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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Total protein in spinal fluid

CPT 84157the billing code this page is about

A laboratory test measuring the total amount of protein in cerebrospinal fluid obtained by spinal tap.

Hospitals typically charge $35 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,227 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $38. Most fall between $13 and $76 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,227
States
50
Filings dated
Dec 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 3,227 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
$7$16$35$66$119

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 16× what the cheapest tenth charges ($7 vs $119).

How the prices are spread

$5 – $7: 137 hospitals$5$7 – $10: 200 hospitals$10 – $15: 266 hospitals$10$15 – $22: 360 hospitals$22 – $32: 398 hospitals$22$32 – $47: 471 hospitals$47 – $69: 507 hospitals$47$69 – $102: 325 hospitals$102 – $150: 160 hospitals$102$150 – $221: 95 hospitals$150median $35price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,919 of 3,227 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$5$7137
$7$10200
$10$15266
$15$22360
$22$32398
$32$47471
$47$69507
$69$102325
$102$150160
$150$22195

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $35.

Alaska: median $69 across 17 hospitalsAK$69Maine: median $34 across 28 hospitalsME$34Vermont: median $49 across 13 hospitalsVT$49New Hampshire: median $41 across 24 hospitalsNH$41Washington: median $40 across 76 hospitalsWA$40Idaho: median $30 across 23 hospitalsID$30Montana: median $46 across 25 hospitalsMT$46North Dakota: median $27 across 30 hospitalsND$27Minnesota: median $33 across 99 hospitalsMN$33Illinois: median $55 across 138 hospitalsIL$55Wisconsin: median $48 across 107 hospitalsWI$48Michigan: median $23 across 82 hospitalsMI$23New York: median $16 across 105 hospitalsNY$16Massachusetts: median $25 across 50 hospitalsMA$25Oregon: median $41 across 51 hospitalsOR$41Nevada: median $42 across 21 hospitalsNV$42Wyoming: median $42 across 16 hospitalsWY$42South Dakota: median $81 across 25 hospitalsSD$81Iowa: median $40 across 88 hospitalsIA$40Indiana: median $39 across 98 hospitalsIN$39Ohio: median $24 across 142 hospitalsOH$24Pennsylvania: median $23 across 119 hospitalsPA$23New Jersey: median $5 across 57 hospitalsNJ$5Connecticut: median $22 across 23 hospitalsCT$22Rhode Island: median $32 across 10 hospitalsRI$32California: median $40 across 156 hospitalsCA$40Utah: median $48 across 42 hospitalsUT$48Colorado: median $68 across 70 hospitalsCO$68Nebraska: median $57 across 72 hospitalsNE$57Missouri: median $31 across 74 hospitalsMO$31Kentucky: median $39 across 64 hospitalsKY$39West Virginia: median $15 across 40 hospitalsWV$15Virginia: median $32 across 73 hospitalsVA$32Maryland: median $27 across 41 hospitalsMD$27Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $62 across 42 hospitalsAZ$62New Mexico: median $74 across 29 hospitalsNM$74Kansas: median $29 across 76 hospitalsKS$29Arkansas: median $21 across 36 hospitalsAR$21Tennessee: median $23 across 82 hospitalsTN$23North Carolina: median $31 across 85 hospitalsNC$31South Carolina: median $66 across 49 hospitalsSC$66Oklahoma: median $32 across 71 hospitalsOK$32Louisiana: median $23 across 47 hospitalsLA$23Mississippi: median $26 across 51 hospitalsMS$26Alabama: median $30 across 43 hospitalsAL$30Georgia: median $55 across 104 hospitalsGA$55Hawaii: median $39 across 19 hospitalsHI$39Texas: median $39 across 239 hospitalsTX$39Florida: median $19 across 148 hospitalsFL$19
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $35. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Dakota SD25$81+133%$50 – $117
New Mexico NM29$74+113%$29 – $94
Alaska AK17$69+98%$23 – $164
Colorado CO70$68+96%$22 – $110
South Carolina SC49$66+90%$35 – $85
Arizona AZ42$62+78%$6 – $255
Nebraska NE72$57+64%$32 – $79
Georgia GA104$55+57%$17 – $74
Illinois IL138$55+57%$25 – $98
Vermont VT13$49+41%$33 – $73
Utah UT42$48+38%$41 – $67
Wisconsin WI107$48+37%$19 – $58
Montana MT25$46+32%$23 – $64
Wyoming WY16$42+20%$8 – $74
Nevada NV21$42+19%$21 – $175
New Hampshire NH24$41+18%$22 – $127
Oregon OR51$41+16%$17 – $60
Iowa IA88$40+16%$31 – $58
Washington WA76$40+16%$20 – $69
California CA156$40+14%$7 – $179
Kentucky KY64$39+13%$9 – $62
Indiana IN98$39+13%$11 – $76
Hawaii HI19$39+12%$10 – $48
Texas TX239$39+12%$12 – $194
Maine ME28$34−2%$20 – $95
Minnesota MN99$33−4%$15 – $54
Oklahoma OK71$32−7%$12 – $55
Rhode Island RI10$32−8%$8 – $49
Virginia VA73$32−8%$6 – $83
Missouri MO74$31−11%$16 – $72
North Carolina NC85$31−12%$9 – $69
Idaho ID23$30−13%$18 – $54
Alabama AL43$30−15%$9 – $97
Kansas KS76$29−16%$20 – $57
Maryland MD41$27−22%$21 – $33
North Dakota ND30$27−22%$7 – $52
Mississippi MS51$26−25%$12 – $46
Massachusetts MA50$25−28%$13 – $56
Ohio OH142$24−31%$15 – $49
Pennsylvania PA119$23−33%$6 – $67
Tennessee TN82$23−33%$8 – $58
Michigan MI82$23−33%$13 – $38
Louisiana LA47$23−34%$10 – $56
Connecticut CT23$22−38%$14 – $31
Arkansas AR36$21−40%$13 – $61
Florida FL148$19−45%$10 – $256
New York NY105$16−54%$6 – $56
West Virginia WV40$15−57%$15 – $44
New Jersey NJ57$5−87%$4 – $14
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 $35.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,268$32$11 – $79
Children’s65$32$17 – $67
Critical access884$41$18 – $72
Ownership
For-profit454$57$13 – $227
Government586$37$14 – $74
Non-profit2,177$32$12 – $66
System affiliation
Part of a system2,634$35$12 – $77
Independent593$35$15 – $74

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$59
Median cash price$35
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

2,199 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $36 and the average of the middle 60% is $37; most fall between $13 and $71.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,199 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
$8$16$36$62$106

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($8 vs $106).

Of the 2,433 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,199 gave a usable cash price; 129 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

3,227 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (82%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,528 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,227
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here175
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 — excluded125
Hospitals that filed this code3,528

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 Total, Protein -CSF (Arup).

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, “Total protein in spinal fluid (CPT 84157) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-84157-total-protein-in-spinal-fluid