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

Culture typing by fluorescent antibody, each antiserum

CPT 87140the billing code this page is about

Laboratory typing of an organism already grown in culture using fluorescent-tagged antibodies; billed once for each antiserum used in the test.

Hospitals typically charge $32 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,030 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $34. Most fall between $12 and $68 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,030
States
50
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 24, 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 2,030 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
$7$16$32$59$98

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 14× what the cheapest tenth charges ($7 vs $98).

How the prices are spread

$6 – $8: 132 hospitals$6$8 – $11: 137 hospitals$11 – $15: 108 hospitals$11$15 – $20: 220 hospitals$20 – $28: 259 hospitals$20$28 – $39: 219 hospitals$39 – $53: 284 hospitals$39$53 – $74: 233 hospitals$74 – $102: 154 hospitals$74$102 – $140: 89 hospitals$102median $32price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,835 of 2,030 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$6$8132
$8$11137
$11$15108
$15$20220
$20$28259
$28$39219
$39$53284
$53$74233
$74$102154
$102$14089

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $32.

Alaska: median $41 across 10 hospitalsAK$41Maine: median $17 across 19 hospitalsME$17Vermont: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $34 across 12 hospitalsNH$34Washington: median $44 across 51 hospitalsWA$44Idaho: median $27 across 14 hospitalsID$27Montana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: median $10 across 11 hospitalsND$10Minnesota: median $27 across 20 hospitalsMN$27Illinois: median $55 across 98 hospitalsIL$55Wisconsin: median $36 across 71 hospitalsWI$36Michigan: median $14 across 41 hospitalsMI$14New York: median $17 across 78 hospitalsNY$17Massachusetts: median $26 across 40 hospitalsMA$26Oregon: median $32 across 24 hospitalsOR$32Nevada: median $30 across 12 hospitalsNV$30Wyoming: median $35 across 11 hospitalsWY$35South Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $39 across 30 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: median $20 across 70 hospitalsIN$20Ohio: median $29 across 91 hospitalsOH$29Pennsylvania: median $18 across 92 hospitalsPA$18New Jersey: median $6 across 43 hospitalsNJ$6Connecticut: median $21 across 10 hospitalsCT$21Rhode Island: median $37 across 10 hospitalsRI$37California: median $26 across 112 hospitalsCA$26Utah: median $63 across 33 hospitalsUT$63Colorado: median $34 across 41 hospitalsCO$34Nebraska: median $60 across 37 hospitalsNE$60Missouri: median $25 across 58 hospitalsMO$25Kentucky: median $22 across 37 hospitalsKY$22West Virginia: median $10 across 18 hospitalsWV$10Virginia: median $33 across 59 hospitalsVA$33Maryland: median $57 across 35 hospitalsMD$57Delaware: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $31 across 29 hospitalsAZ$31New Mexico: median $22 across 14 hospitalsNM$22Kansas: median $38 across 35 hospitalsKS$38Arkansas: median $13 across 30 hospitalsAR$13Tennessee: median $18 across 57 hospitalsTN$18North Carolina: median $42 across 71 hospitalsNC$42South Carolina: median $44 across 36 hospitalsSC$44Oklahoma: median $40 across 44 hospitalsOK$40Louisiana: median $18 across 32 hospitalsLA$18Mississippi: median $20 across 36 hospitalsMS$20Alabama: median $34 across 18 hospitalsAL$34Georgia: median $39 across 72 hospitalsGA$39Hawaii: median $36 across 13 hospitalsHI$36Texas: median $52 across 145 hospitalsTX$52Florida: median $23 across 91 hospitalsFL$23
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $32. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT33$63+99%$39 – $74
Nebraska NE37$60+89%$15 – $103
Maryland MD35$57+81%$43 – $65
Illinois IL98$55+74%$20 – $86
Texas TX145$52+63%$17 – $110
Washington WA51$44+39%$21 – $79
South Carolina SC36$44+37%$44 – $71
North Carolina NC71$42+31%$21 – $58
Alaska AK10$41+29%$16 – $69
Oklahoma OK44$40+25%$21 – $68
Iowa IA30$39+22%$20 – $53
Georgia GA72$39+22%$15 – $91
Kansas KS35$38+20%$23 – $72
Rhode Island RI10$37+16%$13 – $48
Wisconsin WI71$36+15%$23 – $80
Hawaii HI13$36+14%$28 – $74
Wyoming WY11$35+11%$21 – $46
New Hampshire NH12$34+8%$23 – $136
Colorado CO41$34+7%$21 – $69
Alabama AL18$34+6%$7 – $57
Virginia VA59$33+4%$9 – $129
Oregon OR24$32+1%$22 – $53
Arizona AZ29$31−1%$8 – $105
Nevada NV12$30−6%$15 – $57
Ohio OH91$29−9%$20 – $60
Minnesota MN20$27−15%$11 – $36
Idaho ID14$27−15%$27 – $63
Massachusetts MA40$26−18%$18 – $46
California CA112$26−18%$6 – $51
Missouri MO58$25−22%$20 – $78
Florida FL91$23−27%$10 – $86
New Mexico NM14$22−29%$19 – $51
Kentucky KY37$22−31%$9 – $45
Connecticut CT10$21−35%$16 – $30
Mississippi MS36$20−36%$15 – $35
Indiana IN70$20−37%$12 – $44
Tennessee TN57$18−42%$10 – $27
Pennsylvania PA92$18−42%$6 – $65
Louisiana LA32$18−42%$11 – $61
New York NY78$17−46%$7 – $37
Maine ME19$17−47%$11 – $35
Michigan MI41$14−57%$8 – $27
Arkansas AR30$13−59%$7 – $34
North Dakota ND11$10−68%$9 – $33
West Virginia WV18$10−68%$3 – $60
New Jersey NJ43$6−81%$6 – $19
Vermont VT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD4not 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 $32.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,603$29$11 – $68
Children’s38$41$21 – $77
Critical access381$37$17 – $68
Ownership
For-profit292$34$12 – $110
Government283$32$13 – $64
Non-profit1,447$31$12 – $65
System affiliation
Part of a system1,718$33$12 – $68
Independent312$29$13 – $67

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$55
Median cash price$32
Cash as a share of list, median hospital60%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 40%. 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

1,429 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $33 and the average of the middle 60% is $36; most fall between $15 and $68.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,429 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
$9$17$33$61$91

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($9 vs $91).

Of the 1,579 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,429 gave a usable cash price; 95 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 55 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,030 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (51%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,210 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,030
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here116
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded64
Hospitals that filed this code2,210

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 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 24, 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 CULTURE TYPE IMMUNOFLUORESC.

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 typing by fluorescent antibody, each antiserum (CPT 87140) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87140-culture-typing-by-fluorescent-antibody-each-antiserum