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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

Iron stain on a blood smear

CPT 85536the billing code this page is about

A laboratory stain applied to a sample of circulating blood cells to show iron deposits inside the cells under the microscope.

Hospitals typically charge $31 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 335 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $43. Most fall between $8 and $106 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
335
States
41
Filings dated
Dec 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 335 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
$7$11$31$84$201

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 29× what the cheapest tenth charges ($7 vs $201).

How the prices are spread

$6 – $9: 63 hospitals$6$9 – $13: 26 hospitals$13 – $20: 35 hospitals$13$20 – $29: 29 hospitals$29 – $44: 46 hospitals$29$44 – $65: 23 hospitals$65 – $96: 29 hospitals$65$96 – $143: 35 hospitals$143 – $213: 10 hospitals$143$213 – $316: 14 hospitals$213median $31price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (310 of 335 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$6$963
$9$1326
$13$2035
$20$2929
$29$4446
$44$6523
$65$9629
$96$14335
$143$21310
$213$31614

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $31.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMNIllinois: median $18 across 22 hospitalsIL$18Wisconsin: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: median $11 across 11 hospitalsMI$11New York: median $7 across 24 hospitalsNY$7Massachusetts: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $18 across 13 hospitalsIA$18Indiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $31 across 15 hospitalsOH$31Pennsylvania: median $6 across 22 hospitalsPA$6New Jersey: median $8 across 24 hospitalsNJ$8Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $106 across 40 hospitalsCA$106Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $98 across 17 hospitalsCO$98Nebraska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: median $26 across 15 hospitalsMD$26Delaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNCSouth Carolina: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $13 across 13 hospitalsOK$13Louisiana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $79 across 29 hospitalsTX$79Florida: median $55 across 12 hospitalsFL$55
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $31. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA40$106+246%$58 – $106
Colorado CO17$98+221%$35 – $295
Texas TX29$79+158%$46 – $299
Florida FL12$55+79%$50 – $676
Ohio OH15$310%$31 – $31
Maryland MD15$26−13%$17 – $30
Iowa IA13$18−42%$18 – $18
Illinois IL22$18−42%$9 – $96
Oklahoma OK13$13−59%$13 – $15
Michigan MI11$11−64%$9 – $134
New Jersey NJ24$8−75%$7 – $8
New York NY24$7−77%$7 – $28
Pennsylvania PA22$6−80%$5 – $36
Tennessee TN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY1not 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 $31.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care301$30$8 – $106
Children’s7fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access27$36$18 – $97
Ownership
For-profit47$84$13 – $316
Government31$16$7 – $66
Non-profit257$31$8 – $87
System affiliation
Part of a system291$31$8 – $106
Independent44$24$10 – $97

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$59
Median cash price$31
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

199 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $36 and the average of the middle 60% is $46; most fall between $18 and $98.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 199 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$18$36$82$106

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($11 vs $106).

Of the 214 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 199 gave a usable cash price; 9 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 6 a list price only.

How complete is this

335 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (8%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 351 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted335
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here11
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded5
Hospitals that filed this code351

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 IRON STAIN PERIPHERAL BLOOD.

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, “Iron stain on a blood smear (CPT 85536) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-85536-iron-stain-on-a-blood-smear