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Procedure price report · Other Laboratory

Aquaporin-4 antibody blood test, enzyme immunoassay

CPT 86051the billing code this page is about

Blood test using an enzyme immunoassay method to detect antibodies against the aquaporin-4 water channel protein found in nervous system tissue.

Hospitals typically charge $150 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,281 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $160. Most fall between $32 and $381 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,281
States
47
Filings dated
Jan 2024 – 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 1,281 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
$17$38$150$318$677

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 40× what the cheapest tenth charges ($17 vs $677).

How the prices are spread

$12 – $18: 105 hospitals$12$18 – $28: 92 hospitals$28 – $44: 108 hospitals$28$44 – $70: 97 hospitals$70 – $109: 113 hospitals$70$109 – $171: 152 hospitals$171 – $268: 188 hospitals$171$268 – $419: 154 hospitals$419 – $657: 96 hospitals$419$657 – $1,030: 67 hospitals$657median $150price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,172 of 1,281 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$12$18105
$18$2892
$28$44108
$44$7097
$70$109113
$109$171152
$171$268188
$268$419154
$419$65796
$657$1,03067

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $150.

Alaska: 8 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: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $44 across 25 hospitalsWA$44Idaho: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $149 across 51 hospitalsIL$149Wisconsin: median $91 across 20 hospitalsWI$91Michigan: median $18 across 16 hospitalsMI$18New York: median $20 across 38 hospitalsNY$20Massachusetts: median $31 across 22 hospitalsMA$31Oregon: median $188 across 13 hospitalsOR$188Nevada: median $61 across 10 hospitalsNV$61Wyoming: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $49 across 18 hospitalsIA$49Indiana: median $70 across 37 hospitalsIN$70Ohio: median $150 across 48 hospitalsOH$150Pennsylvania: median $81 across 59 hospitalsPA$81New Jersey: median $13 across 38 hospitalsNJ$13Connecticut: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $113 across 55 hospitalsCA$113Utah: median $942 across 31 hospitalsUT$942Colorado: median $310 across 28 hospitalsCO$310Nebraska: median $51 across 21 hospitalsNE$51Missouri: median $243 across 34 hospitalsMO$243Kentucky: median $220 across 28 hospitalsKY$220West Virginia: median $560 across 10 hospitalsWV$560Virginia: median $168 across 58 hospitalsVA$168Maryland: median $115 across 27 hospitalsMD$115Delaware: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $79 across 23 hospitalsAZ$79New Mexico: median $22 across 11 hospitalsNM$22Kansas: median $520 across 18 hospitalsKS$520Arkansas: median $151 across 18 hospitalsAR$151Tennessee: median $90 across 43 hospitalsTN$90North Carolina: median $242 across 47 hospitalsNC$242South Carolina: median $203 across 30 hospitalsSC$203Oklahoma: median $175 across 34 hospitalsOK$175Louisiana: median $29 across 26 hospitalsLA$29Mississippi: median $43 across 37 hospitalsMS$43Alabama: median $245 across 12 hospitalsAL$245Georgia: median $237 across 49 hospitalsGA$237Hawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $233 across 117 hospitalsTX$233Florida: median $204 across 73 hospitalsFL$204
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $150. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT31$942+528%$563 – $1,108
West Virginia WV10$560+273%$560 – $639
Kansas KS18$520+247%$34 – $1,342
Colorado CO28$310+107%$121 – $893
Alabama AL12$245+63%$11 – $960
Missouri MO34$243+62%$170 – $473
North Carolina NC47$242+61%$216 – $524
Georgia GA49$237+58%$154 – $578
Texas TX117$233+55%$36 – $446
Kentucky KY28$220+47%$35 – $306
Florida FL73$204+36%$53 – $418
South Carolina SC30$203+35%$171 – $443
Oregon OR13$188+25%$81 – $188
Oklahoma OK34$175+16%$111 – $296
Virginia VA58$168+12%$34 – $491
Arkansas AR18$151+1%$148 – $169
Ohio OH48$1500%$60 – $679
Illinois IL51$149−1%$59 – $390
Maryland MD27$115−23%$65 – $380
California CA55$113−25%$28 – $286
Wisconsin WI20$91−39%$91 – $119
Tennessee TN43$90−40%$34 – $245
Pennsylvania PA59$81−46%$32 – $165
Arizona AZ23$79−48%$35 – $142
Indiana IN37$70−53%$29 – $300
Nevada NV10$61−59%$48 – $302
Nebraska NE21$51−66%$26 – $165
Iowa IA18$49−68%$49 – $97
Washington WA25$44−71%$11 – $266
Mississippi MS37$43−71%$11 – $89
Massachusetts MA22$31−79%$17 – $73
Louisiana LA26$29−81%$17 – $149
New Mexico NM11$22−85%$20 – $37
New York NY38$20−87%$12 – $192
Michigan MI16$18−88%$16 – $49
New Jersey NJ38$13−92%$12 – $26
Maine ME9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not 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 $150.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,064$148$29 – $368
Children’s17fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access197$169$35 – $520
Ownership
For-profit210$184$44 – $569
Government178$216$28 – $449
Non-profit890$127$28 – $344
System affiliation
Part of a system1,128$150$33 – $370
Independent153$155$28 – $560

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$268
Median cash price$150
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

890 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $150 and the average of the middle 60% is $153; most fall between $34 and $351.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 890 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
$20$43$150$286$538

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 26× what the cheapest tenth charges ($20 vs $538).

Of the 969 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 890 gave a usable cash price; 46 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 33 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,281 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 1,389 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,281
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here73
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded34
Hospitals that filed this code1,389

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 Other Laboratory family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Hc Aquaporin-4 Antibody Elisa.

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, “Aquaporin-4 antibody blood test, enzyme immunoassay (CPT 86051) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-86051-aquaporin-4-antibody-blood-test-enzyme-immunoassay