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Procedure price report · Other Laboratory

Blood test for Q fever antibodies

CPT 86638the billing code this page is about

A blood test that looks for antibodies to Coxiella burnetii, the bacterium that causes Q fever.

Hospitals typically charge $47 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,468 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $50. Most fall between $19 and $96 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,468
States
50
Filings dated
Dec 2022 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 25, 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 2,468 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
$13$23$47$82$143

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($13 vs $143).

How the prices are spread

$11 – $15: 240 hospitals$11$15 – $21: 165 hospitals$21 – $28: 270 hospitals$21$28 – $39: 255 hospitals$39 – $53: 291 hospitals$39$53 – $73: 366 hospitals$73 – $100: 306 hospitals$73$100 – $137: 186 hospitals$137 – $188: 96 hospitals$137$188 – $258: 48 hospitals$188median $47price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,223 of 2,468 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$11$15240
$15$21165
$21$28270
$28$39255
$39$53291
$53$73366
$73$100306
$100$137186
$137$18896
$188$25848

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $47.

Alaska: median $66 across 11 hospitalsAK$66Maine: median $49 across 16 hospitalsME$49Vermont: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $59 across 17 hospitalsNH$59Washington: median $44 across 54 hospitalsWA$44Idaho: median $40 across 17 hospitalsID$40Montana: median $66 across 21 hospitalsMT$66North Dakota: median $70 across 15 hospitalsND$70Minnesota: median $51 across 74 hospitalsMN$51Illinois: median $53 across 102 hospitalsIL$53Wisconsin: median $57 across 91 hospitalsWI$57Michigan: median $16 across 53 hospitalsMI$16New York: median $27 across 90 hospitalsNY$27Massachusetts: median $55 across 43 hospitalsMA$55Oregon: median $48 across 32 hospitalsOR$48Nevada: median $60 across 18 hospitalsNV$60Wyoming: median $54 across 15 hospitalsWY$54South Dakota: median $106 across 31 hospitalsSD$106Iowa: median $49 across 56 hospitalsIA$49Indiana: median $35 across 74 hospitalsIN$35Ohio: median $57 across 108 hospitalsOH$57Pennsylvania: median $63 across 109 hospitalsPA$63New Jersey: median $14 across 53 hospitalsNJ$14Connecticut: median $51 across 17 hospitalsCT$51Rhode Island: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $14 across 109 hospitalsCA$14Utah: median $74 across 37 hospitalsUT$74Colorado: median $65 across 52 hospitalsCO$65Nebraska: median $65 across 51 hospitalsNE$65Missouri: median $37 across 64 hospitalsMO$37Kentucky: median $59 across 52 hospitalsKY$59West Virginia: median $8 across 24 hospitalsWV$8Virginia: median $63 across 60 hospitalsVA$63Maryland: median $87 across 36 hospitalsMD$87Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $35 across 35 hospitalsAZ$35New Mexico: median $54 across 16 hospitalsNM$54Kansas: median $44 across 59 hospitalsKS$44Arkansas: median $38 across 25 hospitalsAR$38Tennessee: median $33 across 63 hospitalsTN$33North Carolina: median $35 across 70 hospitalsNC$35South Carolina: median $77 across 47 hospitalsSC$77Oklahoma: median $41 across 49 hospitalsOK$41Louisiana: median $26 across 34 hospitalsLA$26Mississippi: median $24 across 32 hospitalsMS$24Alabama: median $33 across 32 hospitalsAL$33Georgia: median $45 across 68 hospitalsGA$45Hawaii: median $60 across 13 hospitalsHI$60Texas: median $75 across 187 hospitalsTX$75Florida: median $21 across 113 hospitalsFL$21
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $47. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Dakota SD31$106+126%$44 – $149
Maryland MD36$87+87%$59 – $103
South Carolina SC47$77+63%$52 – $108
Texas TX187$75+60%$33 – $176
Utah UT37$74+57%$61 – $87
North Dakota ND15$70+49%$42 – $90
Montana MT21$66+42%$39 – $110
Alaska AK11$66+41%$40 – $123
Nebraska NE51$65+39%$31 – $127
Colorado CO52$65+38%$38 – $123
Pennsylvania PA109$63+35%$14 – $151
Virginia VA60$63+34%$10 – $91
Hawaii HI13$60+28%$23 – $97
Nevada NV18$60+27%$14 – $102
New Hampshire NH17$59+26%$32 – $164
Kentucky KY52$59+25%$29 – $209
Ohio OH108$57+22%$29 – $108
Wisconsin WI91$57+21%$28 – $62
Massachusetts MA43$55+18%$30 – $107
New Mexico NM16$54+15%$39 – $114
Wyoming WY15$54+15%$38 – $80
Illinois IL102$53+13%$27 – $112
Minnesota MN74$51+8%$25 – $68
Connecticut CT17$51+8%$36 – $74
Maine ME16$49+5%$29 – $106
Iowa IA56$49+4%$31 – $72
Oregon OR32$48+4%$19 – $69
Georgia GA68$45−4%$24 – $96
Washington WA54$44−6%$25 – $62
Kansas KS59$44−6%$23 – $96
Oklahoma OK49$41−12%$19 – $73
Idaho ID17$40−15%$22 – $74
Arkansas AR25$38−18%$17 – $79
Missouri MO64$37−21%$23 – $85
North Carolina NC70$35−25%$20 – $89
Indiana IN74$35−26%$19 – $61
Arizona AZ35$35−26%$20 – $129
Tennessee TN63$33−29%$11 – $66
Alabama AL32$33−29%$13 – $87
New York NY90$27−42%$13 – $54
Louisiana LA34$26−44%$11 – $51
Mississippi MS32$24−49%$11 – $58
Florida FL113$21−55%$14 – $81
Michigan MI53$16−66%$10 – $36
New Jersey NJ53$14−70%$12 – $50
California CA109$14−71%$10 – $28
West Virginia WV24$8−83%$8 – $67
Rhode Island RI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE7not 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 $47.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,873$42$17 – $95
Children’s38$43$17 – $78
Critical access548$57$29 – $102
Ownership
For-profit344$55$20 – $258
Government372$45$18 – $90
Non-profit1,743$46$20 – $90
System affiliation
Part of a system2,095$47$20 – $96
Independent373$47$18 – $90

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$77
Median cash price$47
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

1,731 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $50 and the average of the middle 60% is $50; most fall between $22 and $90.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,731 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$25$50$78$124

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($14 vs $124).

Of the 1,918 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,731 gave a usable cash price; 104 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 82 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,468 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (62%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,705 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,468
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here139
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 — excluded97
Hospitals that filed this code2,705

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 25, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 25, 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 Q Fever Antibody Screen With Titer Reflex.

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, “Blood test for Q fever antibodies (CPT 86638) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-86638-blood-test-for-q-fever-antibodies