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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Potassium blood test

CPT 84132the billing code this page is about

Measures the amount of potassium in a blood sample; covers the single potassium measurement, not a multi-test panel.

Hospitals typically charge $34 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,404 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $37. Most fall between $15 and $68 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,404
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 3,404 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
$9$19$34$60$104

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($9 vs $104).

How the prices are spread

$6 – $8: 116 hospitals$6$8 – $11: 192 hospitals$11 – $16: 246 hospitals$11$16 – $23: 346 hospitals$23 – $32: 510 hospitals$23$32 – $45: 572 hospitals$45 – $64: 532 hospitals$45$64 – $91: 279 hospitals$91 – $128: 160 hospitals$91$128 – $181: 112 hospitals$128median $34price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (3,065 of 3,404 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$6$8116
$8$11192
$11$16246
$16$23346
$23$32510
$32$45572
$45$64532
$64$91279
$91$128160
$128$181112

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $34.

Alaska: median $57 across 18 hospitalsAK$57Maine: median $26 across 28 hospitalsME$26Vermont: median $42 across 14 hospitalsVT$42New Hampshire: median $27 across 25 hospitalsNH$27Washington: median $38 across 77 hospitalsWA$38Idaho: median $30 across 25 hospitalsID$30Montana: median $43 across 33 hospitalsMT$43North Dakota: median $37 across 33 hospitalsND$37Minnesota: median $36 across 107 hospitalsMN$36Illinois: median $47 across 143 hospitalsIL$47Wisconsin: median $35 across 108 hospitalsWI$35Michigan: median $22 across 98 hospitalsMI$22New York: median $17 across 118 hospitalsNY$17Massachusetts: median $34 across 53 hospitalsMA$34Oregon: median $24 across 51 hospitalsOR$24Nevada: median $52 across 22 hospitalsNV$52Wyoming: median $26 across 16 hospitalsWY$26South Dakota: median $85 across 41 hospitalsSD$85Iowa: median $34 across 90 hospitalsIA$34Indiana: median $27 across 94 hospitalsIN$27Ohio: median $22 across 144 hospitalsOH$22Pennsylvania: median $24 across 122 hospitalsPA$24New Jersey: median $5 across 57 hospitalsNJ$5Connecticut: median $20 across 23 hospitalsCT$20Rhode Island: median $30 across 10 hospitalsRI$30California: median $73 across 163 hospitalsCA$73Utah: median $46 across 42 hospitalsUT$46Colorado: median $41 across 72 hospitalsCO$41Nebraska: median $50 across 85 hospitalsNE$50Missouri: median $28 across 77 hospitalsMO$28Kentucky: median $37 across 68 hospitalsKY$37West Virginia: median $29 across 44 hospitalsWV$29Virginia: median $39 across 73 hospitalsVA$39Maryland: median $11 across 41 hospitalsMD$11Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $45 across 42 hospitalsAZ$45New Mexico: median $54 across 29 hospitalsNM$54Kansas: median $31 across 94 hospitalsKS$31Arkansas: median $11 across 38 hospitalsAR$11Tennessee: median $21 across 83 hospitalsTN$21North Carolina: median $35 across 92 hospitalsNC$35South Carolina: median $45 across 53 hospitalsSC$45Oklahoma: median $26 across 72 hospitalsOK$26Louisiana: median $16 across 54 hospitalsLA$16Mississippi: median $20 across 54 hospitalsMS$20Alabama: median $28 across 44 hospitalsAL$28Georgia: median $32 across 111 hospitalsGA$32Hawaii: median $40 across 20 hospitalsHI$40Texas: median $60 across 247 hospitalsTX$60Florida: median $95 across 149 hospitalsFL$95
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $34. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL149$95+176%$16 – $413
South Dakota SD41$85+146%$54 – $105
California CA163$73+113%$26 – $155
Texas TX247$60+75%$28 – $163
Alaska AK18$57+65%$42 – $86
New Mexico NM29$54+55%$24 – $77
Nevada NV22$52+52%$25 – $78
Nebraska NE85$50+45%$23 – $70
Illinois IL143$47+38%$26 – $75
Utah UT42$46+33%$39 – $58
South Carolina SC53$45+31%$29 – $52
Arizona AZ42$45+29%$12 – $239
Montana MT33$43+25%$25 – $53
Vermont VT14$42+21%$33 – $81
Colorado CO72$41+19%$28 – $89
Hawaii HI20$40+15%$23 – $50
Virginia VA73$39+13%$25 – $59
Washington WA77$38+11%$22 – $58
Kentucky KY68$37+9%$19 – $72
North Dakota ND33$37+7%$30 – $52
Minnesota MN107$36+3%$16 – $58
North Carolina NC92$35+1%$19 – $45
Wisconsin WI108$35+1%$22 – $47
Massachusetts MA53$34−1%$19 – $59
Iowa IA90$34−2%$26 – $48
Georgia GA111$32−7%$15 – $72
Kansas KS94$31−10%$16 – $47
Idaho ID25$30−12%$21 – $56
Rhode Island RI10$30−14%$10 – $42
West Virginia WV44$29−16%$19 – $51
Alabama AL44$28−19%$11 – $45
Missouri MO77$28−19%$20 – $54
Indiana IN94$27−22%$11 – $50
New Hampshire NH25$27−23%$18 – $60
Maine ME28$26−25%$11 – $88
Wyoming WY16$26−25%$15 – $64
Oklahoma OK72$26−26%$16 – $39
Oregon OR51$24−30%$15 – $50
Pennsylvania PA122$24−30%$6 – $51
Michigan MI98$22−36%$9 – $36
Ohio OH144$22−36%$12 – $47
Tennessee TN83$21−40%$8 – $47
Connecticut CT23$20−41%$14 – $29
Mississippi MS54$20−43%$12 – $38
New York NY118$17−52%$11 – $59
Louisiana LA54$16−53%$8 – $37
Arkansas AR38$11−67%$6 – $44
Maryland MD41$11−68%$9 – $13
New Jersey NJ57$5−84%$5 – $21
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 $34.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,329$32$13 – $72
Children’s69$40$21 – $68
Critical access996$39$21 – $61
Ownership
For-profit476$60$20 – $228
Government649$36$18 – $61
Non-profit2,269$32$14 – $60
System affiliation
Part of a system2,742$35$15 – $71
Independent662$32$16 – $59

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$59
Median cash price$34
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

2,289 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $35 and the average of the middle 60% is $37; most fall between $16 and $67.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,289 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
$10$20$35$60$101

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($10 vs $101).

Of the 2,535 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,289 gave a usable cash price; 133 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 112 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,404 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (86%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,722 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,404
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here179
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded137
Hospitals that filed this code3,722

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 July 20, 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 Potassium, POC.

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, “Potassium blood test (CPT 84132) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-84132-potassium-blood-test