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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Hemoglobin blood test

CPT 85018the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test measuring the amount of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells.

Hospitals typically charge $21 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,412 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $23. Most fall between $8 and $47 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,412
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 3,412 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
$5$10$21$41$73

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 15× what the cheapest tenth charges ($5 vs $73).

How the prices are spread

$3 – $4: 131 hospitals$3$4 – $6: 155 hospitals$6 – $8: 261 hospitals$6$8 – $12: 328 hospitals$12 – $18: 483 hospitals$12$18 – $26: 508 hospitals$26 – $38: 455 hospitals$26$38 – $56: 437 hospitals$56 – $82: 232 hospitals$56$82 – $119: 105 hospitals$82median $21price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (3,095 of 3,412 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$3$4131
$4$6155
$6$8261
$8$12328
$12$18483
$18$26508
$26$38455
$38$56437
$56$82232
$82$119105

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $21.

Alaska: median $36 across 18 hospitalsAK$36Maine: median $15 across 28 hospitalsME$15Vermont: median $23 across 14 hospitalsVT$23New Hampshire: median $17 across 25 hospitalsNH$17Washington: median $25 across 76 hospitalsWA$25Idaho: median $14 across 24 hospitalsID$14Montana: median $25 across 35 hospitalsMT$25North Dakota: median $22 across 34 hospitalsND$22Minnesota: median $29 across 107 hospitalsMN$29Illinois: median $31 across 141 hospitalsIL$31Wisconsin: median $25 across 109 hospitalsWI$25Michigan: median $16 across 100 hospitalsMI$16New York: median $9 across 117 hospitalsNY$9Massachusetts: median $18 across 53 hospitalsMA$18Oregon: median $17 across 51 hospitalsOR$17Nevada: median $21 across 21 hospitalsNV$21Wyoming: median $27 across 16 hospitalsWY$27South Dakota: median $59 across 41 hospitalsSD$59Iowa: median $27 across 92 hospitalsIA$27Indiana: median $14 across 93 hospitalsIN$14Ohio: median $16 across 143 hospitalsOH$16Pennsylvania: median $15 across 121 hospitalsPA$15New Jersey: median $3 across 57 hospitalsNJ$3Connecticut: median $12 across 23 hospitalsCT$12Rhode Island: median $20 across 10 hospitalsRI$20California: median $40 across 162 hospitalsCA$40Utah: median $81 across 42 hospitalsUT$81Colorado: median $26 across 71 hospitalsCO$26Nebraska: median $33 across 84 hospitalsNE$33Missouri: median $21 across 81 hospitalsMO$21Kentucky: median $24 across 69 hospitalsKY$24West Virginia: median $11 across 44 hospitalsWV$11Virginia: median $18 across 73 hospitalsVA$18Maryland: median $11 across 38 hospitalsMD$11Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $26 across 42 hospitalsAZ$26New Mexico: median $35 across 29 hospitalsNM$35Kansas: median $20 across 96 hospitalsKS$20Arkansas: median $7 across 39 hospitalsAR$7Tennessee: median $16 across 83 hospitalsTN$16North Carolina: median $20 across 95 hospitalsNC$20South Carolina: median $35 across 53 hospitalsSC$35Oklahoma: median $15 across 71 hospitalsOK$15Louisiana: median $13 across 54 hospitalsLA$13Mississippi: median $12 across 54 hospitalsMS$12Alabama: median $15 across 45 hospitalsAL$15Georgia: median $23 across 108 hospitalsGA$23Hawaii: median $22 across 21 hospitalsHI$22Texas: median $43 across 248 hospitalsTX$43Florida: median $58 across 154 hospitalsFL$58
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $21. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT42$81+287%$50 – $95
South Dakota SD41$59+181%$42 – $89
Florida FL154$58+178%$6 – $299
Texas TX248$43+107%$13 – $82
California CA162$40+92%$4 – $73
Alaska AK18$36+70%$24 – $62
New Mexico NM29$35+67%$16 – $53
South Carolina SC53$35+66%$21 – $47
Nebraska NE84$33+58%$16 – $49
Illinois IL141$31+48%$15 – $55
Minnesota MN107$29+39%$8 – $47
Wyoming WY16$27+30%$5 – $47
Iowa IA92$27+27%$16 – $38
Colorado CO71$26+25%$14 – $70
Arizona AZ42$26+23%$4 – $124
Washington WA76$25+21%$10 – $37
Montana MT35$25+19%$14 – $32
Wisconsin WI109$25+18%$15 – $36
Kentucky KY69$24+14%$9 – $55
Georgia GA108$23+10%$9 – $41
Vermont VT14$23+8%$12 – $40
Hawaii HI21$22+5%$12 – $29
North Dakota ND34$22+3%$16 – $34
Nevada NV21$210%$8 – $36
Missouri MO81$210%$15 – $41
Rhode Island RI10$20−3%$9 – $32
Kansas KS96$20−5%$12 – $29
North Carolina NC95$20−5%$11 – $48
Massachusetts MA53$18−14%$10 – $32
Virginia VA73$18−14%$12 – $62
New Hampshire NH25$17−18%$8 – $33
Oregon OR51$17−18%$9 – $30
Ohio OH143$16−23%$8 – $30
Michigan MI100$16−24%$6 – $24
Tennessee TN83$16−24%$5 – $37
Oklahoma OK71$15−26%$10 – $36
Maine ME28$15−27%$8 – $30
Alabama AL45$15−28%$6 – $47
Pennsylvania PA121$15−31%$4 – $35
Indiana IN93$14−31%$7 – $26
Idaho ID24$14−35%$11 – $32
Louisiana LA54$13−38%$5 – $31
Connecticut CT23$12−40%$9 – $23
Mississippi MS54$12−42%$9 – $23
West Virginia WV44$11−47%$5 – $25
Maryland MD38$11−48%$8 – $13
New York NY117$9−59%$4 – $25
Arkansas AR39$7−65%$4 – $27
New Jersey NJ57$3−87%$3 – $11
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 $21.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,329$20$7 – $51
Children’s69$21$10 – $57
Critical access1,004$23$11 – $42
Ownership
For-profit477$42$12 – $178
Government644$20$9 – $41
Non-profit2,281$20$8 – $43
System affiliation
Part of a system2,756$22$8 – $50
Independent656$18$9 – $38

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$36
Median cash price$21
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

2,296 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $21 and the average of the middle 60% is $24; most fall between $10 and $47.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,296 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$11$21$41$66

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($6 vs $66).

Of the 2,540 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,296 gave a usable cash price; 134 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 109 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,412 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 3,721 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,412
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here173
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 — excluded134
Hospitals that filed this code3,721

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 Blood Count Hemoglobin.

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, “Hemoglobin blood test (CPT 85018) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-85018-hemoglobin-blood-test