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Procedure price report · Pathology

Alpha thalassemia gene test for common deletions

CPT 81257the billing code this page is about

A laboratory test of the two alpha globin genes that looks for the common deletions and the constant spring variant associated with alpha thalassemia.

Hospitals typically charge $311 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,465 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $332. Most fall between $141 and $621 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,465
States
49
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 1,465 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
$102$162$311$554$894

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.7× what the cheapest tenth charges ($102 vs $894).

How the prices are spread

$84 – $111: 91 hospitals$84$111 – $147: 145 hospitals$147 – $195: 158 hospitals$147$195 – $259: 158 hospitals$259 – $343: 174 hospitals$259$343 – $455: 182 hospitals$455 – $602: 169 hospitals$455$602 – $798: 116 hospitals$798 – $1,058: 81 hospitals$798$1,058 – $1,401: 45 hospitals$1,058median $311price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,319 of 1,465 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$84$11191
$111$147145
$147$195158
$195$259158
$259$343174
$343$455182
$455$602169
$602$798116
$798$1,05881
$1,058$1,40145

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $311.

Alaska: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $187 across 10 hospitalsME$187Vermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $307 across 43 hospitalsWA$307Idaho: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $95 across 38 hospitalsMN$95Illinois: median $493 across 67 hospitalsIL$493Wisconsin: median $338 across 35 hospitalsWI$338Michigan: median $214 across 34 hospitalsMI$214New York: median $198 across 57 hospitalsNY$198Massachusetts: median $299 across 36 hospitalsMA$299Oregon: median $376 across 14 hospitalsOR$376Nevada: median $202 across 11 hospitalsNV$202Wyoming: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $128 across 16 hospitalsIA$128Indiana: median $147 across 46 hospitalsIN$147Ohio: median $443 across 85 hospitalsOH$443Pennsylvania: median $409 across 82 hospitalsPA$409New Jersey: median $118 across 49 hospitalsNJ$118Connecticut: median $208 across 14 hospitalsCT$208Rhode Island: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $252 across 65 hospitalsCA$252Utah: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $655 across 29 hospitalsCO$655Nebraska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $543 across 47 hospitalsMO$543Kentucky: median $284 across 29 hospitalsKY$284West Virginia: median $575 across 10 hospitalsWV$575Virginia: median $409 across 50 hospitalsVA$409Maryland: median $432 across 21 hospitalsMD$432Delaware: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $345 across 12 hospitalsAZ$345New Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $460 across 19 hospitalsKS$460Arkansas: median $222 across 17 hospitalsAR$222Tennessee: median $276 across 39 hospitalsTN$276North Carolina: median $313 across 53 hospitalsNC$313South Carolina: median $283 across 31 hospitalsSC$283Oklahoma: median $307 across 25 hospitalsOK$307Louisiana: median $228 across 31 hospitalsLA$228Mississippi: median $263 across 21 hospitalsMS$263Alabama: median $372 across 15 hospitalsAL$372Georgia: median $276 across 73 hospitalsGA$276Hawaii: median $317 across 13 hospitalsHI$317Texas: median $570 across 96 hospitalsTX$570Florida: median $196 across 71 hospitalsFL$196
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $311. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Colorado CO29$655+111%$382 – $1,365
West Virginia WV10$575+85%$154 – $1,099
Texas TX96$570+83%$136 – $780
Missouri MO47$543+75%$359 – $959
Illinois IL67$493+58%$168 – $665
Kansas KS19$460+48%$206 – $928
Ohio OH85$443+43%$345 – $612
Maryland MD21$432+39%$356 – $770
Virginia VA50$409+32%$168 – $1,311
Pennsylvania PA82$409+31%$153 – $1,508
Oregon OR14$376+21%$373 – $436
Alabama AL15$372+19%$112 – $604
Arizona AZ12$345+11%$118 – $836
Wisconsin WI35$338+9%$39 – $880
Hawaii HI13$317+2%$142 – $457
North Carolina NC53$313+1%$112 – $502
Washington WA43$307−1%$160 – $472
Oklahoma OK25$307−1%$203 – $600
Massachusetts MA36$299−4%$145 – $505
Kentucky KY29$284−9%$180 – $672
South Carolina SC31$283−9%$193 – $616
Georgia GA73$276−11%$148 – $621
Tennessee TN39$276−11%$168 – $565
Mississippi MS21$263−16%$188 – $337
California CA65$252−19%$154 – $350
Louisiana LA31$228−27%$127 – $552
Arkansas AR17$222−29%$132 – $372
Michigan MI34$214−31%$141 – $252
Connecticut CT14$208−33%$163 – $394
Nevada NV11$202−35%$102 – $358
New York NY57$198−36%$102 – $689
Florida FL71$196−37%$131 – $441
Maine ME10$187−40%$146 – $472
Indiana IN46$147−53%$110 – $321
Iowa IA16$128−59%$128 – $257
New Jersey NJ49$118−62%$102 – $337
Minnesota MN38$95−70%$38 – $411
Alaska AK9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not 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 $311.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,212$307$136 – $621
Children’s31$311$205 – $632
Critical access214$346$156 – $591
Ownership
For-profit184$336$148 – $926
Government215$302$141 – $597
Non-profit1,058$308$137 – $600
System affiliation
Part of a system1,242$311$137 – $621
Independent223$313$159 – $629

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$598
Median cash price$311
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

1,042 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $324 and the average of the middle 60% is $350; most fall between $165 and $622.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,042 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
$118$184$324$565$891

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($118 vs $891).

Of the 1,159 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,042 gave a usable cash price; 58 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 59 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,465 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (37%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,620 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,465
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here79
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 — excluded75
Hospitals that filed this code1,620

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 24, 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 HBA1/HBA2 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, “Alpha thalassemia gene test for common deletions (CPT 81257) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-81257-alpha-thalassemia-gene-test-for-common-deletions