HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

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

Urine culture with bacteria colony count

CPT 87086the billing code this page is about

A urine specimen is cultured for bacteria and the number of colonies that grow is counted to help judge whether an infection is present.

Hospitals typically charge $63 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,230 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $68. Most fall between $28 and $127 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,230
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 3,230 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
$16$35$63$113$198

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($16 vs $198).

How the prices are spread

$9 – $13: 94 hospitals$9$13 – $19: 186 hospitals$19 – $27: 198 hospitals$19$27 – $39: 316 hospitals$39 – $56: 445 hospitals$39$56 – $79: 561 hospitals$79 – $114: 486 hospitals$79$114 – $162: 362 hospitals$162 – $232: 183 hospitals$162$232 – $332: 89 hospitals$232median $63price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,920 of 3,230 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$9$1394
$13$19186
$19$27198
$27$39316
$39$56445
$56$79561
$79$114486
$114$162362
$162$232183
$232$33289

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $63.

Alaska: median $106 across 19 hospitalsAK$106Maine: median $53 across 24 hospitalsME$53Vermont: median $59 across 12 hospitalsVT$59New Hampshire: median $45 across 25 hospitalsNH$45Washington: median $73 across 76 hospitalsWA$73Idaho: median $40 across 24 hospitalsID$40Montana: median $75 across 33 hospitalsMT$75North Dakota: median $61 across 32 hospitalsND$61Minnesota: median $55 across 105 hospitalsMN$55Illinois: median $91 across 140 hospitalsIL$91Wisconsin: median $75 across 106 hospitalsWI$75Michigan: median $50 across 95 hospitalsMI$50New York: median $36 across 115 hospitalsNY$36Massachusetts: median $57 across 47 hospitalsMA$57Oregon: median $53 across 49 hospitalsOR$53Nevada: median $91 across 19 hospitalsNV$91Wyoming: median $85 across 15 hospitalsWY$85South Dakota: median $116 across 38 hospitalsSD$116Iowa: median $59 across 87 hospitalsIA$59Indiana: median $41 across 93 hospitalsIN$41Ohio: median $55 across 140 hospitalsOH$55Pennsylvania: median $45 across 121 hospitalsPA$45New Jersey: median $9 across 52 hospitalsNJ$9Connecticut: median $42 across 22 hospitalsCT$42Rhode Island: median $52 across 10 hospitalsRI$52California: median $158 across 149 hospitalsCA$158Utah: median $86 across 41 hospitalsUT$86Colorado: median $61 across 64 hospitalsCO$61Nebraska: median $77 across 78 hospitalsNE$77Missouri: median $61 across 72 hospitalsMO$61Kentucky: median $76 across 68 hospitalsKY$76West Virginia: median $61 across 43 hospitalsWV$61Virginia: median $77 across 73 hospitalsVA$77Maryland: median $49 across 36 hospitalsMD$49Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $27 across 39 hospitalsAZ$27New Mexico: median $62 across 30 hospitalsNM$62Kansas: median $53 across 92 hospitalsKS$53Arkansas: median $25 across 40 hospitalsAR$25Tennessee: median $37 across 80 hospitalsTN$37North Carolina: median $59 across 81 hospitalsNC$59South Carolina: median $86 across 50 hospitalsSC$86Oklahoma: median $57 across 73 hospitalsOK$57Louisiana: median $37 across 51 hospitalsLA$37Mississippi: median $38 across 52 hospitalsMS$38Alabama: median $58 across 32 hospitalsAL$58Georgia: median $86 across 95 hospitalsGA$86Hawaii: median $53 across 21 hospitalsHI$53Texas: median $129 across 230 hospitalsTX$129Florida: median $188 across 134 hospitalsFL$188
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $63. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL134$188+198%$18 – $733
California CA149$158+151%$37 – $237
Texas TX230$129+105%$48 – $210
South Dakota SD38$116+84%$74 – $198
Alaska AK19$106+68%$31 – $198
Illinois IL140$91+45%$51 – $145
Nevada NV19$91+45%$43 – $239
South Carolina SC50$86+37%$55 – $123
Utah UT41$86+36%$61 – $101
Georgia GA95$86+36%$18 – $181
Wyoming WY15$85+35%$16 – $114
Nebraska NE78$77+22%$47 – $109
Virginia VA73$77+22%$27 – $120
Kentucky KY68$76+21%$27 – $121
Wisconsin WI106$75+20%$40 – $86
Montana MT33$75+19%$55 – $100
Washington WA76$73+16%$43 – $114
New Mexico NM30$62−2%$36 – $122
Colorado CO64$61−3%$49 – $88
North Dakota ND32$61−4%$52 – $84
Missouri MO72$61−4%$32 – $106
West Virginia WV43$61−4%$35 – $87
Vermont VT12$59−6%$38 – $84
North Carolina NC81$59−7%$23 – $109
Iowa IA87$59−7%$39 – $85
Alabama AL32$58−7%$19 – $95
Oklahoma OK73$57−9%$28 – $105
Massachusetts MA47$57−10%$28 – $116
Minnesota MN105$55−13%$23 – $85
Ohio OH140$55−13%$36 – $106
Hawaii HI21$53−15%$41 – $112
Kansas KS92$53−16%$36 – $81
Maine ME24$53−16%$30 – $120
Oregon OR49$53−16%$35 – $79
Rhode Island RI10$52−18%$19 – $55
Michigan MI95$50−20%$33 – $66
Maryland MD36$49−22%$40 – $65
New Hampshire NH25$45−28%$30 – $97
Pennsylvania PA121$45−29%$13 – $109
Connecticut CT22$42−33%$25 – $67
Indiana IN93$41−34%$18 – $91
Idaho ID24$40−37%$36 – $90
Mississippi MS52$38−40%$16 – $59
Louisiana LA51$37−42%$17 – $74
Tennessee TN80$37−42%$16 – $89
New York NY115$36−43%$10 – $129
Arizona AZ39$27−58%$17 – $147
Arkansas AR40$25−60%$9 – $47
New Jersey NJ52$9−85%$9 – $61
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 $63.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,218$62$24 – $139
Children’s64$77$48 – $166
Critical access938$65$37 – $104
Ownership
For-profit458$116$35 – $446
Government597$61$32 – $107
Non-profit2,165$60$26 – $116
System affiliation
Part of a system2,621$65$27 – $131
Independent609$57$30 – $110

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$108
Median cash price$63
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

2,186 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $66 and the average of the middle 60% is $71; most fall between $30 and $129.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,186 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$36$66$118$183

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($18 vs $183).

Of the 2,416 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,186 gave a usable cash price; 119 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 111 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,230 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (82%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,517 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,230
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here162
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 — excluded124
Hospitals that filed this code3,517

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-Urine.

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, “Urine culture with bacteria colony count (CPT 87086) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87086-urine-culture-with-bacteria-colony-count