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Procedure price report · Pathology

Hepatitis C liver scarring blood test panel

CPT 81596the billing code this page is about

A panel of six blood measurements combined by a formula into scores estimating liver scarring and inflammation in chronic hepatitis C.

Hospitals typically charge $215 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,918 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $214. Most fall between $105 and $362 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,918
States
50
Filings dated
Dec 2022 – 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 1,918 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
$79$117$215$324$518

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($79 vs $518).

How the prices are spread

$62 – $78: 96 hospitals$62$78 – $100: 171 hospitals$100 – $127: 199 hospitals$100$127 – $162: 190 hospitals$162 – $206: 160 hospitals$162$206 – $262: 291 hospitals$262 – $334: 275 hospitals$262$334 – $425: 171 hospitals$425 – $541: 102 hospitals$425$541 – $689: 73 hospitals$541median $215price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,728 of 1,918 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$62$7896
$78$100171
$100$127199
$127$162190
$162$206160
$206$262291
$262$334275
$334$425171
$425$541102
$541$68973

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $215.

Alaska: median $135 across 12 hospitalsAK$135Maine: median $221 across 20 hospitalsME$221Vermont: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $279 across 16 hospitalsNH$279Washington: median $183 across 59 hospitalsWA$183Idaho: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: median $328 across 23 hospitalsMT$328North Dakota: median $251 across 11 hospitalsND$251Minnesota: median $222 across 42 hospitalsMN$222Illinois: median $290 across 96 hospitalsIL$290Wisconsin: median $400 across 44 hospitalsWI$400Michigan: median $154 across 42 hospitalsMI$154New York: median $177 across 88 hospitalsNY$177Massachusetts: median $248 across 46 hospitalsMA$248Oregon: median $138 across 30 hospitalsOR$138Nevada: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $249 across 44 hospitalsIA$249Indiana: median $184 across 76 hospitalsIN$184Ohio: median $259 across 104 hospitalsOH$259Pennsylvania: median $257 across 93 hospitalsPA$257New Jersey: median $79 across 50 hospitalsNJ$79Connecticut: median $281 across 17 hospitalsCT$281Rhode Island: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $122 across 63 hospitalsCA$122Utah: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $234 across 23 hospitalsCO$234Nebraska: median $372 across 18 hospitalsNE$372Missouri: median $237 across 57 hospitalsMO$237Kentucky: median $196 across 41 hospitalsKY$196West Virginia: median $171 across 33 hospitalsWV$171Virginia: median $172 across 67 hospitalsVA$172Maryland: median $226 across 17 hospitalsMD$226Delaware: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $407 across 25 hospitalsAZ$407New Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $249 across 40 hospitalsKS$249Arkansas: median $126 across 23 hospitalsAR$126Tennessee: median $93 across 55 hospitalsTN$93North Carolina: median $163 across 72 hospitalsNC$163South Carolina: median $218 across 37 hospitalsSC$218Oklahoma: median $162 across 55 hospitalsOK$162Louisiana: median $127 across 36 hospitalsLA$127Mississippi: median $103 across 34 hospitalsMS$103Alabama: median $233 across 24 hospitalsAL$233Georgia: median $213 across 61 hospitalsGA$213Hawaii: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $274 across 95 hospitalsTX$274Florida: median $141 across 61 hospitalsFL$141
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $215. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Arizona AZ25$407+89%$102 – $477
Wisconsin WI44$400+86%$141 – $454
Nebraska NE18$372+73%$212 – $610
Montana MT23$328+52%$233 – $363
Illinois IL96$290+35%$155 – $402
Connecticut CT17$281+31%$193 – $294
New Hampshire NH16$279+30%$151 – $538
Texas TX95$274+27%$91 – $325
Ohio OH104$259+20%$182 – $370
Pennsylvania PA93$257+19%$83 – $712
North Dakota ND11$251+17%$225 – $350
Iowa IA44$249+16%$128 – $317
Kansas KS40$249+16%$125 – $390
Massachusetts MA46$248+15%$160 – $309
Missouri MO57$237+10%$110 – $368
Colorado CO23$234+9%$107 – $395
Alabama AL24$233+8%$72 – $840
Maryland MD17$226+5%$115 – $381
Minnesota MN42$222+3%$155 – $363
Maine ME20$221+3%$66 – $333
South Carolina SC37$218+1%$204 – $350
Georgia GA61$213−1%$117 – $300
Kentucky KY41$196−9%$112 – $367
Indiana IN76$184−14%$105 – $408
Washington WA59$183−15%$90 – $326
New York NY88$177−18%$85 – $394
Virginia VA67$172−20%$83 – $268
West Virginia WV33$171−20%$125 – $287
North Carolina NC72$163−24%$133 – $242
Oklahoma OK55$162−25%$69 – $330
Michigan MI42$154−28%$115 – $237
Florida FL61$141−34%$121 – $318
Oregon OR30$138−36%$86 – $294
Alaska AK12$135−37%$88 – $464
Louisiana LA36$127−41%$61 – $275
Arkansas AR23$126−42%$72 – $226
California CA63$122−44%$102 – $239
Mississippi MS34$103−52%$59 – $176
Tennessee TN55$93−57%$61 – $292
New Jersey NJ50$79−63%$72 – $209
Idaho ID9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT2not 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 $215.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,425$195$96 – $345
Children’s12fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access476$250$129 – $393
Ownership
For-profit221$213$102 – $395
Government327$222$114 – $359
Non-profit1,365$216$102 – $362
System affiliation
Part of a system1,594$213$100 – $357
Independent324$217$117 – $382

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$348
Median cash price$215
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

1,304 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $220 and the average of the middle 60% is $224; most fall between $108 and $363.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,304 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
$86$122$220$328$531

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($86 vs $531).

Of the 1,435 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,304 gave a usable cash price; 65 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 66 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,918 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (48%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,071 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,918
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here81
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 — excluded69
Hospitals that filed this code2,071

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 July 20, 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 Fibrotest-Actitest, Serum.

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, “Hepatitis C liver scarring blood test panel (CPT 81596) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-81596-hepatitis-c-liver-scarring-blood-test-panel