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Procedure price report · Microscopic examination (bacterial smear, culture, toxicology)

Blood culture for bacteria

CPT 87040the billing code this page is about

A blood specimen is cultured for bacteria that grow with and without oxygen, including a first identification of anything that grows.

Hospitals typically charge $104 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,403 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $112. Most fall between $46 and $212 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,403
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 3,403 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
$25$55$104$183$317

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($25 vs $317).

How the prices are spread

$14 – $20: 92 hospitals$14$20 – $29: 132 hospitals$29 – $41: 209 hospitals$29$41 – $59: 314 hospitals$59 – $84: 464 hospitals$59$84 – $120: 514 hospitals$120 – $172: 550 hospitals$120$172 – $245: 425 hospitals$245 – $350: 241 hospitals$245$350 – $499: 122 hospitals$350median $104price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (3,063 of 3,403 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$14$2092
$20$29132
$29$41209
$41$59314
$59$84464
$84$120514
$120$172550
$172$245425
$245$350241
$350$499122

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $104.

Alaska: median $215 across 19 hospitalsAK$215Maine: median $82 across 28 hospitalsME$82Vermont: median $132 across 14 hospitalsVT$132New Hampshire: median $95 across 25 hospitalsNH$95Washington: median $122 across 77 hospitalsWA$122Idaho: median $92 across 25 hospitalsID$92Montana: median $120 across 33 hospitalsMT$120North Dakota: median $80 across 33 hospitalsND$80Minnesota: median $100 across 107 hospitalsMN$100Illinois: median $152 across 143 hospitalsIL$152Wisconsin: median $87 across 107 hospitalsWI$87Michigan: median $62 across 101 hospitalsMI$62New York: median $46 across 118 hospitalsNY$46Massachusetts: median $79 across 53 hospitalsMA$79Oregon: median $110 across 51 hospitalsOR$110Nevada: median $86 across 21 hospitalsNV$86Wyoming: median $114 across 16 hospitalsWY$114South Dakota: median $199 across 41 hospitalsSD$199Iowa: median $92 across 87 hospitalsIA$92Indiana: median $94 across 94 hospitalsIN$94Ohio: median $93 across 142 hospitalsOH$93Pennsylvania: median $65 across 122 hospitalsPA$65New Jersey: median $12 across 57 hospitalsNJ$12Connecticut: median $50 across 23 hospitalsCT$50Rhode Island: median $83 across 10 hospitalsRI$83California: median $272 across 164 hospitalsCA$272Utah: median $128 across 42 hospitalsUT$128Colorado: median $130 across 71 hospitalsCO$130Nebraska: median $200 across 84 hospitalsNE$200Missouri: median $111 across 77 hospitalsMO$111Kentucky: median $119 across 69 hospitalsKY$119West Virginia: median $88 across 43 hospitalsWV$88Virginia: median $104 across 73 hospitalsVA$104Maryland: median $106 across 41 hospitalsMD$106Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $121 across 42 hospitalsAZ$121New Mexico: median $120 across 29 hospitalsNM$120Kansas: median $71 across 95 hospitalsKS$71Arkansas: median $47 across 39 hospitalsAR$47Tennessee: median $54 across 83 hospitalsTN$54North Carolina: median $100 across 85 hospitalsNC$100South Carolina: median $154 across 53 hospitalsSC$154Oklahoma: median $62 across 74 hospitalsOK$62Louisiana: median $51 across 53 hospitalsLA$51Mississippi: median $66 across 57 hospitalsMS$66Alabama: median $82 across 44 hospitalsAL$82Georgia: median $118 across 106 hospitalsGA$118Hawaii: median $83 across 21 hospitalsHI$83Texas: median $204 across 249 hospitalsTX$204Florida: median $317 across 155 hospitalsFL$317
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $104. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL155$317+205%$76 – $1,102
California CA164$272+162%$81 – $443
Alaska AK19$215+107%$146 – $302
Texas TX249$204+97%$67 – $322
Nebraska NE84$200+93%$75 – $292
South Dakota SD41$199+92%$132 – $275
South Carolina SC53$154+48%$91 – $224
Illinois IL143$152+46%$85 – $269
Vermont VT14$132+27%$53 – $214
Colorado CO71$130+25%$87 – $194
Utah UT42$128+23%$99 – $207
Washington WA77$122+17%$58 – $183
Arizona AZ42$121+17%$31 – $199
Montana MT33$120+16%$84 – $192
New Mexico NM29$120+15%$54 – $183
Kentucky KY69$119+15%$77 – $181
Georgia GA106$118+13%$35 – $174
Wyoming WY16$114+10%$81 – $170
Missouri MO77$111+7%$62 – $194
Oregon OR51$110+6%$73 – $166
Maryland MD41$106+2%$84 – $130
Virginia VA73$1040%$57 – $215
Minnesota MN107$100−4%$62 – $152
North Carolina NC85$100−4%$55 – $150
New Hampshire NH25$95−9%$58 – $198
Indiana IN94$94−10%$26 – $188
Ohio OH142$93−11%$52 – $141
Idaho ID25$92−11%$45 – $165
Iowa IA87$92−12%$39 – $159
West Virginia WV43$88−15%$61 – $173
Wisconsin WI107$87−16%$73 – $137
Nevada NV21$86−17%$38 – $278
Hawaii HI21$83−20%$52 – $140
Rhode Island RI10$83−20%$25 – $102
Maine ME28$82−21%$50 – $215
Alabama AL44$82−21%$34 – $273
North Dakota ND33$80−23%$68 – $134
Massachusetts MA53$79−24%$38 – $131
Kansas KS95$71−32%$49 – $128
Mississippi MS57$66−36%$34 – $110
Pennsylvania PA122$65−38%$16 – $200
Michigan MI101$62−40%$34 – $87
Oklahoma OK74$62−41%$40 – $142
Tennessee TN83$54−48%$30 – $139
Louisiana LA53$51−51%$24 – $120
Connecticut CT23$50−52%$31 – $86
Arkansas AR39$47−55%$26 – $101
New York NY118$46−56%$16 – $152
New Jersey NJ57$12−89%$11 – $42
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 $104.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,334$104$40 – $237
Children’s67$107$62 – $245
Critical access992$104$55 – $181
Ownership
For-profit480$168$55 – $578
Government645$103$48 – $184
Non-profit2,268$98$44 – $192
System affiliation
Part of a system2,746$109$46 – $221
Independent657$90$46 – $181

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$180
Median cash price$104
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 $109 and the average of the middle 60% is $116; most fall between $51 and $215.

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
$30$61$109$189$292

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($30 vs $292).

Of the 2,524 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,287 gave a usable cash price; 123 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 114 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,403 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (86%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,712 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,403
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) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded137
Hospitals that filed this code3,712

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 Microscopic examination (bacterial smear, culture, toxicology) family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as HC Culture-Blood.

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 culture for bacteria (CPT 87040) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87040-blood-culture-for-bacteria