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

Bacterial culture, other body site, with identification

CPT 87070the billing code this page is about

Culture of a specimen from a source other than urine, blood, or stool to grow bacteria and give a first-level identification of the organisms that grow.

Hospitals typically charge $62 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,399 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $67. Most fall between $25 and $133 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,399
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 3,399 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$62$116$196

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($15 vs $196).

How the prices are spread

$10 – $14: 147 hospitals$10$14 – $19: 208 hospitals$19 – $27: 252 hospitals$19$27 – $38: 331 hospitals$38 – $53: 390 hospitals$38$53 – $75: 456 hospitals$75 – $105: 484 hospitals$75$105 – $146: 386 hospitals$146 – $205: 251 hospitals$146$205 – $287: 156 hospitals$205median $62price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (3,061 of 3,399 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$10$14147
$14$19208
$19$27252
$27$38331
$38$53390
$53$75456
$75$105484
$105$146386
$146$205251
$205$287156

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $62.

Alaska: median $126 across 19 hospitalsAK$126Maine: median $56 across 27 hospitalsME$56Vermont: median $72 across 14 hospitalsVT$72New Hampshire: median $60 across 25 hospitalsNH$60Washington: median $77 across 77 hospitalsWA$77Idaho: median $60 across 25 hospitalsID$60Montana: median $71 across 34 hospitalsMT$71North Dakota: median $60 across 33 hospitalsND$60Minnesota: median $54 across 107 hospitalsMN$54Illinois: median $90 across 143 hospitalsIL$90Wisconsin: median $77 across 108 hospitalsWI$77Michigan: median $53 across 97 hospitalsMI$53New York: median $31 across 119 hospitalsNY$31Massachusetts: median $68 across 54 hospitalsMA$68Oregon: median $53 across 51 hospitalsOR$53Nevada: median $60 across 22 hospitalsNV$60Wyoming: median $67 across 16 hospitalsWY$67South Dakota: median $136 across 41 hospitalsSD$136Iowa: median $58 across 90 hospitalsIA$58Indiana: median $53 across 95 hospitalsIN$53Ohio: median $62 across 143 hospitalsOH$62Pennsylvania: median $43 across 122 hospitalsPA$43New Jersey: median $10 across 57 hospitalsNJ$10Connecticut: median $39 across 23 hospitalsCT$39Rhode Island: median $41 across 10 hospitalsRI$41California: median $129 across 162 hospitalsCA$129Utah: median $90 across 42 hospitalsUT$90Colorado: median $86 across 71 hospitalsCO$86Nebraska: median $93 across 84 hospitalsNE$93Missouri: median $52 across 77 hospitalsMO$52Kentucky: median $73 across 69 hospitalsKY$73West Virginia: median $51 across 44 hospitalsWV$51Virginia: median $69 across 73 hospitalsVA$69Maryland: median $106 across 41 hospitalsMD$106Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $26 across 42 hospitalsAZ$26New Mexico: median $81 across 30 hospitalsNM$81Kansas: median $51 across 95 hospitalsKS$51Arkansas: median $37 across 40 hospitalsAR$37Tennessee: median $37 across 83 hospitalsTN$37North Carolina: median $70 across 85 hospitalsNC$70South Carolina: median $109 across 52 hospitalsSC$109Oklahoma: median $38 across 72 hospitalsOK$38Louisiana: median $29 across 52 hospitalsLA$29Mississippi: median $40 across 54 hospitalsMS$40Alabama: median $52 across 44 hospitalsAL$52Georgia: median $71 across 110 hospitalsGA$71Hawaii: median $43 across 21 hospitalsHI$43Texas: median $60 across 248 hospitalsTX$60Florida: median $81 across 149 hospitalsFL$81
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $62. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Dakota SD41$136+120%$75 – $187
California CA162$129+109%$15 – $279
Alaska AK19$126+103%$38 – $193
South Carolina SC52$109+76%$33 – $155
Maryland MD41$106+71%$80 – $130
Nebraska NE84$93+50%$44 – $143
Utah UT42$90+46%$66 – $134
Illinois IL143$90+46%$32 – $176
Colorado CO71$86+39%$34 – $166
New Mexico NM30$81+31%$40 – $128
Florida FL149$81+31%$16 – $401
Wisconsin WI108$77+25%$32 – $91
Washington WA77$77+24%$40 – $122
Kentucky KY69$73+18%$26 – $145
Vermont VT14$72+17%$24 – $150
Montana MT34$71+16%$17 – $104
Georgia GA110$71+14%$22 – $123
North Carolina NC85$70+13%$37 – $121
Virginia VA73$69+12%$44 – $168
Massachusetts MA54$68+10%$27 – $115
Wyoming WY16$67+8%$18 – $109
Ohio OH143$620%$38 – $125
Nevada NV22$60−2%$14 – $170
Texas TX248$60−2%$35 – $198
Idaho ID25$60−3%$38 – $90
North Dakota ND33$60−3%$50 – $77
New Hampshire NH25$60−3%$28 – $153
Iowa IA90$58−7%$35 – $95
Maine ME27$56−10%$30 – $128
Minnesota MN107$54−13%$21 – $99
Michigan MI97$53−14%$28 – $77
Indiana IN95$53−15%$19 – $124
Oregon OR51$53−15%$31 – $95
Alabama AL44$52−15%$15 – $113
Missouri MO77$52−16%$33 – $119
Kansas KS95$51−17%$32 – $90
West Virginia WV44$51−18%$29 – $100
Hawaii HI21$43−30%$41 – $96
Pennsylvania PA122$43−30%$13 – $128
Rhode Island RI10$41−34%$20 – $69
Mississippi MS54$40−36%$13 – $77
Connecticut CT23$39−36%$26 – $72
Oklahoma OK72$38−38%$26 – $117
Tennessee TN83$37−40%$17 – $93
Arkansas AR40$37−41%$18 – $89
New York NY119$31−50%$12 – $137
Louisiana LA52$29−52%$15 – $94
Arizona AZ42$26−58%$11 – $179
New Jersey NJ57$10−84%$9 – $62
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 $62.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,324$59$21 – $145
Children’s67$72$38 – $139
Critical access998$67$32 – $116
Ownership
For-profit472$78$26 – $217
Government652$62$27 – $120
Non-profit2,265$59$24 – $126
System affiliation
Part of a system2,737$63$24 – $137
Independent662$59$27 – $122

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$101
Median cash price$62
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

2,295 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $66 and the average of the middle 60% is $70; most fall between $26 and $140.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,295 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$34$66$123$206

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($15 vs $206).

Of the 2,539 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,295 gave a usable cash price; 131 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 113 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,399 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 3,716 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,399
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here180
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 — excluded136
Hospitals that filed this code3,716

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-Bacterial.

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, “Bacterial culture, other body site, with identification (CPT 87070) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87070-bacterial-culture-other-body-site-with-identification