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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Element test by atomic absorption, each element

CPT 82190the billing code this page is about

Laboratory measurement of a single metal or other element in a specimen using atomic absorption; the charge applies to each element analyzed.

Hospitals typically charge $72 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 437 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $85. Most fall between $24 and $183 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
437
States
46
Filings dated
Jun 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 437 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
$17$27$72$177$226

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($17 vs $226).

How the prices are spread

$16 – $22: 58 hospitals$16$22 – $29: 49 hospitals$29 – $40: 27 hospitals$29$40 – $54: 36 hospitals$54 – $73: 39 hospitals$54$73 – $99: 56 hospitals$99 – $134: 20 hospitals$99$134 – $182: 39 hospitals$182 – $246: 61 hospitals$182$246 – $334: 14 hospitals$246median $72price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (399 of 437 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$16$2258
$22$2949
$29$4027
$40$5436
$54$7339
$73$9956
$99$13420
$134$18239
$182$24661
$246$33414

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $72.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMNIllinois: median $76 across 20 hospitalsIL$76Wisconsin: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: median $32 across 15 hospitalsMI$32New York: median $16 across 26 hospitalsNY$16Massachusetts: median $52 across 10 hospitalsMA$52Oregon: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 1 hospital 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 $40 across 14 hospitalsIA$40Indiana: median $82 across 33 hospitalsIN$82Ohio: median $72 across 18 hospitalsOH$72Pennsylvania: median $18 across 19 hospitalsPA$18New Jersey: median $17 across 30 hospitalsNJ$17Connecticut: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $183 across 22 hospitalsCA$183Utah: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: median $172 across 11 hospitalsMO$172Kentucky: median $212 across 14 hospitalsKY$212West Virginia: median $226 across 17 hospitalsWV$226Virginia: median $166 across 11 hospitalsVA$166Maryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $25 across 18 hospitalsTN$25North Carolina: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $34 across 24 hospitalsOK$34Louisiana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $130 across 11 hospitalsGA$130Hawaii: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $177 across 29 hospitalsTX$177Florida: median $53 across 10 hospitalsFL$53
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $72. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
West Virginia WV17$226+216%$226 – $226
Kentucky KY14$212+197%$88 – $212
California CA22$183+155%$183 – $183
Texas TX29$177+147%$57 – $177
Missouri MO11$172+140%$24 – $172
Virginia VA11$166+132%$25 – $225
Georgia GA11$130+82%$89 – $130
Indiana IN33$82+15%$25 – $130
Illinois IL20$76+6%$20 – $111
Ohio OH18$720%$38 – $72
Florida FL10$53−26%$33 – $61
Massachusetts MA10$52−27%$20 – $107
Iowa IA14$40−44%$40 – $40
Oklahoma OK24$34−52%$28 – $73
Michigan MI15$32−55%$22 – $139
Tennessee TN18$25−65%$25 – $97
Pennsylvania PA19$18−74%$11 – $76
New Jersey NJ30$17−76%$16 – $69
New York NY26$16−78%$16 – $67
South Carolina SC8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV1not 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 $72.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care377$71$22 – $177
Children’s3fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access56$84$33 – $245
Ownership
For-profit45$88$28 – $177
Government58$61$18 – $140
Non-profit333$72$23 – $183
System affiliation
Part of a system378$72$24 – $183
Independent59$50$23 – $164

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$140
Median cash price$72
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

271 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $80 and the average of the middle 60% is $99; most fall between $35 and $183.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 271 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$40$80$177$251

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($25 vs $251).

Of the 289 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 271 gave a usable cash price; 4 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 14 a list price only.

How complete is this

437 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (11%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 457 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted437
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here5
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 — excluded14
Hospitals that filed this code457

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 Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as ATOMIC ABSORPTION.

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, “Element test by atomic absorption, each element (CPT 82190) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-82190-element-test-by-atomic-absorption-each-element