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Procedure price report · Other Laboratory

Red blood cell antibody screen

CPT 86850the billing code this page is about

A blood test that looks for unexpected antibodies against red blood cells, commonly done before a transfusion or during pregnancy.

Hospitals typically charge $78 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,378 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $81. Most fall between $37 and $138 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,378
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 3,378 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
$23$45$78$124$201

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($23 vs $201).

How the prices are spread

$15 – $20: 100 hospitals$15$20 – $27: 160 hospitals$27 – $37: 252 hospitals$27$37 – $50: 311 hospitals$50 – $68: 480 hospitals$50$68 – $92: 519 hospitals$92 – $125: 556 hospitals$92$125 – $169: 383 hospitals$169 – $229: 173 hospitals$169$229 – $310: 108 hospitals$229median $78price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (3,042 of 3,378 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$15$20100
$20$27160
$27$37252
$37$50311
$50$68480
$68$92519
$92$125556
$125$169383
$169$229173
$229$310108

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$53
Median cash price$78
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.47×

The Medicare figure is the national unadjusted OPPS rate for this code — what Medicare itself pays a hospital before local wage adjustment. It is a benchmark, not a price anyone is charged.

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $78.

Alaska: median $128 across 18 hospitalsAK$128Maine: median $68 across 27 hospitalsME$68Vermont: median $111 across 13 hospitalsVT$111New Hampshire: median $78 across 25 hospitalsNH$78Washington: median $73 across 76 hospitalsWA$73Idaho: median $82 across 25 hospitalsID$82Montana: median $101 across 34 hospitalsMT$101North Dakota: median $100 across 35 hospitalsND$100Minnesota: median $76 across 106 hospitalsMN$76Illinois: median $99 across 141 hospitalsIL$99Wisconsin: median $83 across 108 hospitalsWI$83Michigan: median $51 across 100 hospitalsMI$51New York: median $63 across 120 hospitalsNY$63Massachusetts: median $122 across 54 hospitalsMA$122Oregon: median $68 across 51 hospitalsOR$68Nevada: median $108 across 22 hospitalsNV$108Wyoming: median $86 across 16 hospitalsWY$86South Dakota: median $60 across 42 hospitalsSD$60Iowa: median $68 across 89 hospitalsIA$68Indiana: median $70 across 96 hospitalsIN$70Ohio: median $70 across 143 hospitalsOH$70Pennsylvania: median $70 across 121 hospitalsPA$70New Jersey: median $58 across 57 hospitalsNJ$58Connecticut: median $59 across 22 hospitalsCT$59Rhode Island: median $63 across 10 hospitalsRI$63California: median $118 across 161 hospitalsCA$118Utah: median $74 across 42 hospitalsUT$74Colorado: median $94 across 71 hospitalsCO$94Nebraska: median $97 across 85 hospitalsNE$97Missouri: median $75 across 75 hospitalsMO$75Kentucky: median $75 across 69 hospitalsKY$75West Virginia: median $69 across 43 hospitalsWV$69Virginia: median $94 across 72 hospitalsVA$94Maryland: median $33 across 41 hospitalsMD$33Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $103 across 39 hospitalsAZ$103New Mexico: median $99 across 31 hospitalsNM$99Kansas: median $80 across 94 hospitalsKS$80Arkansas: median $38 across 39 hospitalsAR$38Tennessee: median $35 across 82 hospitalsTN$35North Carolina: median $99 across 85 hospitalsNC$99South Carolina: median $86 across 52 hospitalsSC$86Oklahoma: median $73 across 72 hospitalsOK$73Louisiana: median $42 across 53 hospitalsLA$42Mississippi: median $34 across 52 hospitalsMS$34Alabama: median $46 across 43 hospitalsAL$46Georgia: median $101 across 104 hospitalsGA$101Hawaii: median $109 across 19 hospitalsHI$109Texas: median $111 across 239 hospitalsTX$111Florida: median $64 across 157 hospitalsFL$64
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $78. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Alaska AK18$128+64%$16 – $208
Massachusetts MA54$122+56%$80 – $170
California CA161$118+51%$41 – $241
Vermont VT13$111+43%$81 – $161
Texas TX239$111+43%$39 – $223
Hawaii HI19$109+40%$81 – $163
Nevada NV22$108+38%$50 – $225
Arizona AZ39$103+32%$62 – $485
Montana MT34$101+30%$45 – $136
Georgia GA104$101+29%$28 – $174
North Dakota ND35$100+28%$90 – $124
Illinois IL141$99+27%$60 – $148
North Carolina NC85$99+27%$66 – $119
New Mexico NM31$99+27%$84 – $142
Nebraska NE85$97+24%$57 – $138
Colorado CO71$94+21%$51 – $305
Virginia VA72$94+21%$53 – $160
South Carolina SC52$86+11%$64 – $102
Wyoming WY16$86+10%$71 – $170
Wisconsin WI108$83+6%$47 – $95
Idaho ID25$82+5%$43 – $122
Kansas KS94$80+2%$39 – $124
New Hampshire NH25$780%$43 – $152
Minnesota MN106$76−3%$51 – $109
Missouri MO75$75−3%$46 – $140
Kentucky KY69$75−4%$46 – $134
Utah UT42$74−6%$63 – $136
Washington WA76$73−6%$52 – $133
Oklahoma OK72$73−6%$34 – $133
Pennsylvania PA121$70−10%$40 – $130
Ohio OH143$70−10%$38 – $120
Indiana IN96$70−11%$38 – $103
West Virginia WV43$69−11%$39 – $135
Oregon OR51$68−12%$47 – $109
Maine ME27$68−13%$51 – $122
Iowa IA89$68−13%$46 – $109
Florida FL157$64−18%$25 – $235
New York NY120$63−19%$24 – $144
Rhode Island RI10$63−19%$23 – $104
South Dakota SD42$60−23%$52 – $152
Connecticut CT22$59−24%$52 – $78
New Jersey NJ57$58−25%$11 – $71
Michigan MI100$51−35%$29 – $80
Alabama AL43$46−41%$27 – $117
Louisiana LA53$42−47%$20 – $77
Arkansas AR39$38−52%$23 – $68
Tennessee TN82$35−55%$20 – $119
Mississippi MS52$34−56%$22 – $88
Maryland MD41$33−58%$25 – $39
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 $78.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,331$75$34 – $146
Children’s62$81$45 – $129
Critical access976$82$45 – $124
Ownership
For-profit478$111$42 – $347
Government633$79$41 – $124
Non-profit2,258$74$36 – $130
System affiliation
Part of a system2,739$77$36 – $140
Independent639$80$41 – $135

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$130
Median cash price$78
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

2,287 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $77 and the average of the middle 60% is $80; most fall between $38 and $137.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,287 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
$24$45$77$123$190

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($24 vs $190).

Of the 2,524 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,287 gave a usable cash price; 130 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 107 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,378 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (85%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,673 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,378
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here173
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 — excluded121
Hospitals that filed this code3,673

Sections not shown for this setting

  • 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 Antibody Screen.

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, “Red blood cell antibody screen (CPT 86850) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-86850-red-blood-cell-antibody-screen