HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

Procedure price report · Pathology

MGMT gene methylation test on a brain tumor

CPT 81287the billing code this page is about

A laboratory test on tumor tissue that measures whether the MGMT gene's switch region is chemically silenced, a marker examined in some brain tumors.

Hospitals typically charge $325 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,295 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $329. Most fall between $149 and $579 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,295
States
49
Filings dated
Aug 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 1,295 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
$125$180$325$518$861

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($125 vs $861).

How the prices are spread

$98 – $124: 62 hospitals$98$124 – $159: 149 hospitals$159 – $202: 116 hospitals$159$202 – $257: 106 hospitals$257 – $328: 162 hospitals$257$328 – $418: 201 hospitals$418 – $533: 124 hospitals$418$533 – $679: 116 hospitals$679 – $865: 67 hospitals$679$865 – $1,103: 66 hospitals$865median $325price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,169 of 1,295 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$98$12462
$124$159149
$159$202116
$202$257106
$257$328162
$328$418201
$418$533124
$533$679116
$679$86567
$865$1,10366

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $325.

Alaska: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $224 across 34 hospitalsWA$224Idaho: median $339 across 10 hospitalsID$339Montana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $403 across 44 hospitalsMN$403Illinois: median $455 across 48 hospitalsIL$455Wisconsin: median $450 across 78 hospitalsWI$450Michigan: median $167 across 40 hospitalsMI$167New York: median $257 across 49 hospitalsNY$257Massachusetts: median $423 across 22 hospitalsMA$423Oregon: median $544 across 14 hospitalsOR$544Nevada: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $128 across 17 hospitalsIA$128Indiana: median $341 across 31 hospitalsIN$341Ohio: median $559 across 83 hospitalsOH$559Pennsylvania: median $220 across 56 hospitalsPA$220New Jersey: median $137 across 38 hospitalsNJ$137Connecticut: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $286 across 47 hospitalsCA$286Utah: median $339 across 27 hospitalsUT$339Colorado: median $374 across 19 hospitalsCO$374Nebraska: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $366 across 35 hospitalsMO$366Kentucky: median $374 across 26 hospitalsKY$374West Virginia: median $400 across 12 hospitalsWV$400Virginia: median $319 across 35 hospitalsVA$319Maryland: median $400 across 26 hospitalsMD$400Delaware: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $143 across 16 hospitalsAZ$143New Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $893 across 15 hospitalsKS$893Arkansas: median $354 across 14 hospitalsAR$354Tennessee: median $573 across 21 hospitalsTN$573North Carolina: median $327 across 55 hospitalsNC$327South Carolina: median $625 across 21 hospitalsSC$625Oklahoma: median $267 across 33 hospitalsOK$267Louisiana: median $173 across 16 hospitalsLA$173Mississippi: median $125 across 13 hospitalsMS$125Alabama: median $308 across 14 hospitalsAL$308Georgia: median $343 across 55 hospitalsGA$343Hawaii: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $187 across 108 hospitalsTX$187Florida: median $136 across 64 hospitalsFL$136
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $325. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Kansas KS15$893+175%$398 – $1,103
South Carolina SC21$625+93%$272 – $984
Tennessee TN21$573+77%$141 – $1,006
Ohio OH83$559+72%$212 – $860
Oregon OR14$544+68%$283 – $605
Illinois IL48$455+40%$331 – $1,044
Wisconsin WI78$450+39%$129 – $521
Massachusetts MA22$423+30%$277 – $780
Minnesota MN44$403+24%$367 – $442
West Virginia WV12$400+23%$292 – $713
Maryland MD26$400+23%$173 – $677
Colorado CO19$374+15%$229 – $713
Kentucky KY26$374+15%$212 – $861
Missouri MO35$366+13%$293 – $710
Arkansas AR14$354+9%$180 – $365
Georgia GA55$343+6%$308 – $638
Indiana IN31$341+5%$181 – $430
Idaho ID10$339+4%$115 – $381
Utah UT27$339+4%$339 – $399
North Carolina NC55$327+1%$187 – $390
Virginia VA35$319−2%$251 – $609
Alabama AL14$308−5%$144 – $2,515
California CA47$286−12%$235 – $351
Oklahoma OK33$267−18%$119 – $579
New York NY49$257−21%$125 – $691
Washington WA34$224−31%$123 – $374
Pennsylvania PA56$220−32%$124 – $1,218
Texas TX108$187−42%$160 – $419
Louisiana LA16$173−47%$72 – $386
Michigan MI40$167−49%$129 – $548
Arizona AZ16$143−56%$123 – $778
New Jersey NJ38$137−58%$125 – $143
Florida FL64$136−58%$96 – $349
Iowa IA17$128−61%$128 – $358
Mississippi MS13$125−62%$112 – $208
Nevada NV9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY1not 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 $325.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,084$319$143 – $584
Children’s25$393$262 – $997
Critical access179$339$181 – $500
Ownership
For-profit124$374$180 – $847
Government140$308$136 – $532
Non-profit1,024$327$152 – $559
System affiliation
Part of a system1,198$327$156 – $559
Independent97$300$143 – $714

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$548
Median cash price$325
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

989 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $339 and the average of the middle 60% is $338; most fall between $169 and $559.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 989 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
$128$187$339$500$896

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($128 vs $896).

Of the 1,096 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 989 gave a usable cash price; 76 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 31 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,295 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (33%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,401 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,295
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here71
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 — excluded34
Hospitals that filed this code1,401

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 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 HC Mgmt Promoter Methylation Tumor.

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, “MGMT gene methylation test on a brain tumor (CPT 81287) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-81287-mgmt-gene-methylation-test-on-a-brain-tumor