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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Automated red blood cell count

CPT 85041the billing code this page is about

Machine-run count of the number of red blood cells in a blood sample, billed on its own rather than as part of a full blood count.

Hospitals typically charge $18 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,025 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $20. Most fall between $7 and $39 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,025
States
50
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – 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 2,025 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
$4$9$18$34$57

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 14× what the cheapest tenth charges ($4 vs $57).

How the prices are spread

$3 – $4: 131 hospitals$3$4 – $6: 121 hospitals$6 – $8: 129 hospitals$6$8 – $12: 203 hospitals$12 – $16: 247 hospitals$12$16 – $23: 273 hospitals$23 – $32: 265 hospitals$23$32 – $45: 247 hospitals$45 – $63: 150 hospitals$45$63 – $88: 67 hospitals$63median $18price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,833 of 2,025 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$3$4131
$4$6121
$6$8129
$8$12203
$12$16247
$16$23273
$23$32265
$32$45247
$45$63150
$63$8867

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $18.

Alaska: median $20 across 16 hospitalsAK$20Maine: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $18 across 10 hospitalsNH$18Washington: median $19 across 64 hospitalsWA$19Idaho: median $34 across 15 hospitalsID$34Montana: median $20 across 11 hospitalsMT$20North Dakota: median $24 across 17 hospitalsND$24Minnesota: median $22 across 45 hospitalsMN$22Illinois: median $23 across 82 hospitalsIL$23Wisconsin: median $25 across 36 hospitalsWI$25Michigan: median $12 across 42 hospitalsMI$12New York: median $8 across 87 hospitalsNY$8Massachusetts: median $11 across 37 hospitalsMA$11Oregon: median $19 across 28 hospitalsOR$19Nevada: median $16 across 13 hospitalsNV$16Wyoming: median $39 across 11 hospitalsWY$39South Dakota: median $28 across 12 hospitalsSD$28Iowa: median $27 across 55 hospitalsIA$27Indiana: median $16 across 78 hospitalsIN$16Ohio: median $21 across 80 hospitalsOH$21Pennsylvania: median $13 across 102 hospitalsPA$13New Jersey: median $3 across 51 hospitalsNJ$3Connecticut: median $16 across 15 hospitalsCT$16Rhode Island: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $11 across 86 hospitalsCA$11Utah: median $37 across 32 hospitalsUT$37Colorado: median $26 across 47 hospitalsCO$26Nebraska: median $32 across 30 hospitalsNE$32Missouri: median $20 across 51 hospitalsMO$20Kentucky: median $27 across 44 hospitalsKY$27West Virginia: median $12 across 34 hospitalsWV$12Virginia: median $27 across 55 hospitalsVA$27Maryland: median $11 across 17 hospitalsMD$11Delaware: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $47 across 27 hospitalsAZ$47New Mexico: median $23 across 10 hospitalsNM$23Kansas: median $19 across 47 hospitalsKS$19Arkansas: median $17 across 18 hospitalsAR$17Tennessee: median $10 across 53 hospitalsTN$10North Carolina: median $13 across 53 hospitalsNC$13South Carolina: median $22 across 43 hospitalsSC$22Oklahoma: median $13 across 45 hospitalsOK$13Louisiana: median $10 across 23 hospitalsLA$10Mississippi: median $11 across 33 hospitalsMS$11Alabama: median $13 across 27 hospitalsAL$13Georgia: median $31 across 75 hospitalsGA$31Hawaii: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $23 across 152 hospitalsTX$23Florida: median $13 across 88 hospitalsFL$13
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $18. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Arizona AZ27$47+156%$14 – $57
Wyoming WY11$39+111%$24 – $43
Utah UT32$37+102%$31 – $44
Idaho ID15$34+87%$15 – $40
Nebraska NE30$32+74%$28 – $41
Georgia GA75$31+68%$8 – $44
South Dakota SD12$28+53%$21 – $59
Iowa IA55$27+48%$15 – $34
Virginia VA55$27+47%$11 – $63
Kentucky KY44$27+47%$10 – $51
Colorado CO47$26+41%$18 – $46
Wisconsin WI36$25+38%$15 – $37
North Dakota ND17$24+31%$17 – $29
Texas TX152$23+28%$11 – $70
New Mexico NM10$23+25%$16 – $63
Illinois IL82$23+24%$15 – $56
South Carolina SC43$22+21%$22 – $38
Minnesota MN45$22+20%$3 – $41
Ohio OH80$21+16%$14 – $38
Alaska AK16$20+9%$17 – $48
Missouri MO51$20+8%$9 – $41
Montana MT11$20+8%$14 – $29
Oregon OR28$19+5%$9 – $40
Washington WA64$19+5%$9 – $36
Kansas KS47$19+4%$12 – $33
New Hampshire NH10$18−3%$9 – $39
Arkansas AR18$17−7%$9 – $34
Nevada NV13$16−12%$7 – $44
Connecticut CT15$16−15%$11 – $18
Indiana IN78$16−15%$6 – $35
Oklahoma OK45$13−27%$9 – $23
North Carolina NC53$13−28%$5 – $44
Pennsylvania PA102$13−30%$5 – $29
Alabama AL27$13−31%$5 – $23
Florida FL88$13−31%$4 – $47
West Virginia WV34$12−35%$5 – $38
Michigan MI42$12−36%$5 – $31
California CA86$11−40%$2 – $27
Maryland MD17$11−41%$7 – $13
Mississippi MS33$11−42%$7 – $18
Massachusetts MA37$11−42%$9 – $28
Tennessee TN53$10−44%$5 – $33
Louisiana LA23$10−44%$6 – $22
New York NY87$8−57%$3 – $24
New Jersey NJ51$3−82%$3 – $6
Hawaii HI9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT3not 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 $18.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,493$17$6 – $38
Children’s29$17$6 – $40
Critical access498$24$11 – $40
Ownership
For-profit303$25$7 – $95
Government343$21$8 – $39
Non-profit1,374$17$7 – $36
System affiliation
Part of a system1,657$18$7 – $39
Independent368$18$8 – $37

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$32
Median cash price$18
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

1,364 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $19 and the average of the middle 60% is $20; most fall between $8 and $38.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,364 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$19$34$51

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($5 vs $51).

Of the 1,520 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,364 gave a usable cash price; 70 carried a plausibility flag, 7 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 79 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,025 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (51%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,221 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,025
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here101
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded8
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded87
Hospitals that filed this code2,221

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 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 AUTOMATED RBC COUNT.

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, “Automated red blood cell count (CPT 85041) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-85041-automated-red-blood-cell-count