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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Urea nitrogen test on urine

CPT 84540the billing code this page is about

Measures the amount of urea nitrogen in a urine sample. Covers one measurement.

Hospitals typically charge $34 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,038 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $37. Most fall between $14 and $72 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,038
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 3,038 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$18$34$63$116

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($9 vs $116).

How the prices are spread

$6 – $9: 141 hospitals$6$9 – $12: 201 hospitals$12 – $17: 235 hospitals$12$17 – $24: 352 hospitals$24 – $34: 408 hospitals$24$34 – $47: 498 hospitals$47 – $66: 352 hospitals$47$66 – $93: 245 hospitals$93 – $132: 185 hospitals$93$132 – $185: 120 hospitals$132median $34price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,737 of 3,038 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$6$9141
$9$12201
$12$17235
$17$24352
$24$34408
$34$47498
$47$66352
$66$93245
$93$132185
$132$185120

By state

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

Alaska: median $63 across 15 hospitalsAK$63Maine: median $33 across 27 hospitalsME$33Vermont: median $62 across 13 hospitalsVT$62New Hampshire: median $34 across 23 hospitalsNH$34Washington: median $34 across 63 hospitalsWA$34Idaho: median $25 across 20 hospitalsID$25Montana: median $40 across 22 hospitalsMT$40North Dakota: median $28 across 28 hospitalsND$28Minnesota: median $31 across 95 hospitalsMN$31Illinois: median $42 across 136 hospitalsIL$42Wisconsin: median $42 across 99 hospitalsWI$42Michigan: median $24 across 96 hospitalsMI$24New York: median $18 across 105 hospitalsNY$18Massachusetts: median $32 across 49 hospitalsMA$32Oregon: median $23 across 45 hospitalsOR$23Nevada: median $37 across 18 hospitalsNV$37Wyoming: median $35 across 16 hospitalsWY$35South Dakota: median $57 across 26 hospitalsSD$57Iowa: median $35 across 70 hospitalsIA$35Indiana: median $18 across 92 hospitalsIN$18Ohio: median $25 across 139 hospitalsOH$25Pennsylvania: median $23 across 118 hospitalsPA$23New Jersey: median $6 across 55 hospitalsNJ$6Connecticut: median $24 across 23 hospitalsCT$24Rhode Island: median $18 across 10 hospitalsRI$18California: median $60 across 147 hospitalsCA$60Utah: median $46 across 38 hospitalsUT$46Colorado: median $54 across 64 hospitalsCO$54Nebraska: median $45 across 63 hospitalsNE$45Missouri: median $31 across 72 hospitalsMO$31Kentucky: median $50 across 61 hospitalsKY$50West Virginia: median $11 across 35 hospitalsWV$11Virginia: median $38 across 64 hospitalsVA$38Maryland: median $27 across 40 hospitalsMD$27Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $46 across 38 hospitalsAZ$46New Mexico: median $57 across 25 hospitalsNM$57Kansas: median $38 across 60 hospitalsKS$38Arkansas: median $19 across 30 hospitalsAR$19Tennessee: median $21 across 77 hospitalsTN$21North Carolina: median $29 across 79 hospitalsNC$29South Carolina: median $91 across 51 hospitalsSC$91Oklahoma: median $21 across 59 hospitalsOK$21Louisiana: median $19 across 48 hospitalsLA$19Mississippi: median $26 across 52 hospitalsMS$26Alabama: median $48 across 41 hospitalsAL$48Georgia: median $26 across 101 hospitalsGA$26Hawaii: median $31 across 17 hospitalsHI$31Texas: median $86 across 217 hospitalsTX$86Florida: median $33 across 149 hospitalsFL$33
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
South Carolina SC51$91+167%$30 – $175
Texas TX217$86+154%$32 – $149
Alaska AK15$63+86%$13 – $150
Vermont VT13$62+83%$24 – $123
California CA147$60+76%$12 – $167
New Mexico NM25$57+68%$25 – $72
South Dakota SD26$57+67%$20 – $105
Colorado CO64$54+60%$32 – $98
Kentucky KY61$50+48%$17 – $71
Alabama AL41$48+41%$21 – $126
Arizona AZ38$46+35%$13 – $326
Utah UT38$46+34%$39 – $68
Nebraska NE63$45+32%$28 – $74
Wisconsin WI99$42+24%$20 – $58
Illinois IL136$42+22%$21 – $88
Montana MT22$40+18%$25 – $47
Kansas KS60$38+13%$19 – $63
Virginia VA64$38+11%$18 – $74
Nevada NV18$37+9%$29 – $90
Iowa IA70$35+2%$20 – $56
Wyoming WY16$35+2%$24 – $64
New Hampshire NH23$34+1%$25 – $78
Washington WA63$34−1%$19 – $56
Florida FL149$33−3%$9 – $200
Maine ME27$33−3%$18 – $63
Massachusetts MA49$32−6%$15 – $50
Hawaii HI17$31−8%$28 – $55
Minnesota MN95$31−8%$12 – $52
Missouri MO72$31−8%$19 – $65
North Carolina NC79$29−15%$13 – $57
North Dakota ND28$28−18%$10 – $42
Maryland MD40$27−20%$21 – $33
Mississippi MS52$26−23%$18 – $49
Georgia GA101$26−25%$15 – $97
Idaho ID20$25−27%$19 – $39
Ohio OH139$25−27%$18 – $43
Connecticut CT23$24−29%$14 – $43
Michigan MI96$24−31%$10 – $42
Oregon OR45$23−31%$15 – $52
Pennsylvania PA118$23−32%$9 – $65
Oklahoma OK59$21−39%$11 – $39
Tennessee TN77$21−39%$8 – $42
Louisiana LA48$19−45%$7 – $43
Arkansas AR30$19−45%$16 – $42
Indiana IN92$18−47%$11 – $56
Rhode Island RI10$18−48%$11 – $39
New York NY105$18−48%$7 – $55
West Virginia WV35$11−68%$11 – $34
New Jersey NJ55$6−81%$6 – $16
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 care2,205$34$13 – $81
Children’s61$40$22 – $77
Critical access762$37$18 – $62
Ownership
For-profit427$51$16 – $243
Government509$32$14 – $61
Non-profit2,092$34$14 – $67
System affiliation
Part of a system2,518$35$14 – $75
Independent520$31$14 – $62

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

2,086 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $35 and the average of the middle 60% is $38; most fall between $15 and $73.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,086 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$19$35$65$111

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($10 vs $111).

Of the 2,292 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,086 gave a usable cash price; 111 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 95 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,038 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (77%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,309 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,038
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here158
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 code3,309

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 Urea Nitrogen-Urine.

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, “Urea nitrogen test on urine (CPT 84540) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-84540-urea-nitrogen-test-on-urine