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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Acidity (pH) test on body fluid other than blood

CPT 83986the billing code this page is about

Measures the pH, or acid level, of a body fluid sample such as urine or other fluid, excluding arterial blood gas testing.

Hospitals typically charge $22 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,192 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $24. Most fall between $9 and $47 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,192
States
50
Filings dated
Aug 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 3,192 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
$6$11$22$41$79

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 14× what the cheapest tenth charges ($6 vs $79).

How the prices are spread

$4 – $6: 168 hospitals$4$6 – $8: 234 hospitals$8 – $11: 272 hospitals$8$11 – $16: 333 hospitals$16 – $22: 466 hospitals$16$22 – $32: 399 hospitals$32 – $45: 469 hospitals$32$45 – $63: 279 hospitals$63 – $90: 146 hospitals$63$90 – $127: 109 hospitals$90median $22price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,875 of 3,192 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$4$6168
$6$8234
$8$11272
$11$16333
$16$22466
$22$32399
$32$45469
$45$63279
$63$90146
$90$127109

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $22.

Alaska: median $33 across 17 hospitalsAK$33Maine: median $20 across 28 hospitalsME$20Vermont: median $26 across 13 hospitalsVT$26New Hampshire: median $24 across 21 hospitalsNH$24Washington: median $26 across 74 hospitalsWA$26Idaho: median $18 across 22 hospitalsID$18Montana: median $26 across 24 hospitalsMT$26North Dakota: median $24 across 31 hospitalsND$24Minnesota: median $25 across 100 hospitalsMN$25Illinois: median $30 across 139 hospitalsIL$30Wisconsin: median $20 across 102 hospitalsWI$20Michigan: median $12 across 94 hospitalsMI$12New York: median $11 across 115 hospitalsNY$11Massachusetts: median $26 across 48 hospitalsMA$26Oregon: median $18 across 46 hospitalsOR$18Nevada: median $34 across 21 hospitalsNV$34Wyoming: median $31 across 14 hospitalsWY$31South Dakota: median $45 across 31 hospitalsSD$45Iowa: median $33 across 81 hospitalsIA$33Indiana: median $18 across 96 hospitalsIN$18Ohio: median $22 across 137 hospitalsOH$22Pennsylvania: median $19 across 122 hospitalsPA$19New Jersey: median $4 across 57 hospitalsNJ$4Connecticut: median $21 across 23 hospitalsCT$21Rhode Island: median $28 across 10 hospitalsRI$28California: median $36 across 157 hospitalsCA$36Utah: median $7 across 39 hospitalsUT$7Colorado: median $35 across 66 hospitalsCO$35Nebraska: median $50 across 62 hospitalsNE$50Missouri: median $22 across 76 hospitalsMO$22Kentucky: median $20 across 68 hospitalsKY$20West Virginia: median $10 across 36 hospitalsWV$10Virginia: median $19 across 72 hospitalsVA$19Maryland: median $21 across 40 hospitalsMD$21Delaware: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $24 across 38 hospitalsAZ$24New Mexico: median $31 across 25 hospitalsNM$31Kansas: median $26 across 74 hospitalsKS$26Arkansas: median $13 across 38 hospitalsAR$13Tennessee: median $16 across 77 hospitalsTN$16North Carolina: median $16 across 89 hospitalsNC$16South Carolina: median $48 across 52 hospitalsSC$48Oklahoma: median $18 across 67 hospitalsOK$18Louisiana: median $15 across 49 hospitalsLA$15Mississippi: median $20 across 53 hospitalsMS$20Alabama: median $22 across 43 hospitalsAL$22Georgia: median $38 across 102 hospitalsGA$38Hawaii: median $21 across 17 hospitalsHI$21Texas: median $23 across 229 hospitalsTX$23Florida: median $17 across 151 hospitalsFL$17
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $22. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Nebraska NE62$50+128%$30 – $80
South Carolina SC52$48+120%$26 – $57
South Dakota SD31$45+105%$22 – $68
Georgia GA102$38+71%$14 – $61
California CA157$36+64%$7 – $98
Colorado CO66$35+60%$20 – $97
Nevada NV21$34+54%$19 – $47
Iowa IA81$33+50%$21 – $45
Alaska AK17$33+49%$21 – $64
Wyoming WY14$31+43%$18 – $41
New Mexico NM25$31+39%$14 – $53
Illinois IL139$30+36%$14 – $63
Rhode Island RI10$28+28%$9 – $32
Kansas KS74$26+20%$14 – $55
Washington WA74$26+19%$16 – $53
Vermont VT13$26+19%$10 – $56
Massachusetts MA48$26+18%$9 – $44
Montana MT24$26+18%$10 – $50
Minnesota MN100$25+14%$7 – $36
New Hampshire NH21$24+11%$10 – $53
Arizona AZ38$24+9%$5 – $156
North Dakota ND31$24+9%$7 – $30
Texas TX229$23+7%$14 – $80
Missouri MO76$220%$14 – $46
Alabama AL43$22−1%$7 – $90
Ohio OH137$22−2%$13 – $36
Maryland MD40$21−4%$14 – $26
Hawaii HI17$21−4%$7 – $29
Connecticut CT23$21−5%$13 – $30
Mississippi MS53$20−8%$8 – $31
Wisconsin WI102$20−9%$14 – $41
Kentucky KY68$20−10%$11 – $46
Maine ME28$20−10%$11 – $34
Pennsylvania PA122$19−13%$5 – $42
Virginia VA72$19−13%$5 – $37
Idaho ID22$18−17%$14 – $35
Indiana IN96$18−18%$9 – $42
Oregon OR46$18−19%$11 – $32
Oklahoma OK67$18−20%$9 – $46
Florida FL151$17−23%$6 – $80
North Carolina NC89$16−26%$8 – $46
Tennessee TN77$16−26%$5 – $38
Louisiana LA49$15−32%$4 – $33
Arkansas AR38$13−40%$12 – $21
Michigan MI94$12−46%$4 – $20
New York NY115$11−51%$6 – $36
West Virginia WV36$10−53%$7 – $34
Utah UT39$7−67%$6 – $102
New Jersey NJ57$4−81%$4 – $25
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 $22.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,276$20$8 – $46
Children’s64$27$11 – $67
Critical access842$28$13 – $49
Ownership
For-profit444$33$13 – $132
Government557$24$10 – $46
Non-profit2,181$20$8 – $43
System affiliation
Part of a system2,625$22$9 – $48
Independent567$23$9 – $42

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$38
Median cash price$22
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. 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

2,185 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $22 and the average of the middle 60% is $24; most fall between $9 and $45.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,185 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
$6$11$22$41$68

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($6 vs $68).

Of the 2,411 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,185 gave a usable cash price; 121 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 105 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,192 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (81%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,483 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,192
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here166
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 — excluded124
Hospitals that filed this code3,483

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 Ph-Fluid.

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, “Acidity (pH) test on body fluid other than blood (CPT 83986) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-83986-acidity-ph-test-on-body-fluid-other-than-blood