HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Uric acid blood test

CPT 84550the billing code this page is about

Measures the level of uric acid in blood. Covers one measurement.

Hospitals typically charge $41 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,390 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $43. Most fall between $17 and $79 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,390
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 3,390 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$41$69$131

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 14× what the cheapest tenth charges ($10 vs $131).

How the prices are spread

$5 – $8: 84 hospitals$5$8 – $12: 185 hospitals$12 – $17: 225 hospitals$12$17 – $25: 381 hospitals$25 – $36: 450 hospitals$25$36 – $52: 625 hospitals$52 – $76: 548 hospitals$52$76 – $111: 308 hospitals$111 – $163: 182 hospitals$111$163 – $237: 65 hospitals$163median $41price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (3,053 of 3,390 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$5$884
$8$12185
$12$17225
$17$25381
$25$36450
$36$52625
$52$76548
$76$111308
$111$163182
$163$23765

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $41.

Alaska: median $62 across 19 hospitalsAK$62Maine: median $30 across 28 hospitalsME$30Vermont: median $42 across 14 hospitalsVT$42New Hampshire: median $30 across 25 hospitalsNH$30Washington: median $43 across 77 hospitalsWA$43Idaho: median $33 across 24 hospitalsID$33Montana: median $33 across 33 hospitalsMT$33North Dakota: median $38 across 33 hospitalsND$38Minnesota: median $37 across 107 hospitalsMN$37Illinois: median $68 across 142 hospitalsIL$68Wisconsin: median $44 across 108 hospitalsWI$44Michigan: median $20 across 97 hospitalsMI$20New York: median $18 across 118 hospitalsNY$18Massachusetts: median $39 across 52 hospitalsMA$39Oregon: median $26 across 51 hospitalsOR$26Nevada: median $52 across 22 hospitalsNV$52Wyoming: median $44 across 16 hospitalsWY$44South Dakota: median $90 across 41 hospitalsSD$90Iowa: median $40 across 90 hospitalsIA$40Indiana: median $33 across 94 hospitalsIN$33Ohio: median $35 across 141 hospitalsOH$35Pennsylvania: median $25 across 122 hospitalsPA$25New Jersey: median $5 across 54 hospitalsNJ$5Connecticut: median $24 across 23 hospitalsCT$24Rhode Island: median $37 across 10 hospitalsRI$37California: median $67 across 163 hospitalsCA$67Utah: median $46 across 42 hospitalsUT$46Colorado: median $42 across 72 hospitalsCO$42Nebraska: median $53 across 82 hospitalsNE$53Missouri: median $32 across 78 hospitalsMO$32Kentucky: median $56 across 69 hospitalsKY$56West Virginia: median $33 across 44 hospitalsWV$33Virginia: median $60 across 73 hospitalsVA$60Maryland: median $5 across 42 hospitalsMD$5Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $61 across 42 hospitalsAZ$61New Mexico: median $52 across 30 hospitalsNM$52Kansas: median $35 across 92 hospitalsKS$35Arkansas: median $14 across 40 hospitalsAR$14Tennessee: median $24 across 83 hospitalsTN$24North Carolina: median $42 across 86 hospitalsNC$42South Carolina: median $49 across 53 hospitalsSC$49Oklahoma: median $34 across 72 hospitalsOK$34Louisiana: median $23 across 54 hospitalsLA$23Mississippi: median $24 across 54 hospitalsMS$24Alabama: median $29 across 44 hospitalsAL$29Georgia: median $42 across 111 hospitalsGA$42Hawaii: median $39 across 21 hospitalsHI$39Texas: median $78 across 247 hospitalsTX$78Florida: median $129 across 148 hospitalsFL$129
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $41. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL148$129+215%$18 – $763
South Dakota SD41$90+121%$50 – $135
Texas TX247$78+92%$36 – $175
Illinois IL142$68+67%$37 – $101
California CA163$67+65%$29 – $134
Alaska AK19$62+51%$35 – $101
Arizona AZ42$61+49%$13 – $268
Virginia VA73$60+48%$30 – $110
Kentucky KY69$56+37%$27 – $70
Nebraska NE82$53+30%$19 – $77
New Mexico NM30$52+28%$20 – $84
Nevada NV22$52+28%$24 – $149
South Carolina SC53$49+21%$33 – $62
Utah UT42$46+12%$39 – $67
Wyoming WY16$44+8%$9 – $73
Wisconsin WI108$44+8%$23 – $58
Washington WA77$43+5%$20 – $60
Colorado CO72$42+3%$29 – $95
Georgia GA111$42+2%$17 – $78
Vermont VT14$42+2%$25 – $72
North Carolina NC86$42+2%$23 – $61
Iowa IA90$40−1%$29 – $58
Massachusetts MA52$39−4%$16 – $72
Hawaii HI21$39−5%$27 – $55
North Dakota ND33$38−7%$32 – $55
Minnesota MN107$37−9%$18 – $59
Rhode Island RI10$37−10%$13 – $50
Ohio OH141$35−15%$19 – $59
Kansas KS92$35−15%$20 – $48
Oklahoma OK72$34−18%$16 – $51
Idaho ID24$33−18%$20 – $63
Indiana IN94$33−19%$11 – $73
Montana MT33$33−19%$21 – $64
West Virginia WV44$33−19%$19 – $65
Missouri MO78$32−20%$22 – $72
New Hampshire NH25$30−26%$22 – $65
Maine ME28$30−26%$15 – $93
Alabama AL44$29−28%$13 – $112
Oregon OR51$26−37%$14 – $53
Pennsylvania PA122$25−39%$8 – $64
Mississippi MS54$24−40%$14 – $41
Tennessee TN83$24−41%$10 – $72
Connecticut CT23$24−42%$17 – $38
Louisiana LA54$23−43%$11 – $51
Michigan MI97$20−51%$13 – $40
New York NY118$18−56%$8 – $60
Arkansas AR40$14−65%$10 – $44
Maryland MD42$5−87%$4 – $7
New Jersey NJ54$5−87%$5 – $31
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 $41.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,318$39$15 – $89
Children’s66$41$24 – $100
Critical access996$43$23 – $70
Ownership
For-profit471$70$23 – $317
Government651$45$21 – $70
Non-profit2,258$37$16 – $70
System affiliation
Part of a system2,733$41$16 – $83
Independent657$39$20 – $73

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$68
Median cash price$41
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

2,281 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $41 and the average of the middle 60% is $44; most fall between $19 and $80.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,281 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
$11$22$41$70$122

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($11 vs $122).

Of the 2,519 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,281 gave a usable cash price; 126 carried a plausibility flag, 0 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

3,390 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 3,700 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,390
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here174
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 — excluded135
Hospitals that filed this code3,700

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 Uric Acid.

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, “Uric acid blood test (CPT 84550) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-84550-uric-acid-blood-test