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

Heavy metal measurement, each metal tested

CPT 83018the billing code this page is about

Measures the exact amount of one heavy metal, such as bismuth or arsenic, in a sample; billed once for each metal measured, and does not include lead.

Hospitals typically charge $80 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,725 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $82. Most fall between $34 and $153 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,725
States
50
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – 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 2,725 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
$24$40$80$133$215

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($24 vs $215).

How the prices are spread

$19 – $25: 154 hospitals$19$25 – $33: 251 hospitals$33 – $44: 241 hospitals$33$44 – $59: 272 hospitals$59 – $77: 277 hospitals$59$77 – $103: 390 hospitals$103 – $136: 341 hospitals$103$136 – $180: 282 hospitals$180 – $239: 165 hospitals$180$239 – $316: 81 hospitals$239median $80price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,454 of 2,725 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$19$25154
$25$33251
$33$44241
$44$59272
$59$77277
$77$103390
$103$136341
$136$180282
$180$239165
$239$31681

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $80.

Alaska: median $100 across 15 hospitalsAK$100Maine: median $79 across 24 hospitalsME$79Vermont: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $72 across 20 hospitalsNH$72Washington: median $92 across 67 hospitalsWA$92Idaho: median $77 across 20 hospitalsID$77Montana: median $112 across 20 hospitalsMT$112North Dakota: median $73 across 19 hospitalsND$73Minnesota: median $105 across 79 hospitalsMN$105Illinois: median $108 across 122 hospitalsIL$108Wisconsin: median $99 across 99 hospitalsWI$99Michigan: median $30 across 70 hospitalsMI$30New York: median $53 across 93 hospitalsNY$53Massachusetts: median $95 across 48 hospitalsMA$95Oregon: median $60 across 46 hospitalsOR$60Nevada: median $108 across 16 hospitalsNV$108Wyoming: median $103 across 14 hospitalsWY$103South Dakota: median $136 across 15 hospitalsSD$136Iowa: median $100 across 61 hospitalsIA$100Indiana: median $61 across 86 hospitalsIN$61Ohio: median $99 across 129 hospitalsOH$99Pennsylvania: median $104 across 119 hospitalsPA$104New Jersey: median $25 across 49 hospitalsNJ$25Connecticut: median $94 across 16 hospitalsCT$94Rhode Island: median $81 across 10 hospitalsRI$81California: median $34 across 103 hospitalsCA$34Utah: median $87 across 39 hospitalsUT$87Colorado: median $93 across 58 hospitalsCO$93Nebraska: median $107 across 52 hospitalsNE$107Missouri: median $67 across 68 hospitalsMO$67Kentucky: median $133 across 56 hospitalsKY$133West Virginia: median $62 across 35 hospitalsWV$62Virginia: median $90 across 67 hospitalsVA$90Maryland: median $86 across 35 hospitalsMD$86Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $135 across 38 hospitalsAZ$135New Mexico: median $102 across 20 hospitalsNM$102Kansas: median $92 across 51 hospitalsKS$92Arkansas: median $56 across 33 hospitalsAR$56Tennessee: median $56 across 70 hospitalsTN$56North Carolina: median $51 across 74 hospitalsNC$51South Carolina: median $126 across 52 hospitalsSC$126Oklahoma: median $60 across 57 hospitalsOK$60Louisiana: median $33 across 45 hospitalsLA$33Mississippi: median $43 across 47 hospitalsMS$43Alabama: median $71 across 31 hospitalsAL$71Georgia: median $72 across 96 hospitalsGA$72Hawaii: median $82 across 13 hospitalsHI$82Texas: median $79 across 189 hospitalsTX$79Florida: median $45 across 123 hospitalsFL$45
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $80. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Dakota SD15$136+70%$89 – $170
Arizona AZ38$135+69%$34 – $223
Kentucky KY56$133+67%$49 – $185
South Carolina SC52$126+57%$60 – $157
Montana MT20$112+40%$63 – $141
Nevada NV16$108+35%$35 – $210
Illinois IL122$108+34%$48 – $184
Nebraska NE52$107+34%$68 – $188
Minnesota MN79$105+31%$42 – $131
Pennsylvania PA119$104+29%$33 – $239
Wyoming WY14$103+28%$71 – $177
New Mexico NM20$102+27%$69 – $118
Alaska AK15$100+25%$59 – $178
Iowa IA61$100+24%$32 – $154
Wisconsin WI99$99+24%$65 – $158
Ohio OH129$99+23%$52 – $140
Massachusetts MA48$95+19%$54 – $187
Connecticut CT16$94+18%$48 – $118
Colorado CO58$93+17%$56 – $173
Washington WA67$92+15%$45 – $116
Kansas KS51$92+15%$49 – $152
Virginia VA67$90+13%$38 – $168
Utah UT39$87+9%$82 – $131
Maryland MD35$86+8%$63 – $98
Hawaii HI13$82+2%$57 – $188
Rhode Island RI10$81+2%$47 – $175
Maine ME24$79−2%$29 – $189
Texas TX189$79−2%$39 – $195
Idaho ID20$77−3%$26 – $194
North Dakota ND19$73−9%$37 – $137
New Hampshire NH20$72−10%$23 – $186
Georgia GA96$72−10%$44 – $126
Alabama AL31$71−12%$26 – $120
Missouri MO68$67−16%$38 – $101
West Virginia WV35$62−22%$60 – $130
Indiana IN86$61−24%$32 – $138
Oregon OR46$60−24%$36 – $97
Oklahoma OK57$60−25%$43 – $118
Arkansas AR33$56−30%$34 – $94
Tennessee TN70$56−31%$35 – $103
New York NY93$53−34%$22 – $138
North Carolina NC74$51−37%$29 – $173
Florida FL123$45−44%$26 – $95
Mississippi MS47$43−46%$27 – $85
California CA103$34−58%$18 – $125
Louisiana LA45$33−59%$13 – $101
Michigan MI70$30−63%$16 – $72
New Jersey NJ49$25−68%$22 – $70
Vermont VT9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE7not 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 $80.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,989$67$31 – $145
Children’s47$112$45 – $154
Critical access679$98$53 – $173
Ownership
For-profit370$86$38 – $200
Government462$82$38 – $154
Non-profit1,883$79$32 – $149
System affiliation
Part of a system2,250$79$33 – $155
Independent475$84$38 – $142

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$129
Median cash price$80
Cash as a share of list, median hospital61%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 39%. 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

1,878 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $82 and the average of the middle 60% is $83; most fall between $35 and $154.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,878 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$42$82$137$210

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($25 vs $210).

Of the 2,066 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,878 gave a usable cash price; 102 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 86 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,725 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (69%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,962 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,725
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here136
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 — excluded99
Hospitals that filed this code2,962

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

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as PR Occ Hlth Lab - Beryllium.

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, “Heavy metal measurement, each metal tested (CPT 83018) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-83018-heavy-metal-measurement-each-metal-tested