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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Direct LDL cholesterol blood test

CPT 83721the billing code this page is about

A blood test that measures LDL ("bad") cholesterol directly rather than calculating it from other lipid results.

Hospitals typically charge $49 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,009 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $50. Most fall between $22 and $86 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,009
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 3,009 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$26$49$77$121

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($14 vs $121).

How the prices are spread

$10 – $13: 152 hospitals$10$13 – $17: 150 hospitals$17 – $23: 180 hospitals$17$23 – $30: 233 hospitals$30 – $39: 355 hospitals$30$39 – $51: 378 hospitals$51 – $67: 482 hospitals$51$67 – $88: 363 hospitals$88 – $116: 238 hospitals$88$116 – $152: 190 hospitals$116median $49price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,721 of 3,009 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$10$13152
$13$17150
$17$23180
$23$30233
$30$39355
$39$51378
$51$67482
$67$88363
$88$116238
$116$152190

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $49.

Alaska: median $80 across 16 hospitalsAK$80Maine: median $61 across 27 hospitalsME$61Vermont: median $93 across 14 hospitalsVT$93New Hampshire: median $37 across 21 hospitalsNH$37Washington: median $64 across 74 hospitalsWA$64Idaho: median $38 across 21 hospitalsID$38Montana: median $63 across 33 hospitalsMT$63North Dakota: median $66 across 24 hospitalsND$66Minnesota: median $51 across 93 hospitalsMN$51Illinois: median $64 across 135 hospitalsIL$64Wisconsin: median $68 across 96 hospitalsWI$68Michigan: median $41 across 89 hospitalsMI$41New York: median $26 across 113 hospitalsNY$26Massachusetts: median $54 across 51 hospitalsMA$54Oregon: median $44 across 50 hospitalsOR$44Nevada: median $73 across 18 hospitalsNV$73Wyoming: median $50 across 15 hospitalsWY$50South Dakota: median $103 across 37 hospitalsSD$103Iowa: median $55 across 87 hospitalsIA$55Indiana: median $57 across 97 hospitalsIN$57Ohio: median $47 across 138 hospitalsOH$47Pennsylvania: median $41 across 121 hospitalsPA$41New Jersey: median $12 across 55 hospitalsNJ$12Connecticut: median $51 across 22 hospitalsCT$51Rhode Island: median $48 across 10 hospitalsRI$48California: median $62 across 145 hospitalsCA$62Utah: median $60 across 33 hospitalsUT$60Colorado: median $55 across 60 hospitalsCO$55Nebraska: median $67 across 65 hospitalsNE$67Missouri: median $39 across 66 hospitalsMO$39Kentucky: median $58 across 66 hospitalsKY$58West Virginia: median $31 across 42 hospitalsWV$31Virginia: median $53 across 62 hospitalsVA$53Maryland: median $41 across 37 hospitalsMD$41Delaware: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $35 across 37 hospitalsAZ$35New Mexico: median $58 across 25 hospitalsNM$58Kansas: median $59 across 70 hospitalsKS$59Arkansas: median $24 across 34 hospitalsAR$24Tennessee: median $32 across 55 hospitalsTN$32North Carolina: median $40 across 84 hospitalsNC$40South Carolina: median $52 across 50 hospitalsSC$52Oklahoma: median $36 across 73 hospitalsOK$36Louisiana: median $33 across 42 hospitalsLA$33Mississippi: median $30 across 52 hospitalsMS$30Alabama: median $37 across 40 hospitalsAL$37Georgia: median $32 across 100 hospitalsGA$32Hawaii: median $58 across 17 hospitalsHI$58Texas: median $55 across 193 hospitalsTX$55Florida: median $21 across 98 hospitalsFL$21
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $49. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Dakota SD37$103+111%$58 – $140
Vermont VT14$93+91%$58 – $141
Alaska AK16$80+65%$50 – $149
Nevada NV18$73+50%$52 – $105
Wisconsin WI96$68+39%$39 – $96
Nebraska NE65$67+38%$31 – $103
North Dakota ND24$66+35%$45 – $75
Washington WA74$64+33%$42 – $80
Illinois IL135$64+31%$35 – $121
Montana MT33$63+30%$45 – $102
California CA145$62+27%$9 – $129
Maine ME27$61+25%$33 – $99
Utah UT33$60+23%$51 – $65
Kansas KS70$59+22%$41 – $82
Hawaii HI17$58+20%$52 – $85
Kentucky KY66$58+19%$30 – $118
New Mexico NM25$58+19%$45 – $83
Indiana IN97$57+16%$17 – $104
Iowa IA87$55+14%$34 – $77
Texas TX193$55+13%$26 – $80
Colorado CO60$55+13%$35 – $90
Massachusetts MA51$54+11%$31 – $80
Virginia VA62$53+8%$16 – $77
South Carolina SC50$52+8%$29 – $86
Minnesota MN93$51+5%$22 – $82
Connecticut CT22$51+5%$35 – $80
Wyoming WY15$50+3%$21 – $90
Rhode Island RI10$48−1%$25 – $63
Ohio OH138$47−4%$30 – $77
Oregon OR50$44−10%$32 – $59
Michigan MI89$41−16%$21 – $66
Pennsylvania PA121$41−16%$12 – $106
Maryland MD37$41−16%$30 – $49
North Carolina NC84$40−19%$20 – $94
Missouri MO66$39−19%$23 – $65
Idaho ID21$38−21%$14 – $56
New Hampshire NH21$37−23%$31 – $76
Alabama AL40$37−24%$13 – $60
Oklahoma OK73$36−26%$22 – $65
Arizona AZ37$35−27%$13 – $257
Louisiana LA42$33−33%$20 – $49
Georgia GA100$32−33%$17 – $79
Tennessee TN55$32−35%$17 – $82
West Virginia WV42$31−36%$25 – $91
Mississippi MS52$30−39%$20 – $47
New York NY113$26−47%$14 – $98
Arkansas AR34$24−51%$15 – $43
Florida FL98$21−56%$12 – $124
New Jersey NJ55$12−75%$11 – $32
Delaware DE6not 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 $49.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,064$44$19 – $83
Children’s54$53$31 – $80
Critical access881$59$32 – $94
Ownership
For-profit302$46$23 – $104
Government581$52$23 – $86
Non-profit2,116$48$22 – $86
System affiliation
Part of a system2,431$49$22 – $87
Independent578$48$24 – $82

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$80
Median cash price$49
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

2,123 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $52 and the average of the middle 60% is $53; most fall between $24 and $94.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,123 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
$15$29$52$83$129

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($15 vs $129).

Of the 2,325 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,123 gave a usable cash price; 105 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 97 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,009 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (76%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,267 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,009
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here145
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded112
Hospitals that filed this code3,267

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 Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as HC Direct Ldl.

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, “Direct LDL cholesterol blood test (CPT 83721) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-83721-direct-ldl-cholesterol-blood-test