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Procedure price report · Other Laboratory

Herpes simplex type 1 antibody blood test

CPT 86695the billing code this page is about

A blood test for antibodies specific to herpes simplex virus type 1, the type usually linked to cold sores.

Hospitals typically charge $59 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,212 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $59. Most fall between $23 and $106 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,212
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 3,212 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$26$59$96$149

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($13 vs $149).

How the prices are spread

$9 – $13: 105 hospitals$9$13 – $17: 201 hospitals$17 – $24: 219 hospitals$17$24 – $33: 300 hospitals$33 – $45: 319 hospitals$33$45 – $62: 393 hospitals$62 – $85: 531 hospitals$62$85 – $116: 445 hospitals$116 – $160: 251 hospitals$116$160 – $220: 130 hospitals$160median $59price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,894 of 3,212 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$9$13105
$13$17201
$17$24219
$24$33300
$33$45319
$45$62393
$62$85531
$85$116445
$116$160251
$160$220130

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $59.

Alaska: median $56 across 19 hospitalsAK$56Maine: median $41 across 28 hospitalsME$41Vermont: median $87 across 14 hospitalsVT$87New Hampshire: median $74 across 24 hospitalsNH$74Washington: median $69 across 75 hospitalsWA$69Idaho: median $29 across 21 hospitalsID$29Montana: median $83 across 29 hospitalsMT$83North Dakota: median $59 across 31 hospitalsND$59Minnesota: median $50 across 100 hospitalsMN$50Illinois: median $65 across 143 hospitalsIL$65Wisconsin: median $73 across 103 hospitalsWI$73Michigan: median $31 across 99 hospitalsMI$31New York: median $33 across 105 hospitalsNY$33Massachusetts: median $63 across 50 hospitalsMA$63Oregon: median $54 across 48 hospitalsOR$54Nevada: median $64 across 20 hospitalsNV$64Wyoming: median $58 across 16 hospitalsWY$58South Dakota: median $97 across 24 hospitalsSD$97Iowa: median $62 across 82 hospitalsIA$62Indiana: median $46 across 97 hospitalsIN$46Ohio: median $59 across 138 hospitalsOH$59Pennsylvania: median $55 across 118 hospitalsPA$55New Jersey: median $15 across 56 hospitalsNJ$15Connecticut: median $56 across 23 hospitalsCT$56Rhode Island: median $49 across 10 hospitalsRI$49California: median $19 across 138 hospitalsCA$19Utah: median $90 across 39 hospitalsUT$90Colorado: median $80 across 67 hospitalsCO$80Nebraska: median $97 across 70 hospitalsNE$97Missouri: median $68 across 72 hospitalsMO$68Kentucky: median $47 across 67 hospitalsKY$47West Virginia: median $41 across 41 hospitalsWV$41Virginia: median $80 across 73 hospitalsVA$80Maryland: median $66 across 40 hospitalsMD$66Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $56 across 42 hospitalsAZ$56New Mexico: median $69 across 27 hospitalsNM$69Kansas: median $82 across 83 hospitalsKS$82Arkansas: median $20 across 39 hospitalsAR$20Tennessee: median $33 across 81 hospitalsTN$33North Carolina: median $77 across 85 hospitalsNC$77South Carolina: median $75 across 50 hospitalsSC$75Oklahoma: median $50 across 69 hospitalsOK$50Louisiana: median $28 across 51 hospitalsLA$28Mississippi: median $30 across 55 hospitalsMS$30Alabama: median $49 across 44 hospitalsAL$49Georgia: median $67 across 105 hospitalsGA$67Hawaii: median $82 across 17 hospitalsHI$82Texas: median $72 across 233 hospitalsTX$72Florida: median $23 across 144 hospitalsFL$23
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $59. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Dakota SD24$97+65%$36 – $137
Nebraska NE70$97+65%$35 – $140
Utah UT39$90+53%$80 – $113
Vermont VT14$87+47%$75 – $161
Montana MT29$83+41%$45 – $106
Kansas KS83$82+39%$43 – $107
Hawaii HI17$82+39%$35 – $118
Colorado CO67$80+36%$37 – $103
Virginia VA73$80+36%$23 – $138
North Carolina NC85$77+31%$27 – $121
South Carolina SC50$75+28%$48 – $119
New Hampshire NH24$74+25%$40 – $256
Wisconsin WI103$73+23%$53 – $112
Texas TX233$72+23%$36 – $198
Washington WA75$69+18%$36 – $102
New Mexico NM27$69+17%$49 – $118
Missouri MO72$68+16%$27 – $107
Georgia GA105$67+14%$25 – $116
Maryland MD40$66+12%$52 – $81
Illinois IL143$65+11%$30 – $142
Nevada NV20$64+10%$13 – $110
Massachusetts MA50$63+7%$40 – $108
Iowa IA82$62+5%$34 – $107
Ohio OH138$59+1%$39 – $101
North Dakota ND31$590%$24 – $94
Wyoming WY16$58−1%$30 – $90
Arizona AZ42$56−4%$30 – $146
Connecticut CT23$56−5%$44 – $110
Alaska AK19$56−5%$16 – $146
Pennsylvania PA118$55−6%$15 – $134
Oregon OR48$54−9%$21 – $87
Minnesota MN100$50−16%$20 – $97
Oklahoma OK69$50−16%$20 – $73
Rhode Island RI10$49−17%$32 – $105
Alabama AL44$49−17%$19 – $130
Kentucky KY67$47−20%$29 – $127
Indiana IN97$46−23%$22 – $89
Maine ME28$41−30%$25 – $98
West Virginia WV41$41−31%$4 – $80
Tennessee TN81$33−43%$23 – $83
New York NY105$33−44%$16 – $76
Michigan MI99$31−47%$11 – $98
Mississippi MS55$30−49%$18 – $66
Idaho ID21$29−51%$10 – $76
Louisiana LA51$28−53%$17 – $48
Florida FL144$23−60%$8 – $65
Arkansas AR39$20−67%$12 – $73
California CA138$19−67%$5 – $59
New Jersey NJ56$15−74%$15 – $45
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 $59.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,246$52$19 – $104
Children’s46$52$24 – $107
Critical access910$72$34 – $109
Ownership
For-profit451$67$22 – $196
Government588$60$25 – $102
Non-profit2,163$56$23 – $101
System affiliation
Part of a system2,607$59$22 – $108
Independent605$56$25 – $98

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$95
Median cash price$59
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. 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

2,186 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $59 and the average of the middle 60% is $60; most fall between $25 and $102.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,186 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
$15$30$59$93$137

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($15 vs $137).

Of the 2,411 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,186 gave a usable cash price; 120 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 105 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,212 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (81%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,507 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,212
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here169
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 — excluded125
Hospitals that filed this code3,507

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 Hsv I Ab Igg Immunoblot(Hsvg).

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, “Herpes simplex type 1 antibody blood test (CPT 86695) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-86695-herpes-simplex-type-1-antibody-blood-test