$88+18%$82 – $108
Missouri MO12$80+7%$37 – $151
Ohio OH22$79+6%$53 – $134
Kansas KS11$73−2%$31 – $188
Colorado CO13$73−2%$52 – $73
Florida FL12$67−11%$54 – $67
Tennessee TN26$66−11%$22 – $88
New York NY30$63−15%$52 – $152
South Carolina SC14$63−16%$49 – $63
Oklahoma OK12$61−19%$31 – $109
New Jersey NJ23$60−20%$58 – $1,809
Texas TX48$59−21%$58 – $71
Alabama AL10$35−53%$31 – $46
Georgia GA23$31−58%$31 – $140
Virginia VA10$22−70%$22 – $55
New Mexico NM8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not 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 $75.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care484$75$51 – $151
Children’s8fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access91$80$42 – $188
Ownership
For-profit57$65$42 – $130
Government80$66$43 – $134
Non-profit446$79$53 – $187
System affiliation
Part of a system507$75$49 – $155
Independent79$75$47 – $171

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$161
Median cash price$75
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

414 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $88 and the average of the middle 60% is $97; most fall between $53 and $175.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 414 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
$31$59$88$150$202

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($31 vs $202).

Of the 471 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 414 gave a usable cash price; 32 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 24 a list price only.

How complete is this

586 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (15%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 647 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted586
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here35
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded2
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded24
Hospitals that filed this code647

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 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 Pathology family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Pathology Clinical Consultation Sf Mdm 5-20 Min.

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, “Pathologist consultation, brief (5 to 20 minutes) (CPT 80503) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-80503-pathologist-consultation-brief-5-to-20-minutes