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Procedure price report · Laboratory - Chemistry and Hematology

White blood cell alkaline phosphatase stain with count

CPT 85540the billing code this page is about

A stain of a blood smear that measures alkaline phosphatase activity in white blood cells, reported with a cell count score.

Hospitals typically charge $63 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,456 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $70. Most fall between $26 and $138 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,456
States
48
Filings dated
Aug 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 1,456 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
$14$34$63$115$225

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 16× what the cheapest tenth charges ($14 vs $225).

How the prices are spread

$9 – $13: 75 hospitals$9$13 – $19: 84 hospitals$19 – $27: 89 hospitals$19$27 – $39: 128 hospitals$39 – $55: 178 hospitals$39$55 – $78: 223 hospitals$78 – $110: 217 hospitals$78$110 – $157: 174 hospitals$157 – $223: 78 hospitals$157$223 – $316: 75 hospitals$223median $63price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,321 of 1,456 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$9$1375
$13$1984
$19$2789
$27$39128
$39$55178
$55$78223
$78$110217
$110$157174
$157$22378
$223$31675

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $63.

Alaska: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $40 across 10 hospitalsME$40Vermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $41 across 34 hospitalsWA$41Idaho: median $66 across 11 hospitalsID$66Montana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $55 across 10 hospitalsMN$55Illinois: median $104 across 74 hospitalsIL$104Wisconsin: median $123 across 10 hospitalsWI$123Michigan: median $45 across 31 hospitalsMI$45New York: median $32 across 61 hospitalsNY$32Massachusetts: median $68 across 16 hospitalsMA$68Oregon: median $58 across 21 hospitalsOR$58Nevada: median $46 across 11 hospitalsNV$46Wyoming: 5 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 26 hospitalsIA$34Indiana: median $60 across 49 hospitalsIN$60Ohio: median $55 across 58 hospitalsOH$55Pennsylvania: median $61 across 57 hospitalsPA$61New Jersey: median $9 across 40 hospitalsNJ$9Connecticut: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $64 across 86 hospitalsCA$64Utah: median $246 across 31 hospitalsUT$246Colorado: median $90 across 38 hospitalsCO$90Nebraska: median $141 across 19 hospitalsNE$141Missouri: median $59 across 35 hospitalsMO$59Kentucky: median $72 across 40 hospitalsKY$72West Virginia: median $71 across 16 hospitalsWV$71Virginia: median $100 across 37 hospitalsVA$100Maryland: median $54 across 18 hospitalsMD$54Delaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: median $72 across 23 hospitalsAZ$72New Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $68 across 30 hospitalsKS$68Arkansas: median $45 across 13 hospitalsAR$45Tennessee: median $51 across 45 hospitalsTN$51North Carolina: median $51 across 50 hospitalsNC$51South Carolina: median $138 across 24 hospitalsSC$138Oklahoma: median $58 across 38 hospitalsOK$58Louisiana: median $40 across 20 hospitalsLA$40Mississippi: median $33 across 25 hospitalsMS$33Alabama: median $47 across 19 hospitalsAL$47Georgia: median $111 across 39 hospitalsGA$111Hawaii: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $102 across 169 hospitalsTX$102Florida: median $18 across 74 hospitalsFL$18
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $63. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT31$246+288%$246 – $290
Nebraska NE19$141+122%$117 – $256
South Carolina SC24$138+118%$51 – $301
Wisconsin WI10$123+95%$56 – $123
Georgia GA39$111+75%$35 – $356
Illinois IL74$104+63%$28 – $151
Texas TX169$102+61%$56 – $270
Virginia VA37$100+58%$44 – $144
Colorado CO38$90+42%$59 – $149
Arizona AZ23$72+14%$23 – $88
Kentucky KY40$72+14%$29 – $108
West Virginia WV16$71+11%$45 – $166
Kansas KS30$68+7%$45 – $113
Massachusetts MA16$68+6%$43 – $219
Idaho ID11$66+4%$66 – $147
California CA86$64+1%$14 – $106
Pennsylvania PA57$61−4%$8 – $154
Indiana IN49$60−6%$19 – $175
Missouri MO35$59−6%$37 – $204
Oregon OR21$58−8%$45 – $117
Oklahoma OK38$58−9%$28 – $93
Minnesota MN10$55−13%$37 – $129
Ohio OH58$55−13%$38 – $90
Maryland MD18$54−14%$36 – $63
North Carolina NC50$51−20%$40 – $98
Tennessee TN45$51−20%$15 – $83
Alabama AL19$47−25%$21 – $111
Nevada NV11$46−28%$33 – $117
Arkansas AR13$45−29%$28 – $90
Michigan MI31$45−29%$19 – $64
Washington WA34$41−36%$18 – $74
Maine ME10$40−36%$19 – $60
Louisiana LA20$40−37%$22 – $53
Iowa IA26$34−47%$34 – $119
Mississippi MS25$33−48%$10 – $63
New York NY61$32−50%$10 – $97
Florida FL74$18−71%$9 – $169
New Jersey NJ40$9−85%$9 – $35
North Dakota ND8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH3not 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 $63.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,157$62$23 – $138
Children’s28$71$49 – $130
Critical access266$67$34 – $147
Ownership
For-profit225$88$23 – $344
Government205$58$23 – $109
Non-profit1,021$62$26 – $131
System affiliation
Part of a system1,200$64$25 – $141
Independent256$58$32 – $134

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$119
Median cash price$63
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

993 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $68 and the average of the middle 60% is $75; most fall between $36 and $138.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 993 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
$22$39$68$117$212

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($22 vs $212).

Of the 1,118 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 993 gave a usable cash price; 63 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 62 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,456 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (37%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,624 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,456
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here100
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 — excluded68
Hospitals that filed this code1,624

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 Hc Wbc Alkaline Phosphatase.

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, “White blood cell alkaline phosphatase stain with count (CPT 85540) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-85540-white-blood-cell-alkaline-phosphatase-stain-with-count