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Procedure price report · Pathology

BCKDHB gene test for common variants

CPT 81205the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that checks the BCKDHB gene for its most frequently seen disease-causing changes, used in evaluating maple syrup urine disease and carrier status.

Hospitals typically charge $190 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 368 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $192. Most fall between $95 and $400 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
368
States
38
Filings dated
Jan 2024 – 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 368 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
$56$104$190$316$625

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($56 vs $625).

How the prices are spread

$31 – $45: 12 hospitals$31$45 – $65: 22 hospitals$65 – $94: 16 hospitals$65$94 – $137: 79 hospitals$137 – $199: 61 hospitals$137$199 – $289: 55 hospitals$289 – $421: 38 hospitals$289$421 – $612: 35 hospitals$612 – $890: 17 hospitals$612$890 – $1,294: 2 hospitals$890median $190price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (337 of 368 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$31$4512
$45$6522
$65$9416
$94$13779
$137$19961
$199$28955
$289$42138
$421$61235
$612$89017
$890$1,2942

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $190.

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: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: median $225 across 16 hospitalsMN$225Illinois: median $230 across 20 hospitalsIL$230Wisconsin: median $195 across 16 hospitalsWI$195Michigan: median $31 across 13 hospitalsMI$31New York: median $95 across 19 hospitalsNY$95Massachusetts: median $289 across 19 hospitalsMA$289Oregon: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 4 hospitals 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: median $190 across 13 hospitalsIA$190Indiana: median $137 across 14 hospitalsIN$137Ohio: median $426 across 24 hospitalsOH$426Pennsylvania: median $167 across 27 hospitalsPA$167New Jersey: median $104 across 28 hospitalsNJ$104Connecticut: 4 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 $217 across 26 hospitalsCA$217Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: median $1,430 across 13 hospitalsKY$1,430West Virginia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: 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: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceARTennessee: median $258 across 10 hospitalsTN$258North Carolina: median $649 across 13 hospitalsNC$649South Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSCOklahoma: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOKLouisiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $114 across 24 hospitalsTX$114Florida: median $105 across 13 hospitalsFL$105
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $190. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Kentucky KY13$1,430+651%$117 – $1,430
North Carolina NC13$649+241%$500 – $779
Ohio OH24$426+124%$316 – $517
Massachusetts MA19$289+52%$117 – $463
Tennessee TN10$258+36%$147 – $263
Illinois IL20$230+21%$220 – $575
Minnesota MN16$225+18%$173 – $296
California CA26$217+14%$125 – $217
Wisconsin WI16$195+2%$195 – $195
Iowa IA13$1900%$190 – $190
Pennsylvania PA27$167−12%$12 – $1,502
Indiana IN14$137−28%$119 – $195
Texas TX24$114−40%$58 – $114
Florida FL13$105−45%$76 – $194
New Jersey NJ28$104−45%$95 – $109
New York NY19$95−50%$95 – $114
Michigan MI13$31−84%$31 – $131
Washington WA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oklahoma OK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR1not 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 $190.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care330$190$95 – $399
Children’s3fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access34$190$113 – $443
Ownership
For-profit22$137$57 – $494
Government38$105$95 – $353
Non-profit307$195$95 – $400
System affiliation
Part of a system333$190$95 – $399
Independent35$181$109 – $443

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$380
Median cash price$190
Cash as a share of list, median hospital56%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 44%. 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

242 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $195 and the average of the middle 60% is $206; most fall between $90 and $353.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 242 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
$47$109$195$316$517

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($47 vs $517).

Of the 260 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 242 gave a usable cash price; 7 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 11 a list price only.

How complete is this

368 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (9%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 394 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted368
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here17
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 — excluded8
Hospitals that filed this code394

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 BCKDHB GENE.

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, “BCKDHB gene test for common variants (CPT 81205) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-81205-bckdhb-gene-test-for-common-variants