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Procedure price report · Pathology

Tissue-of-origin gene test for cancer of unknown primary

CPT 81540the billing code this page is about

A laboratory test that measures gene activity in tumor tissue to estimate which organ a cancer of unknown origin started in.

Hospitals typically charge $4,125 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 317 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $5,013. Most fall between $2,936 and $8,568 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
317
States
36
Filings dated
Oct 2025 – 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 317 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
$2,081$3,323$4,125$8,478$11,991

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($2,081 vs $11,991).

How the prices are spread

$1,150 – $1,493: 3 hospitals$1,150$1,493 – $1,938: 9 hospitals$1,938 – $2,517: 16 hospitals$1,938$2,517 – $3,268: 36 hospitals$3,268 – $4,244: 89 hospitals$3,268$4,244 – $5,511: 30 hospitals$5,511 – $7,157: 26 hospitals$5,511$7,157 – $9,293: 44 hospitals$9,293 – $12,067: 19 hospitals$9,293$12,067 – $15,670: 15 hospitals$12,067median $4,125price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (287 of 317 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$1,150$1,4933
$1,493$1,9389
$1,938$2,51716
$2,517$3,26836
$3,268$4,24489
$4,244$5,51130
$5,511$7,15726
$7,157$9,29344
$9,293$12,06719
$12,067$15,67015

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $4,125.

Alaska: 2 hospitals 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: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMNIllinois: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $3,750 across 13 hospitalsNY$3,750Massachusetts: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceORNevada: 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 $3,600 across 12 hospitalsIA$3,600Indiana: median $5,427 across 13 hospitalsIN$5,427Ohio: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $4,313 across 24 hospitalsPA$4,313New Jersey: median $4,125 across 29 hospitalsNJ$4,125Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $8,568 across 23 hospitalsCA$8,568Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWVVirginia: median $3,928 across 21 hospitalsVA$3,928Maryland: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 2 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 $2,530 across 12 hospitalsTN$2,530North Carolina: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: median $3,662 across 11 hospitalsSC$3,662Oklahoma: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOKLouisiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: median $1,993 across 10 hospitalsMS$1,993Alabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $2,936 across 35 hospitalsTX$2,936Florida: median $3,800 across 24 hospitalsFL$3,800
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $4,125. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA23$8,568+108%$8,568 – $8,568
Indiana IN13$5,427+32%$4,751 – $7,676
Pennsylvania PA24$4,313+5%$2,081 – $27,513
New Jersey NJ29$4,1250%$3,750 – $8,156
Virginia VA21$3,928−5%$2,530 – $9,720
Florida FL24$3,800−8%$3,325 – $12,217
New York NY13$3,750−9%$3,750 – $3,750
South Carolina SC11$3,662−11%$3,662 – $3,662
Iowa IA12$3,600−13%$3,600 – $3,600
Texas TX35$2,936−29%$358 – $3,450
Tennessee TN12$2,530−39%$2,483 – $2,530
Mississippi MS10$1,993−52%$1,150 – $2,182
Kentucky KY9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Illinois IL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oklahoma OK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE1not 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 $4,125.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care289$4,076$2,936 – $8,568
Children’s2fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access26$5,927$2,483 – $10,318
Ownership
For-profit22$5,397$358 – $11,250
Government44$3,717$2,069 – $6,019
Non-profit251$4,125$3,117 – $8,568
System affiliation
Part of a system290$3,928$2,936 – $8,568
Independent27$5,533$3,794 – $10,318

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$9,500
Median cash price$4,125
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

226 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $3,928 and the average of the middle 60% is $4,966; most fall between $2,530 and $8,568.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 226 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
$1,907$2,936$3,928$8,564$12,217

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($1,907 vs $12,217).

Of the 249 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 226 gave a usable cash price; 19 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 4 a list price only.

How complete is this

317 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (8%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 339 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted317
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here16
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded2
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded4
Hospitals that filed this code339

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 5, 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 Oncology (tumor of unknown origin), mRNA, gene expression profiling by real-time RT-PCR of 92 genes (87 content and 5 housekeeping) to classify tumor into main cancer type and subtype, utilizing formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue, algorithm reported as a probability of a predicted main cancer t.

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, “Tissue-of-origin gene test for cancer of unknown primary (CPT 81540) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-81540-tissue-of-origin-gene-test-for-cancer-of-unknown-primary