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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Manual reticulocyte count

CPT 85044the billing code this page is about

A technologist counts young red blood cells on a stained blood smear under a microscope to gauge new red cell production.

Hospitals typically charge $37 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,254 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $42. Most fall between $15 and $94 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,254
States
49
Filings dated
Dec 2022 – 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 1,254 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$18$37$74$171

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 21× what the cheapest tenth charges ($8 vs $171).

How the prices are spread

$5 – $7: 44 hospitals$5$7 – $11: 62 hospitals$11 – $16: 99 hospitals$11$16 – $24: 143 hospitals$24 – $35: 190 hospitals$24$35 – $52: 183 hospitals$52 – $76: 160 hospitals$52$76 – $113: 126 hospitals$113 – $166: 55 hospitals$113$166 – $246: 68 hospitals$166median $37price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,130 of 1,254 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$5$744
$7$1162
$11$1699
$16$24143
$24$35190
$35$52183
$52$76160
$76$113126
$113$16655
$166$24668

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $37.

Alaska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $33 across 30 hospitalsWA$33Idaho: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $26 across 14 hospitalsMN$26Illinois: median $30 across 46 hospitalsIL$30Wisconsin: median $30 across 27 hospitalsWI$30Michigan: median $20 across 33 hospitalsMI$20New York: median $16 across 60 hospitalsNY$16Massachusetts: median $20 across 23 hospitalsMA$20Oregon: median $42 across 13 hospitalsOR$42Nevada: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 8 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 29 hospitalsIA$34Indiana: median $54 across 31 hospitalsIN$54Ohio: median $20 across 42 hospitalsOH$20Pennsylvania: median $19 across 47 hospitalsPA$19New Jersey: median $5 across 38 hospitalsNJ$5Connecticut: median $23 across 10 hospitalsCT$23Rhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $90 across 79 hospitalsCA$90Utah: median $238 across 28 hospitalsUT$238Colorado: median $42 across 33 hospitalsCO$42Nebraska: median $43 across 20 hospitalsNE$43Missouri: median $45 across 28 hospitalsMO$45Kentucky: median $49 across 21 hospitalsKY$49West Virginia: median $28 across 13 hospitalsWV$28Virginia: median $35 across 18 hospitalsVA$35Maryland: median $30 across 14 hospitalsMD$30Delaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $113 across 24 hospitalsAZ$113New Mexico: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $41 across 19 hospitalsKS$41Arkansas: median $21 across 18 hospitalsAR$21Tennessee: median $15 across 24 hospitalsTN$15North Carolina: median $55 across 49 hospitalsNC$55South Carolina: median $34 across 28 hospitalsSC$34Oklahoma: median $9 across 21 hospitalsOK$9Louisiana: median $15 across 24 hospitalsLA$15Mississippi: median $22 across 32 hospitalsMS$22Alabama: median $30 across 18 hospitalsAL$30Georgia: median $43 across 61 hospitalsGA$43Hawaii: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $58 across 117 hospitalsTX$58Florida: median $90 across 58 hospitalsFL$90
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $37. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT28$238+540%$199 – $280
Arizona AZ24$113+203%$11 – $196
California CA79$90+142%$44 – $119
Florida FL58$90+141%$34 – $612
Texas TX117$58+56%$28 – $220
North Carolina NC49$55+48%$32 – $102
Indiana IN31$54+46%$19 – $92
Kentucky KY21$49+32%$32 – $62
Missouri MO28$45+21%$20 – $63
Georgia GA61$43+16%$32 – $74
Nebraska NE20$43+16%$34 – $68
Colorado CO33$42+12%$34 – $106
Oregon OR13$42+12%$20 – $67
Kansas KS19$41+11%$11 – $49
Virginia VA18$35−7%$15 – $46
South Carolina SC28$34−7%$23 – $53
Iowa IA29$34−10%$30 – $44
Washington WA30$33−11%$13 – $49
Alabama AL18$30−18%$11 – $113
Illinois IL46$30−19%$19 – $80
Wisconsin WI27$30−19%$30 – $101
Maryland MD14$30−20%$18 – $38
West Virginia WV13$28−25%$13 – $57
Minnesota MN14$26−29%$9 – $82
Connecticut CT10$23−38%$18 – $26
Mississippi MS32$22−40%$14 – $30
Arkansas AR18$21−45%$10 – $28
Massachusetts MA23$20−46%$13 – $58
Michigan MI33$20−47%$7 – $78
Ohio OH42$20−48%$18 – $38
Pennsylvania PA47$19−50%$4 – $35
New York NY60$16−58%$5 – $43
Louisiana LA24$15−60%$8 – $32
Tennessee TN24$15−60%$7 – $39
Oklahoma OK21$9−75%$8 – $44
New Jersey NJ38$5−87%$4 – $17
Maine ME9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not 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 $37.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care966$37$15 – $103
Children’s26$47$21 – $196
Critical access256$40$19 – $68
Ownership
For-profit207$64$22 – $246
Government198$34$15 – $70
Non-profit843$34$14 – $82
System affiliation
Part of a system1,061$37$15 – $102
Independent193$34$15 – $69

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$74
Median cash price$37
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

837 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $37 and the average of the middle 60% is $44; most fall between $18 and $97.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 837 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
$12$20$37$82$142

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($12 vs $142).

Of the 936 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 837 gave a usable cash price; 49 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 50 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,254 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (32%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,378 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,254
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here71
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 — excluded52
Hospitals that filed this code1,378

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 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 MANUAL RETICULOCYTE 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, “Manual reticulocyte count (CPT 85044) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-85044-manual-reticulocyte-count