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

Visual exam to identify an insect or tick specimen

CPT 87168the billing code this page is about

Naked-eye laboratory examination of an arthropod, such as a tick, louse, or mite, to identify what it is.

Hospitals typically charge $37 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,649 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $37. Most fall between $13 and $68 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,649
States
50
Filings dated
Dec 2023 – 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 1,649 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$17$37$61$105

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 15× what the cheapest tenth charges ($7 vs $105).

How the prices are spread

$5 – $7: 78 hospitals$5$7 – $10: 77 hospitals$10 – $14: 123 hospitals$10$14 – $20: 151 hospitals$20 – $29: 178 hospitals$20$29 – $42: 280 hospitals$42 – $61: 274 hospitals$42$61 – $87: 197 hospitals$87 – $126: 87 hospitals$87$126 – $181: 41 hospitals$126median $37price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,486 of 1,649 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$5$778
$7$1077
$10$14123
$14$20151
$20$29178
$29$42280
$42$61274
$61$87197
$87$12687
$126$18141

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $37.

Alaska: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: median $78 across 11 hospitalsVT$78New Hampshire: median $66 across 15 hospitalsNH$66Washington: median $39 across 46 hospitalsWA$39Idaho: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: median $26 across 11 hospitalsMT$26North Dakota: median $29 across 13 hospitalsND$29Minnesota: median $43 across 65 hospitalsMN$43Illinois: median $55 across 86 hospitalsIL$55Wisconsin: median $42 across 88 hospitalsWI$42Michigan: median $24 across 73 hospitalsMI$24New York: median $19 across 83 hospitalsNY$19Massachusetts: median $31 across 37 hospitalsMA$31Oregon: median $29 across 15 hospitalsOR$29Nevada: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $39 across 44 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: median $40 across 53 hospitalsIN$40Ohio: median $44 across 95 hospitalsOH$44Pennsylvania: median $24 across 96 hospitalsPA$24New Jersey: median $5 across 44 hospitalsNJ$5Connecticut: median $25 across 16 hospitalsCT$25Rhode Island: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $35 across 71 hospitalsCA$35Utah: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $68 across 33 hospitalsCO$68Nebraska: median $48 across 21 hospitalsNE$48Missouri: median $37 across 38 hospitalsMO$37Kentucky: median $46 across 34 hospitalsKY$46West Virginia: median $25 across 13 hospitalsWV$25Virginia: median $39 across 54 hospitalsVA$39Maryland: median $54 across 29 hospitalsMD$54Delaware: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $42 across 21 hospitalsAZ$42New Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $50 across 19 hospitalsKS$50Arkansas: median $22 across 13 hospitalsAR$22Tennessee: median $9 across 37 hospitalsTN$9North Carolina: median $28 across 47 hospitalsNC$28South Carolina: median $46 across 33 hospitalsSC$46Oklahoma: median $36 across 42 hospitalsOK$36Louisiana: median $10 across 14 hospitalsLA$10Mississippi: median $24 across 13 hospitalsMS$24Alabama: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $20 across 47 hospitalsGA$20Hawaii: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $45 across 75 hospitalsTX$45Florida: median $49 across 33 hospitalsFL$49
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $37. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Vermont VT11$78+113%$14 – $126
Colorado CO33$68+84%$29 – $98
New Hampshire NH15$66+79%$47 – $157
Illinois IL86$55+51%$33 – $110
Maryland MD29$54+48%$42 – $64
Kansas KS19$50+37%$34 – $81
Florida FL33$49+32%$4 – $218
Nebraska NE21$48+31%$34 – $67
Kentucky KY34$46+26%$13 – $79
South Carolina SC33$46+26%$16 – $63
Texas TX75$45+24%$20 – $110
Ohio OH95$44+20%$19 – $70
Minnesota MN65$43+17%$22 – $62
Arizona AZ21$42+15%$33 – $71
Wisconsin WI88$42+13%$15 – $65
Indiana IN53$40+9%$10 – $86
Washington WA46$39+7%$17 – $64
Iowa IA44$39+5%$26 – $44
Virginia VA54$39+5%$21 – $70
Missouri MO38$37+1%$19 – $53
Oklahoma OK42$36−1%$21 – $53
California CA71$35−4%$22 – $75
Massachusetts MA37$31−17%$11 – $116
North Dakota ND13$29−21%$19 – $39
Oregon OR15$29−21%$22 – $54
North Carolina NC47$28−23%$12 – $65
Montana MT11$26−30%$23 – $57
West Virginia WV13$25−32%$18 – $47
Connecticut CT16$25−33%$20 – $28
Michigan MI73$24−35%$7 – $38
Pennsylvania PA96$24−35%$5 – $68
Mississippi MS13$24−35%$7 – $35
Arkansas AR13$22−40%$15 – $52
Georgia GA47$20−45%$5 – $26
New York NY83$19−49%$5 – $109
Louisiana LA14$10−73%$6 – $41
Tennessee TN37$9−76%$6 – $17
New Jersey NJ44$5−87%$4 – $17
Alaska AK9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not 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 $37.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,279$35$11 – $68
Children’s21$51$32 – $71
Critical access344$42$19 – $66
Ownership
For-profit163$35$11 – $119
Government205$33$12 – $69
Non-profit1,276$38$13 – $66
System affiliation
Part of a system1,422$36$13 – $67
Independent227$40$14 – $80

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$59
Median cash price$37
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

1,220 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $39 and the average of the middle 60% is $38; most fall between $15 and $69.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,220 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$19$39$62$104

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($9 vs $104).

Of the 1,346 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,220 gave a usable cash price; 73 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 53 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,649 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (42%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,796 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,649
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here93
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded53
Hospitals that filed this code1,796

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 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 MACROSCOPIC EXAM ARTHROPOD.

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, “Visual exam to identify an insect or tick specimen (CPT 87168) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87168-visual-exam-to-identify-an-insect-or-tick-specimen