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Procedure price report · Pathology

Rheumatoid arthritis blood test of 12 markers with score

CPT 81490the billing code this page is about

Blood test that measures 12 protein markers and combines them into a single score describing rheumatoid arthritis disease activity.

Hospitals typically charge $1,122 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 526 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,221. Most fall between $655 and $1,921 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
526
States
44
Filings dated
Dec 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 526 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
$495$803$1,122$1,864$2,623

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($495 vs $2,623).

How the prices are spread

$358 – $456: 20 hospitals$358$456 – $581: 43 hospitals$581 – $741: 25 hospitals$581$741 – $944: 104 hospitals$944 – $1,204: 63 hospitals$944$1,204 – $1,534: 58 hospitals$1,534 – $1,956: 96 hospitals$1,534$1,956 – $2,493: 30 hospitals$2,493 – $3,177: 26 hospitals$2,493$3,177 – $4,050: 10 hospitals$3,177median $1,122price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (475 of 526 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$358$45620
$456$58143
$581$74125
$741$944104
$944$1,20463
$1,204$1,53458
$1,534$1,95696
$1,956$2,49330
$2,493$3,17726
$3,177$4,05010

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $1,122.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $1,182 across 14 hospitalsWA$1,182Idaho: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMNIllinois: median $1,557 across 18 hospitalsIL$1,557Wisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: median $840 across 13 hospitalsMI$840New York: median $954 across 38 hospitalsNY$954Massachusetts: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWYSouth Dakota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $807 across 11 hospitalsIA$807Indiana: median $1,183 across 24 hospitalsIN$1,183Ohio: median $1,277 across 54 hospitalsOH$1,277Pennsylvania: median $1,261 across 28 hospitalsPA$1,261New Jersey: median $925 across 35 hospitalsNJ$925Connecticut: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,921 across 20 hospitalsCA$1,921Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: median $1,558 across 23 hospitalsKY$1,558West Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $512 across 30 hospitalsVA$512Maryland: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 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: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $512 across 19 hospitalsTN$512North Carolina: median $837 across 33 hospitalsNC$837South Carolina: median $1,929 across 17 hospitalsSC$1,929Oklahoma: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOKLouisiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: median $655 across 13 hospitalsMS$655Alabama: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $1,861 across 12 hospitalsGA$1,861Hawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $358 across 27 hospitalsTX$358Florida: median $819 across 23 hospitalsFL$819
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,122. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Carolina SC17$1,929+72%$1,793 – $1,929
California CA20$1,921+71%$1,921 – $1,921
Georgia GA12$1,861+66%$1,832 – $3,598
Kentucky KY23$1,558+39%$1,558 – $7,316
Illinois IL18$1,557+39%$1,103 – $2,173
Ohio OH54$1,277+14%$803 – $2,495
Pennsylvania PA28$1,261+12%$77 – $7,211
Indiana IN24$1,183+5%$989 – $1,807
Washington WA14$1,182+5%$742 – $1,285
New York NY38$954−15%$841 – $1,934
New Jersey NJ35$925−18%$841 – $967
Michigan MI13$840−25%$259 – $1,160
North Carolina NC33$837−25%$495 – $1,830
Florida FL23$819−27%$608 – $841
Iowa IA11$807−28%$807 – $807
Mississippi MS13$655−42%$546 – $1,200
Tennessee TN19$512−54%$512 – $655
Virginia VA30$512−54%$502 – $2,179
Texas TX27$358−68%$358 – $1,471
Massachusetts MA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oklahoma OK6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR1not 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 $1,122.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care452$1,092$608 – $1,929
Children’s3fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access68$1,390$764 – $1,869
Ownership
For-profit54$1,097$378 – $2,520
Government65$1,447$841 – $1,830
Non-profit404$1,103$608 – $1,929
System affiliation
Part of a system462$1,097$608 – $1,921
Independent64$1,300$841 – $2,063

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$2,473
Median cash price$1,122
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

347 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,242 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,256; most fall between $600 and $1,921.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 347 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
$488$682$1,242$1,906$2,560

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($488 vs $2,560).

Of the 379 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 347 gave a usable cash price; 12 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 20 a list price only.

How complete is this

526 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (13%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 559 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted526
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here10
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 — excluded20
Hospitals that filed this code559

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 Autoimmune (rheumatoid arthritis), analysis of 12 biomarkers using immunoassays, utilizing serum, prognostic algorithm reported as a disease activity score.

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, “Rheumatoid arthritis blood test of 12 markers with score (CPT 81490) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-81490-rheumatoid-arthritis-blood-test-of-12-markers-with-score