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Procedure price report · Pathology

Microsatellite instability testing of tumor tissue

CPT 81301the billing code this page is about

A test comparing repeated DNA sequences in tumor and normal tissue from the same person to detect a faulty DNA mismatch repair system.

Hospitals typically charge $544 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,596 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $580. Most fall between $302 and $1,048 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,596
States
50
Filings dated
Jan 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 1,596 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
$201$330$544$918$1,518

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($201 vs $1,518).

How the prices are spread

$169 – $214: 100 hospitals$169$214 – $273: 83 hospitals$273 – $346: 176 hospitals$273$346 – $440: 193 hospitals$440 – $560: 190 hospitals$440$560 – $712: 199 hospitals$712 – $905: 169 hospitals$712$905 – $1,150: 147 hospitals$1,150 – $1,462: 94 hospitals$1,150$1,462 – $1,858: 88 hospitals$1,462median $544price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,439 of 1,596 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$169$214100
$214$27383
$273$346176
$346$440193
$440$560190
$560$712199
$712$905169
$905$1,150147
$1,150$1,46294
$1,462$1,85888

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $544.

Alaska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $594 across 25 hospitalsME$594Vermont: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $656 across 33 hospitalsWA$656Idaho: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: median $787 across 10 hospitalsMT$787North Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $668 across 45 hospitalsMN$668Illinois: median $763 across 82 hospitalsIL$763Wisconsin: median $1,005 across 64 hospitalsWI$1,005Michigan: median $481 across 58 hospitalsMI$481New York: median $686 across 54 hospitalsNY$686Massachusetts: median $1,045 across 25 hospitalsMA$1,045Oregon: median $562 across 14 hospitalsOR$562Nevada: median $348 across 10 hospitalsNV$348Wyoming: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $362 across 27 hospitalsIA$362Indiana: median $464 across 51 hospitalsIN$464Ohio: median $789 across 87 hospitalsOH$789Pennsylvania: median $561 across 67 hospitalsPA$561New Jersey: median $383 across 43 hospitalsNJ$383Connecticut: median $575 across 11 hospitalsCT$575Rhode Island: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $515 across 59 hospitalsCA$515Utah: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $619 across 19 hospitalsCO$619Nebraska: median $772 across 17 hospitalsNE$772Missouri: median $692 across 43 hospitalsMO$692Kentucky: median $582 across 29 hospitalsKY$582West Virginia: median $296 across 23 hospitalsWV$296Virginia: median $636 across 54 hospitalsVA$636Maryland: median $471 across 35 hospitalsMD$471Delaware: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $469 across 20 hospitalsAZ$469New Mexico: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $823 across 19 hospitalsKS$823Arkansas: median $229 across 20 hospitalsAR$229Tennessee: median $453 across 39 hospitalsTN$453North Carolina: median $459 across 40 hospitalsNC$459South Carolina: median $426 across 37 hospitalsSC$426Oklahoma: median $422 across 36 hospitalsOK$422Louisiana: median $453 across 23 hospitalsLA$453Mississippi: median $215 across 23 hospitalsMS$215Alabama: median $497 across 15 hospitalsAL$497Georgia: median $576 across 55 hospitalsGA$576Hawaii: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $401 across 128 hospitalsTX$401Florida: median $292 across 83 hospitalsFL$292
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $544. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Massachusetts MA25$1,045+92%$511 – $1,139
Wisconsin WI64$1,005+85%$436 – $1,650
Kansas KS19$823+51%$324 – $1,200
Ohio OH87$789+45%$577 – $1,563
Montana MT10$787+45%$659 – $858
Nebraska NE17$772+42%$565 – $1,043
Illinois IL82$763+40%$376 – $1,134
Missouri MO43$692+27%$486 – $1,190
New York NY54$686+26%$349 – $1,395
Minnesota MN45$668+23%$302 – $1,056
Washington WA33$656+21%$240 – $1,092
Virginia VA54$636+17%$242 – $1,240
Colorado CO19$619+14%$452 – $1,941
Maine ME25$594+9%$290 – $759
Kentucky KY29$582+7%$312 – $1,786
Georgia GA55$576+6%$410 – $622
Connecticut CT11$575+6%$285 – $1,482
Oregon OR14$562+3%$418 – $1,304
Pennsylvania PA67$561+3%$265 – $1,154
California CA59$515−5%$244 – $795
Alabama AL15$497−9%$348 – $1,440
Michigan MI58$481−12%$246 – $803
Maryland MD35$471−13%$267 – $794
Arizona AZ20$469−14%$343 – $964
Indiana IN51$464−15%$262 – $714
North Carolina NC40$459−16%$201 – $518
Louisiana LA23$453−17%$285 – $757
Tennessee TN39$453−17%$204 – $657
South Carolina SC37$426−22%$329 – $1,544
Oklahoma OK36$422−22%$245 – $940
Texas TX128$401−26%$284 – $786
New Jersey NJ43$383−30%$349 – $918
Iowa IA27$362−33%$335 – $700
Nevada NV10$348−36%$54 – $976
West Virginia WV23$296−46%$185 – $1,035
Florida FL83$292−46%$200 – $561
Arkansas AR20$229−58%$191 – $547
Mississippi MS23$215−60%$86 – $447
Idaho ID9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT3not 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 $544.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,318$515$286 – $1,033
Children’s10fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access260$657$376 – $1,180
Ownership
For-profit199$523$209 – $1,048
Government195$485$292 – $851
Non-profit1,194$561$308 – $1,056
System affiliation
Part of a system1,414$547$301 – $1,056
Independent182$523$310 – $937

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,046
Median cash price$544
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

1,165 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $575 and the average of the middle 60% is $612; most fall between $309 and $1,080.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,165 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
$216$335$575$993$1,554

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($216 vs $1,554).

Of the 1,277 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,165 gave a usable cash price; 69 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 43 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,596 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (40%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,729 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,596
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here77
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded2
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded53
Hospitals that filed this code1,729

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 Microsatellite Instability Pcr.

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, “Microsatellite instability testing of tumor tissue (CPT 81301) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-81301-microsatellite-instability-testing-of-tumor-tissue