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Procedure price report · Pathology

CACNA1A gene test, full sequence

CPT 81185the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that reads the entire coding sequence of the CACNA1A gene from a blood or other sample, used in evaluating conditions such as episodic ataxia and familial hemiplegic migraine.

Hospitals typically charge $846 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 331 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $973. Most fall between $461 and $1,828 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
331
States
37
Filings dated
Oct 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 331 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
$319$635$846$1,623$1,955

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.1× what the cheapest tenth charges ($319 vs $1,955).

How the prices are spread

$134 – $181: 5 hospitals$134$181 – $244: 4 hospitals$244 – $330: 22 hospitals$244$330 – $446: 12 hospitals$446 – $602: 11 hospitals$446$602 – $813: 57 hospitals$813 – $1,098: 83 hospitals$813$1,098 – $1,483: 27 hospitals$1,483 – $2,004: 65 hospitals$1,483$2,004 – $2,706: 13 hospitals$2,004median $846price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (299 of 331 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$134$1815
$181$2444
$244$33022
$330$44612
$446$60211
$602$81357
$813$1,09883
$1,098$1,48327
$1,483$2,00465
$2,004$2,70613

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $846.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: median $816 across 10 hospitalsWA$816Idaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: median $319 across 11 hospitalsMN$319Illinois: median $1,955 across 16 hospitalsIL$1,955Wisconsin: median $977 across 18 hospitalsWI$977Michigan: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $846 across 30 hospitalsNY$846Massachusetts: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceORNevada: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIAIndiana: median $1,219 across 12 hospitalsIN$1,219Ohio: median $778 across 32 hospitalsOH$778Pennsylvania: median $140 across 15 hospitalsPA$140New Jersey: median $931 across 23 hospitalsNJ$931Connecticut: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $1,932 across 24 hospitalsCA$1,932Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 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 $665 across 15 hospitalsVA$665Maryland: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $665 across 16 hospitalsTN$665North Carolina: median $461 across 10 hospitalsNC$461South Carolina: median $840 across 12 hospitalsSC$840Oklahoma: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOKLouisiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $936 across 10 hospitalsGA$936Hawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $1,623 across 21 hospitalsTX$1,623Florida: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $846. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Illinois IL16$1,955+131%$884 – $1,955
California CA24$1,932+128%$977 – $1,932
Texas TX21$1,623+92%$1,623 – $1,623
Indiana IN12$1,219+44%$1,073 – $1,647
Wisconsin WI18$977+16%$327 – $1,868
Georgia GA10$936+11%$936 – $936
New Jersey NJ23$931+10%$846 – $931
New York NY30$8460%$846 – $1,762
South Carolina SC12$840−1%$840 – $840
Washington WA10$816−4%$728 – $816
Ohio OH32$778−8%$635 – $817
Tennessee TN16$665−21%$293 – $665
Virginia VA15$665−21%$361 – $1,270
North Carolina NC10$461−46%$461 – $461
Minnesota MN11$319−62%$272 – $319
Pennsylvania PA15$140−83%$114 – $4,909
Massachusetts MA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oklahoma OK8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV1not 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 $846.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care265$911$635 – $1,868
Children’s19fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access47$770$327 – $1,828
Ownership
For-profit15fewer than 20 hospitals
Government33$846$461 – $1,006
Non-profit283$884$625 – $1,868
System affiliation
Part of a system304$846$625 – $1,828
Independent27$973$185 – $1,579

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,921
Median cash price$846
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

237 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $840 and the average of the middle 60% is $941; most fall between $401 and $1,828.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 237 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
$319$625$840$1,623$2,393

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($319 vs $2,393).

Of the 272 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 237 gave a usable cash price; 31 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 4 a list price only.

How complete is this

331 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 378 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted331
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here44
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 — excluded2
Hospitals that filed this code378

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 23, 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 CACNA1A GENE FULL GENE SEQ.

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, “CACNA1A gene test, full sequence (CPT 81185) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-81185-cacna1a-gene-test-full-sequence