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Procedure price report · Microscopic examination (bacterial smear, culture, toxicology)

Single amino acid screen, present or absent, per specimen

CPT 82127the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that checks a specimen for the presence of one specified amino acid without measuring the amount; billed once for each specimen tested.

Hospitals typically charge $50 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 389 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $62. Most fall between $19 and $141 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
389
States
44
Filings dated
Aug 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 389 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
$14$24$50$126$334

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 24× what the cheapest tenth charges ($14 vs $334).

How the prices are spread

$14 – $20: 74 hospitals$14$20 – $29: 40 hospitals$29 – $42: 60 hospitals$29$42 – $61: 25 hospitals$61 – $87: 51 hospitals$61$87 – $126: 29 hospitals$126 – $182: 34 hospitals$126$182 – $262: 19 hospitals$262 – $378: 13 hospitals$262$378 – $545: 13 hospitals$378median $50price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (358 of 389 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$14$2074
$20$2940
$29$4260
$42$6125
$61$8751
$87$12629
$126$18234
$182$26219
$262$37813
$378$54513

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $50.

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: median $31 across 10 hospitalsWA$31Idaho: 6 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: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $62 across 21 hospitalsIL$62Wisconsin: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: median $20 across 16 hospitalsMI$20New York: median $15 across 23 hospitalsNY$15Massachusetts: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $36 across 13 hospitalsIA$36Indiana: median $30 across 21 hospitalsIN$30Ohio: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $14 across 23 hospitalsPA$14New Jersey: median $16 across 26 hospitalsNJ$16Connecticut: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $141 across 25 hospitalsCA$141Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: median $82 across 10 hospitalsCO$82Nebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $72 across 14 hospitalsVA$72Maryland: 2 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: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKSArkansas: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $24 across 11 hospitalsTN$24North Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNCSouth Carolina: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $25 across 15 hospitalsOK$25Louisiana: median $68 across 11 hospitalsLA$68Mississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $39 across 26 hospitalsGA$39Hawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $72 across 34 hospitalsTX$72Florida: median $45 across 16 hospitalsFL$45
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $50. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA25$141+181%$74 – $141
Colorado CO10$82+63%$69 – $826
Texas TX34$72+44%$72 – $625
Virginia VA14$72+43%$72 – $243
Louisiana LA11$68+35%$32 – $105
Illinois IL21$62+24%$23 – $113
Florida FL16$45−10%$25 – $750
Georgia GA26$39−22%$39 – $497
Iowa IA13$36−28%$36 – $36
Washington WA10$31−39%$31 – $63
Indiana IN21$30−40%$22 – $51
Oklahoma OK15$25−50%$25 – $43
Tennessee TN11$24−52%$24 – $39
Michigan MI16$20−61%$17 – $39
New Jersey NJ26$16−69%$14 – $16
New York NY23$15−71%$14 – $203
Pennsylvania PA23$14−72%$10 – $99
Oregon OR8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV1not 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 $50.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care325$39$16 – $141
Children’s26$116$74 – $176
Critical access38$36$29 – $103
Ownership
For-profit72$72$25 – $497
Government47$36$14 – $160
Non-profit270$51$17 – $141
System affiliation
Part of a system326$44$19 – $141
Independent63$51$20 – $134

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$130
Median cash price$50
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

222 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $72 and the average of the middle 60% is $77; most fall between $34 and $168.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 222 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
$25$36$72$141$366

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 15× what the cheapest tenth charges ($25 vs $366).

Of the 228 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 222 gave a usable cash price; 5 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 1 a list price only.

How complete is this

389 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (10%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 409 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted389
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here12
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 — excluded7
Hospitals that filed this code409

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 Microscopic examination (bacterial smear, culture, toxicology) family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as AMINO ACID SINGLE QUAL.

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, “Single amino acid screen, present or absent, per specimen (CPT 82127) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-82127-single-amino-acid-screen-present-or-absent-per-specimen