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Procedure price report · Other Laboratory

Herpes simplex type 2 antibody blood test

CPT 86696the billing code this page is about

A blood test for antibodies specific to herpes simplex virus type 2, the type usually linked to genital herpes.

Hospitals typically charge $65 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,196 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $67. Most fall between $25 and $118 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,196
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 3,196 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
$18$32$65$105$176

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($18 vs $176).

How the prices are spread

$10 – $14: 72 hospitals$10$14 – $19: 151 hospitals$19 – $26: 293 hospitals$19$26 – $36: 256 hospitals$36 – $50: 328 hospitals$36$50 – $68: 416 hospitals$68 – $93: 529 hospitals$68$93 – $128: 460 hospitals$128 – $176: 213 hospitals$128$176 – $242: 162 hospitals$176median $65price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,880 of 3,196 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$10$1472
$14$19151
$19$26293
$26$36256
$36$50328
$50$68416
$68$93529
$93$128460
$128$176213
$176$242162

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $65.

Alaska: median $73 across 18 hospitalsAK$73Maine: median $67 across 28 hospitalsME$67Vermont: median $106 across 14 hospitalsVT$106New Hampshire: median $109 across 24 hospitalsNH$109Washington: median $86 across 75 hospitalsWA$86Idaho: median $64 across 20 hospitalsID$64Montana: median $94 across 30 hospitalsMT$94North Dakota: median $84 across 31 hospitalsND$84Minnesota: median $62 across 101 hospitalsMN$62Illinois: median $79 across 139 hospitalsIL$79Wisconsin: median $87 across 104 hospitalsWI$87Michigan: median $39 across 98 hospitalsMI$39New York: median $47 across 105 hospitalsNY$47Massachusetts: median $93 across 50 hospitalsMA$93Oregon: median $68 across 47 hospitalsOR$68Nevada: median $95 across 20 hospitalsNV$95Wyoming: median $77 across 15 hospitalsWY$77South Dakota: median $98 across 23 hospitalsSD$98Iowa: median $57 across 84 hospitalsIA$57Indiana: median $61 across 96 hospitalsIN$61Ohio: median $66 across 137 hospitalsOH$66Pennsylvania: median $79 across 118 hospitalsPA$79New Jersey: median $22 across 55 hospitalsNJ$22Connecticut: median $80 across 23 hospitalsCT$80Rhode Island: median $72 across 10 hospitalsRI$72California: median $23 across 133 hospitalsCA$23Utah: median $97 across 40 hospitalsUT$97Colorado: median $98 across 67 hospitalsCO$98Nebraska: median $104 across 69 hospitalsNE$104Missouri: median $75 across 73 hospitalsMO$75Kentucky: median $68 across 68 hospitalsKY$68West Virginia: median $42 across 42 hospitalsWV$42Virginia: median $96 across 73 hospitalsVA$96Maryland: median $66 across 40 hospitalsMD$66Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $98 across 41 hospitalsAZ$98New Mexico: median $81 across 27 hospitalsNM$81Kansas: median $79 across 83 hospitalsKS$79Arkansas: median $25 across 39 hospitalsAR$25Tennessee: median $45 across 79 hospitalsTN$45North Carolina: median $86 across 83 hospitalsNC$86South Carolina: median $87 across 50 hospitalsSC$87Oklahoma: median $52 across 71 hospitalsOK$52Louisiana: median $38 across 50 hospitalsLA$38Mississippi: median $34 across 54 hospitalsMS$34Alabama: median $58 across 44 hospitalsAL$58Georgia: median $51 across 101 hospitalsGA$51Hawaii: median $92 across 17 hospitalsHI$92Texas: median $78 across 232 hospitalsTX$78Florida: median $32 across 148 hospitalsFL$32
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $65. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Hampshire NH24$109+66%$50 – $215
Vermont VT14$106+62%$68 – $179
Nebraska NE69$104+59%$45 – $141
South Dakota SD23$98+51%$40 – $141
Colorado CO67$98+50%$44 – $169
Arizona AZ41$98+50%$31 – $204
Utah UT40$97+49%$84 – $138
Virginia VA73$96+47%$18 – $195
Nevada NV20$95+45%$19 – $149
Montana MT30$94+44%$44 – $122
Massachusetts MA50$93+42%$56 – $153
Hawaii HI17$92+41%$50 – $129
South Carolina SC50$87+33%$64 – $136
Wisconsin WI104$87+33%$63 – $119
North Carolina NC83$86+32%$31 – $127
Washington WA75$86+32%$43 – $110
North Dakota ND31$84+29%$35 – $136
New Mexico NM27$81+24%$56 – $111
Connecticut CT23$80+22%$65 – $117
Kansas KS83$79+21%$48 – $112
Illinois IL139$79+21%$37 – $146
Pennsylvania PA118$79+20%$22 – $200
Texas TX232$78+19%$20 – $158
Wyoming WY15$77+18%$41 – $101
Missouri MO73$75+15%$32 – $113
Alaska AK18$73+12%$24 – $140
Rhode Island RI10$72+10%$44 – $155
Kentucky KY68$68+5%$37 – $110
Oregon OR47$68+4%$30 – $92
Maine ME28$67+3%$33 – $128
Ohio OH137$66+1%$41 – $95
Maryland MD40$66+1%$52 – $81
Idaho ID20$64−2%$10 – $90
Minnesota MN101$62−5%$33 – $116
Indiana IN96$61−7%$32 – $97
Alabama AL44$58−12%$25 – $157
Iowa IA84$57−12%$33 – $96
Oklahoma OK71$52−20%$25 – $86
Georgia GA101$51−21%$36 – $141
New York NY105$47−28%$21 – $96
Tennessee TN79$45−31%$18 – $95
West Virginia WV42$42−36%$5 – $108
Michigan MI98$39−40%$11 – $102
Louisiana LA50$38−42%$26 – $66
Mississippi MS54$34−48%$20 – $80
Florida FL148$32−52%$8 – $76
Arkansas AR39$25−61%$18 – $89
California CA133$23−65%$6 – $66
New Jersey NJ55$22−66%$21 – $40
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 $65.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,241$59$22 – $116
Children’s46$63$25 – $115
Critical access900$80$39 – $119
Ownership
For-profit447$74$22 – $220
Government583$66$30 – $108
Non-profit2,157$65$25 – $113
System affiliation
Part of a system2,610$65$25 – $118
Independent586$67$30 – $114

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$110
Median cash price$65
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

2,174 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $66 and the average of the middle 60% is $68; most fall between $27 and $117.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,174 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
$18$34$66$104$160

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($18 vs $160).

Of the 2,401 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,174 gave a usable cash price; 121 carried a plausibility flag, 1 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

3,196 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 3,488 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,196
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here166
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded124
Hospitals that filed this code3,488

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 2 Ab,Igg Imunoblot(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 2 antibody blood test (CPT 86696) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-86696-herpes-simplex-type-2-antibody-blood-test