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

Culture for tuberculosis and related bacteria

CPT 87116the billing code this page is about

A culture of any specimen to grow acid-fast bacteria such as tuberculosis, including concentrating the sample and a preliminary identification of what grows.

Hospitals typically charge $77 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,183 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $82. Most fall between $30 and $159 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,183
States
50
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – 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 3,183 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$37$77$139$223

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($18 vs $223).

How the prices are spread

$11 – $16: 118 hospitals$11$16 – $22: 161 hospitals$22 – $32: 231 hospitals$22$32 – $45: 306 hospitals$45 – $64: 402 hospitals$45$64 – $92: 479 hospitals$92 – $130: 461 hospitals$92$130 – $186: 418 hospitals$186 – $264: 205 hospitals$186$264 – $376: 86 hospitals$264median $77price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,867 of 3,183 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$11$16118
$16$22161
$22$32231
$32$45306
$45$64402
$64$92479
$92$130461
$130$186418
$186$264205
$264$37686

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $77.

Alaska: median $75 across 15 hospitalsAK$75Maine: median $66 across 25 hospitalsME$66Vermont: median $58 across 14 hospitalsVT$58New Hampshire: median $100 across 23 hospitalsNH$100Washington: median $80 across 73 hospitalsWA$80Idaho: median $50 across 22 hospitalsID$50Montana: median $55 across 24 hospitalsMT$55North Dakota: median $54 across 25 hospitalsND$54Minnesota: median $66 across 100 hospitalsMN$66Illinois: median $108 across 138 hospitalsIL$108Wisconsin: median $82 across 103 hospitalsWI$82Michigan: median $59 across 89 hospitalsMI$59New York: median $34 across 112 hospitalsNY$34Massachusetts: median $80 across 52 hospitalsMA$80Oregon: median $65 across 48 hospitalsOR$65Nevada: median $58 across 17 hospitalsNV$58Wyoming: median $82 across 15 hospitalsWY$82South Dakota: median $106 across 35 hospitalsSD$106Iowa: median $76 across 80 hospitalsIA$76Indiana: median $56 across 94 hospitalsIN$56Ohio: median $88 across 141 hospitalsOH$88Pennsylvania: median $61 across 120 hospitalsPA$61New Jersey: median $12 across 55 hospitalsNJ$12Connecticut: median $52 across 23 hospitalsCT$52Rhode Island: median $60 across 10 hospitalsRI$60California: median $95 across 135 hospitalsCA$95Utah: median $337 across 41 hospitalsUT$337Colorado: median $101 across 66 hospitalsCO$101Nebraska: median $145 across 77 hospitalsNE$145Missouri: median $73 across 74 hospitalsMO$73Kentucky: median $76 across 67 hospitalsKY$76West Virginia: median $71 across 38 hospitalsWV$71Virginia: median $78 across 72 hospitalsVA$78Maryland: median $163 across 41 hospitalsMD$163Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $69 across 40 hospitalsAZ$69New Mexico: median $101 across 28 hospitalsNM$101Kansas: median $75 across 76 hospitalsKS$75Arkansas: median $19 across 38 hospitalsAR$19Tennessee: median $41 across 78 hospitalsTN$41North Carolina: median $40 across 84 hospitalsNC$40South Carolina: median $142 across 51 hospitalsSC$142Oklahoma: median $58 across 72 hospitalsOK$58Louisiana: median $37 across 50 hospitalsLA$37Mississippi: median $33 across 55 hospitalsMS$33Alabama: median $76 across 40 hospitalsAL$76Georgia: median $115 across 103 hospitalsGA$115Hawaii: median $60 across 18 hospitalsHI$60Texas: median $111 across 230 hospitalsTX$111Florida: median $71 across 149 hospitalsFL$71
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $77. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT41$337+341%$106 – $397
Maryland MD41$163+113%$120 – $195
Nebraska NE77$145+89%$81 – $203
South Carolina SC51$142+86%$58 – $180
Georgia GA103$115+50%$26 – $164
Texas TX230$111+45%$53 – $229
Illinois IL138$108+41%$50 – $209
South Dakota SD35$106+38%$58 – $185
Colorado CO66$101+33%$70 – $139
New Mexico NM28$101+33%$54 – $134
New Hampshire NH23$100+30%$33 – $233
California CA135$95+24%$12 – $159
Ohio OH141$88+15%$45 – $144
Wisconsin WI103$82+7%$59 – $109
Wyoming WY15$82+7%$41 – $122
Washington WA73$80+5%$48 – $131
Massachusetts MA52$80+4%$37 – $132
Virginia VA72$78+2%$19 – $123
Kentucky KY67$760%$32 – $160
Iowa IA80$76−1%$39 – $139
Alabama AL40$76−1%$26 – $256
Alaska AK15$75−2%$26 – $196
Kansas KS76$75−2%$47 – $128
Missouri MO74$73−4%$38 – $155
Florida FL149$71−7%$18 – $222
West Virginia WV38$71−8%$38 – $169
Arizona AZ40$69−10%$14 – $448
Maine ME25$66−14%$45 – $103
Minnesota MN100$66−14%$31 – $100
Oregon OR48$65−15%$33 – $100
Pennsylvania PA120$61−20%$17 – $127
Hawaii HI18$60−21%$55 – $114
Rhode Island RI10$60−22%$25 – $91
Michigan MI89$59−23%$29 – $83
Vermont VT14$58−24%$30 – $165
Oklahoma OK72$58−24%$25 – $133
Nevada NV17$58−24%$33 – $214
Indiana IN94$56−27%$29 – $121
Montana MT24$55−28%$40 – $115
North Dakota ND25$54−29%$19 – $80
Connecticut CT23$52−32%$33 – $90
Idaho ID22$50−35%$33 – $109
Tennessee TN78$41−47%$19 – $124
North Carolina NC84$40−48%$25 – $121
Louisiana LA50$37−51%$20 – $100
New York NY112$34−56%$15 – $147
Mississippi MS55$33−57%$23 – $67
Arkansas AR38$19−75%$9 – $72
New Jersey NJ55$12−84%$12 – $40
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 $77.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,258$75$27 – $167
Children’s60$90$33 – $172
Critical access855$78$39 – $139
Ownership
For-profit459$120$33 – $390
Government566$73$30 – $146
Non-profit2,148$74$30 – $143
System affiliation
Part of a system2,607$79$30 – $164
Independent576$71$31 – $138

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$120
Median cash price$77
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

2,155 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $80 and the average of the middle 60% is $84; most fall between $33 and $159.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,155 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
$20$40$80$141$211

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($20 vs $211).

Of the 2,393 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,155 gave a usable cash price; 133 carried a plausibility flag, 2 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 103 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,183 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (80%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,494 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,183
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here182
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded2
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded126
Hospitals that filed this code3,494

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 September 4, 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-TB Direct.

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, “Culture for tuberculosis and related bacteria (CPT 87116) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87116-culture-for-tuberculosis-and-related-bacteria