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Procedure price report · Other Laboratory

Blood test for chickenpox and shingles antibodies

CPT 86787the billing code this page is about

A blood test that looks for antibodies to the varicella-zoster virus, which causes chickenpox and shingles, showing past infection or immunity.

Hospitals typically charge $58 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,331 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $62. Most fall between $23 and $116 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,331
States
50
Filings dated
Aug 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 3,331 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$27$58$103$165

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($14 vs $165).

How the prices are spread

$10 – $14: 154 hospitals$10$14 – $19: 214 hospitals$19 – $25: 239 hospitals$19$25 – $35: 269 hospitals$35 – $48: 362 hospitals$35$48 – $66: 408 hospitals$66 – $90: 462 hospitals$66$90 – $123: 450 hospitals$123 – $168: 289 hospitals$123$168 – $231: 152 hospitals$168median $58price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,999 of 3,331 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$10$14154
$14$19214
$19$25239
$25$35269
$35$48362
$48$66408
$66$90462
$90$123450
$123$168289
$168$231152

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $58.

Alaska: median $74 across 18 hospitalsAK$74Maine: median $42 across 28 hospitalsME$42Vermont: median $85 across 14 hospitalsVT$85New Hampshire: median $63 across 25 hospitalsNH$63Washington: median $68 across 77 hospitalsWA$68Idaho: median $52 across 25 hospitalsID$52Montana: median $47 across 32 hospitalsMT$47North Dakota: median $69 across 33 hospitalsND$69Minnesota: median $54 across 103 hospitalsMN$54Illinois: median $76 across 141 hospitalsIL$76Wisconsin: median $65 across 105 hospitalsWI$65Michigan: median $40 across 93 hospitalsMI$40New York: median $33 across 118 hospitalsNY$33Massachusetts: median $84 across 53 hospitalsMA$84Oregon: median $60 across 50 hospitalsOR$60Nevada: median $81 across 20 hospitalsNV$81Wyoming: median $40 across 16 hospitalsWY$40South Dakota: median $109 across 37 hospitalsSD$109Iowa: median $66 across 88 hospitalsIA$66Indiana: median $70 across 96 hospitalsIN$70Ohio: median $58 across 140 hospitalsOH$58Pennsylvania: median $62 across 121 hospitalsPA$62New Jersey: median $15 across 57 hospitalsNJ$15Connecticut: median $57 across 22 hospitalsCT$57Rhode Island: median $57 across 10 hospitalsRI$57California: median $25 across 149 hospitalsCA$25Utah: median $88 across 42 hospitalsUT$88Colorado: median $69 across 70 hospitalsCO$69Nebraska: median $107 across 78 hospitalsNE$107Missouri: median $83 across 75 hospitalsMO$83Kentucky: median $75 across 68 hospitalsKY$75West Virginia: median $38 across 44 hospitalsWV$38Virginia: median $93 across 73 hospitalsVA$93Maryland: median $53 across 40 hospitalsMD$53Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $88 across 42 hospitalsAZ$88New Mexico: median $87 across 28 hospitalsNM$87Kansas: median $87 across 87 hospitalsKS$87Arkansas: median $21 across 39 hospitalsAR$21Tennessee: median $32 across 83 hospitalsTN$32North Carolina: median $49 across 87 hospitalsNC$49South Carolina: median $88 across 50 hospitalsSC$88Oklahoma: median $49 across 74 hospitalsOK$49Louisiana: median $39 across 52 hospitalsLA$39Mississippi: median $46 across 56 hospitalsMS$46Alabama: median $62 across 44 hospitalsAL$62Georgia: median $68 across 108 hospitalsGA$68Hawaii: median $94 across 19 hospitalsHI$94Texas: median $52 across 241 hospitalsTX$52Florida: median $18 across 153 hospitalsFL$18
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $58. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Dakota SD37$109+88%$46 – $197
Nebraska NE78$107+84%$51 – $157
Hawaii HI19$94+62%$33 – $130
Virginia VA73$93+61%$23 – $153
Utah UT42$88+52%$75 – $111
South Carolina SC50$88+51%$52 – $121
Arizona AZ42$88+51%$20 – $155
Kansas KS87$87+51%$49 – $125
New Mexico NM28$87+50%$56 – $136
Vermont VT14$85+46%$52 – $121
Massachusetts MA53$84+45%$37 – $132
Missouri MO75$83+42%$42 – $130
Nevada NV20$81+40%$21 – $136
Illinois IL141$76+31%$41 – $161
Kentucky KY68$75+30%$27 – $163
Alaska AK18$74+28%$20 – $131
Indiana IN96$70+21%$25 – $137
Colorado CO70$69+19%$29 – $100
North Dakota ND33$69+19%$23 – $101
Georgia GA108$68+17%$29 – $124
Washington WA77$68+17%$35 – $112
Iowa IA88$66+13%$49 – $103
Wisconsin WI105$65+13%$33 – $85
New Hampshire NH25$63+8%$40 – $149
Pennsylvania PA121$62+7%$20 – $145
Alabama AL44$62+6%$20 – $135
Oregon OR50$60+3%$39 – $79
Ohio OH140$580%$31 – $98
Connecticut CT22$57−2%$42 – $107
Rhode Island RI10$57−2%$35 – $117
Minnesota MN103$54−6%$25 – $103
Maryland MD40$53−9%$40 – $65
Texas TX241$52−10%$23 – $179
Idaho ID25$52−10%$14 – $75
North Carolina NC87$49−16%$25 – $97
Oklahoma OK74$49−16%$25 – $99
Montana MT32$47−19%$17 – $94
Mississippi MS56$46−20%$19 – $65
Maine ME28$42−27%$30 – $130
Michigan MI93$40−31%$12 – $109
Wyoming WY16$40−31%$23 – $78
Louisiana LA52$39−33%$22 – $73
West Virginia WV44$38−34%$7 – $110
New York NY118$33−43%$13 – $128
Tennessee TN83$32−45%$22 – $78
California CA149$25−57%$5 – $91
Arkansas AR39$21−64%$13 – $66
Florida FL153$18−69%$10 – $62
New Jersey NJ57$15−74%$14 – $28
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 $58.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,296$52$19 – $111
Children’s60$80$30 – $203
Critical access965$72$34 – $123
Ownership
For-profit463$68$23 – $205
Government627$58$24 – $111
Non-profit2,231$57$23 – $109
System affiliation
Part of a system2,695$58$22 – $117
Independent636$62$27 – $109

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$99
Median cash price$58
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

2,255 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $58 and the average of the middle 60% is $61; most fall between $23 and $109.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,255 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$29$58$101$148

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($15 vs $148).

Of the 2,485 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,255 gave a usable cash price; 119 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 110 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,331 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (84%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,636 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,331
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here171
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded2
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded131
Hospitals that filed this code3,636

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 PR Occ Hlth Lab - Varicella-Zoster (Vzv Igg Ab).

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 chickenpox and shingles antibodies (CPT 86787) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-86787-blood-test-for-chickenpox-and-shingles-antibodies