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

Pinworm test using a tape sample

CPT 87172the billing code this page is about

Examination of a sample collected from the skin around the anus, usually with a cellophane tape preparation, to look for pinworms or their eggs.

Hospitals typically charge $36 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,408 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $37. Most fall between $14 and $67 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,408
States
50
Filings dated
Jan 2024 – 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 2,408 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
$8$18$36$58$104

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($8 vs $104).

How the prices are spread

$5 – $7: 85 hospitals$5$7 – $10: 128 hospitals$10 – $15: 180 hospitals$10$15 – $21: 253 hospitals$21 – $30: 274 hospitals$21$30 – $43: 413 hospitals$43 – $63: 434 hospitals$43$63 – $90: 238 hospitals$90 – $129: 116 hospitals$90$129 – $186: 64 hospitals$129median $36price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,185 of 2,408 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$5$785
$7$10128
$10$15180
$15$21253
$21$30274
$30$43413
$43$63434
$63$90238
$90$129116
$129$18664

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $36.

Alaska: median $82 across 13 hospitalsAK$82Maine: median $35 across 25 hospitalsME$35Vermont: median $41 across 12 hospitalsVT$41New Hampshire: median $37 across 20 hospitalsNH$37Washington: median $35 across 62 hospitalsWA$35Idaho: median $24 across 15 hospitalsID$24Montana: median $39 across 22 hospitalsMT$39North Dakota: median $32 across 24 hospitalsND$32Minnesota: median $37 across 75 hospitalsMN$37Illinois: median $54 across 114 hospitalsIL$54Wisconsin: median $42 across 91 hospitalsWI$42Michigan: median $36 across 84 hospitalsMI$36New York: median $16 across 84 hospitalsNY$16Massachusetts: median $35 across 47 hospitalsMA$35Oregon: median $40 across 38 hospitalsOR$40Nevada: median $18 across 11 hospitalsNV$18Wyoming: median $26 across 12 hospitalsWY$26South Dakota: median $52 across 15 hospitalsSD$52Iowa: median $38 across 67 hospitalsIA$38Indiana: median $34 across 78 hospitalsIN$34Ohio: median $38 across 129 hospitalsOH$38Pennsylvania: median $24 across 106 hospitalsPA$24New Jersey: median $5 across 51 hospitalsNJ$5Connecticut: median $18 across 15 hospitalsCT$18Rhode Island: median $34 across 10 hospitalsRI$34California: median $57 across 122 hospitalsCA$57Utah: median $225 across 37 hospitalsUT$225Colorado: median $46 across 55 hospitalsCO$46Nebraska: median $41 across 43 hospitalsNE$41Missouri: median $40 across 55 hospitalsMO$40Kentucky: median $38 across 43 hospitalsKY$38West Virginia: median $26 across 23 hospitalsWV$26Virginia: median $21 across 48 hospitalsVA$21Maryland: median $16 across 27 hospitalsMD$16Delaware: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $60 across 29 hospitalsAZ$60New Mexico: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $32 across 56 hospitalsKS$32Arkansas: median $25 across 19 hospitalsAR$25Tennessee: median $13 across 47 hospitalsTN$13North Carolina: median $33 across 70 hospitalsNC$33South Carolina: median $34 across 40 hospitalsSC$34Oklahoma: median $23 across 49 hospitalsOK$23Louisiana: median $15 across 34 hospitalsLA$15Mississippi: median $21 across 29 hospitalsMS$21Alabama: median $25 across 27 hospitalsAL$25Georgia: median $25 across 65 hospitalsGA$25Hawaii: median $28 across 14 hospitalsHI$28Texas: median $51 across 154 hospitalsTX$51Florida: median $41 across 88 hospitalsFL$41
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $36. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT37$225+525%$72 – $265
Alaska AK13$82+129%$39 – $106
Arizona AZ29$60+66%$30 – $165
California CA122$57+59%$25 – $71
Illinois IL114$54+50%$23 – $90
South Dakota SD15$52+44%$34 – $81
Texas TX154$51+41%$20 – $127
Colorado CO55$46+26%$32 – $91
Wisconsin WI91$42+16%$23 – $53
Vermont VT12$41+14%$28 – $76
Florida FL88$41+14%$8 – $174
Nebraska NE43$41+14%$16 – $65
Missouri MO55$40+12%$19 – $70
Oregon OR38$40+10%$26 – $67
Montana MT22$39+8%$23 – $57
Kentucky KY43$38+7%$13 – $63
Iowa IA67$38+5%$25 – $46
Ohio OH129$38+5%$19 – $70
New Hampshire NH20$37+4%$12 – $53
Minnesota MN75$37+3%$24 – $53
Michigan MI84$360%$19 – $46
Maine ME25$35−2%$20 – $61
Massachusetts MA47$35−3%$13 – $76
Washington WA62$35−4%$18 – $64
South Carolina SC40$34−4%$19 – $55
Rhode Island RI10$34−6%$10 – $58
Indiana IN78$34−7%$11 – $61
North Carolina NC70$33−7%$12 – $65
North Dakota ND24$32−11%$28 – $90
Kansas KS56$32−12%$20 – $59
Hawaii HI14$28−22%$21 – $48
West Virginia WV23$26−28%$14 – $53
Wyoming WY12$26−28%$9 – $76
Alabama AL27$25−30%$9 – $50
Georgia GA65$25−30%$12 – $43
Arkansas AR19$25−31%$11 – $40
Idaho ID15$24−33%$19 – $85
Pennsylvania PA106$24−33%$6 – $59
Oklahoma OK49$23−36%$13 – $37
Mississippi MS29$21−43%$10 – $38
Virginia VA48$21−43%$10 – $53
Nevada NV11$18−49%$13 – $57
Connecticut CT15$18−50%$12 – $26
Maryland MD27$16−54%$12 – $20
New York NY84$16−57%$5 – $55
Louisiana LA34$15−58%$9 – $42
Tennessee TN47$13−65%$7 – $32
New Jersey NJ51$5−86%$5 – $12
New Mexico NM9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE5not 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 $36.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,754$34$13 – $68
Children’s47$48$25 – $113
Critical access600$38$19 – $63
Ownership
For-profit288$46$13 – $187
Government373$34$15 – $63
Non-profit1,740$35$14 – $61
System affiliation
Part of a system1,987$36$14 – $66
Independent421$35$17 – $73

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$57
Median cash price$36
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

1,661 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $38 and the average of the middle 60% is $39; most fall between $17 and $67.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,661 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
$11$19$38$59$98

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($11 vs $98).

Of the 1,851 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,661 gave a usable cash price; 102 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 88 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,408 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (61%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,622 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,408
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here127
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 — excluded87
Hospitals that filed this code2,622

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 Pinworm.

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, “Pinworm test using a tape sample (CPT 87172) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87172-pinworm-test-using-a-tape-sample