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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Total protein measured by refractometry

CPT 84160the billing code this page is about

A laboratory test measuring total protein in a body fluid using a refractometer, which gauges how the fluid bends light.

Hospitals typically charge $20 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 587 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $20. Most fall between $8 and $36 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
587
States
48
Filings dated
Jun 2024 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 24, 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 587 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$9$20$33$60

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($6 vs $60).

How the prices are spread

$5 – $6: 57 hospitals$5$6 – $8: 46 hospitals$8 – $11: 65 hospitals$8$11 – $15: 39 hospitals$15 – $20: 64 hospitals$15$20 – $27: 93 hospitals$27 – $35: 80 hospitals$27$35 – $47: 26 hospitals$47 – $62: 41 hospitals$47$62 – $83: 25 hospitals$62median $20price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (536 of 587 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$5$657
$6$846
$8$1165
$11$1539
$15$2064
$20$2793
$27$3580
$35$4726
$47$6241
$62$8325

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $20.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $23 across 23 hospitalsIL$23Wisconsin: median $25 across 10 hospitalsWI$25Michigan: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $7 across 37 hospitalsNY$7Massachusetts: median $21 across 14 hospitalsMA$21Oregon: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $34 across 15 hospitalsIA$34Indiana: median $27 across 15 hospitalsIN$27Ohio: median $18 across 22 hospitalsOH$18Pennsylvania: median $13 across 38 hospitalsPA$13New Jersey: median $6 across 32 hospitalsNJ$6Connecticut: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $17 across 42 hospitalsCA$17Utah: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $19 across 15 hospitalsCO$19Nebraska: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $54 across 17 hospitalsMO$54Kentucky: median $56 across 16 hospitalsKY$56West Virginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWVVirginia: median $12 across 14 hospitalsVA$12Maryland: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $33 across 11 hospitalsKS$33Arkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $9 across 19 hospitalsTN$9North Carolina: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $11 across 19 hospitalsOK$11Louisiana: median $16 across 11 hospitalsLA$16Mississippi: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $25 across 76 hospitalsTX$25Florida: median $5 across 22 hospitalsFL$5
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $20. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Kentucky KY16$56+183%$11 – $56
Missouri MO17$54+173%$25 – $77
Iowa IA15$34+70%$32 – $34
Kansas KS11$33+64%$17 – $47
Indiana IN15$27+36%$17 – $29
Wisconsin WI10$25+25%$19 – $25
Texas TX76$25+24%$15 – $26
Illinois IL23$23+16%$7 – $64
Massachusetts MA14$21+6%$17 – $26
Colorado CO15$19−2%$12 – $37
Ohio OH22$18−9%$10 – $27
California CA42$17−15%$9 – $33
Louisiana LA11$16−21%$9 – $27
Pennsylvania PA38$13−36%$4 – $58
Virginia VA14$12−39%$9 – $36
Oklahoma OK19$11−47%$11 – $26
Tennessee TN19$9−55%$8 – $18
New York NY37$7−65%$6 – $32
New Jersey NJ32$6−69%$6 – $6
Florida FL22$5−76%$5 – $26
Georgia GA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not 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 $20.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care499$18$7 – $34
Children’s15fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access71$27$16 – $42
Ownership
For-profit66$20$7 – $46
Government55$19$6 – $45
Non-profit464$21$8 – $34
System affiliation
Part of a system510$20$8 – $35
Independent77$20$9 – $45

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$41
Median cash price$20
Cash as a share of list, median hospital60%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 40%. 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

392 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $24 and the average of the middle 60% is $22; most fall between $11 and $35.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 392 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$12$24$33$62

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($8 vs $62).

Of the 438 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 392 gave a usable cash price; 24 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 22 a list price only.

How complete is this

587 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (15%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 634 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted587
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here24
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded22
Hospitals that filed this code634

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 5, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 24, 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 ASSAY OF PROTEIN ANY SOURCE.

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 measured by refractometry (CPT 84160) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-84160-total-protein-measured-by-refractometry