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

Tissue grinding to prepare a sample for culture

CPT 87176the billing code this page is about

Laboratory step in which a piece of tissue is broken up and blended so bacteria or other organisms in it can be grown in culture; billed once per specimen prepared.

Hospitals typically charge $35 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,269 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $37. Most fall between $17 and $71 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,269
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 2,269 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
$10$20$35$61$105

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($10 vs $105).

How the prices are spread

$7 – $9: 84 hospitals$7$9 – $13: 130 hospitals$13 – $18: 157 hospitals$13$18 – $24: 238 hospitals$24 – $33: 351 hospitals$24$33 – $45: 408 hospitals$45 – $62: 248 hospitals$45$62 – $86: 195 hospitals$86 – $118: 154 hospitals$86$118 – $162: 81 hospitals$118median $35price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,046 of 2,269 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$7$984
$9$13130
$13$18157
$18$24238
$24$33351
$33$45408
$45$62248
$62$86195
$86$118154
$118$16281

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $35.

Alaska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $26 across 10 hospitalsME$26Vermont: median $28 across 11 hospitalsVT$28New Hampshire: median $18 across 14 hospitalsNH$18Washington: median $28 across 54 hospitalsWA$28Idaho: median $26 across 13 hospitalsID$26Montana: median $33 across 18 hospitalsMT$33North Dakota: median $32 across 15 hospitalsND$32Minnesota: median $32 across 76 hospitalsMN$32Illinois: median $44 across 96 hospitalsIL$44Wisconsin: median $36 across 93 hospitalsWI$36Michigan: median $34 across 66 hospitalsMI$34New York: median $25 across 65 hospitalsNY$25Massachusetts: median $29 across 34 hospitalsMA$29Oregon: median $32 across 37 hospitalsOR$32Nevada: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: median $37 across 10 hospitalsWY$37South Dakota: median $57 across 12 hospitalsSD$57Iowa: median $39 across 49 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: median $43 across 62 hospitalsIN$43Ohio: median $27 across 109 hospitalsOH$27Pennsylvania: median $24 across 106 hospitalsPA$24New Jersey: median $6 across 44 hospitalsNJ$6Connecticut: median $25 across 21 hospitalsCT$25Rhode Island: median $41 across 10 hospitalsRI$41California: median $79 across 107 hospitalsCA$79Utah: median $29 across 34 hospitalsUT$29Colorado: median $32 across 50 hospitalsCO$32Nebraska: median $39 across 49 hospitalsNE$39Missouri: median $34 across 57 hospitalsMO$34Kentucky: median $26 across 36 hospitalsKY$26West Virginia: median $42 across 21 hospitalsWV$42Virginia: median $40 across 52 hospitalsVA$40Maryland: median $412 across 31 hospitalsMD$412Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $35 across 31 hospitalsAZ$35New Mexico: median $36 across 16 hospitalsNM$36Kansas: median $37 across 31 hospitalsKS$37Arkansas: median $21 across 28 hospitalsAR$21Tennessee: median $20 across 54 hospitalsTN$20North Carolina: median $42 across 68 hospitalsNC$42South Carolina: median $49 across 47 hospitalsSC$49Oklahoma: median $17 across 40 hospitalsOK$17Louisiana: median $14 across 35 hospitalsLA$14Mississippi: median $15 across 35 hospitalsMS$15Alabama: median $30 across 21 hospitalsAL$30Georgia: median $36 across 64 hospitalsGA$36Hawaii: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $35 across 172 hospitalsTX$35Florida: median $29 across 133 hospitalsFL$29
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $35. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Maryland MD31$412+1076%$314 – $488
California CA107$79+127%$30 – $124
South Dakota SD12$57+62%$36 – $124
South Carolina SC47$49+39%$27 – $104
Illinois IL96$44+26%$26 – $85
Indiana IN62$43+22%$23 – $86
West Virginia WV21$42+20%$27 – $52
North Carolina NC68$42+20%$10 – $79
Rhode Island RI10$41+17%$22 – $47
Virginia VA52$40+13%$34 – $89
Iowa IA49$39+10%$24 – $51
Nebraska NE49$39+10%$28 – $70
Kansas KS31$37+6%$20 – $107
Wyoming WY10$37+4%$31 – $48
Wisconsin WI93$36+4%$25 – $67
New Mexico NM16$36+2%$29 – $117
Georgia GA64$36+2%$19 – $62
Arizona AZ31$35+1%$8 – $78
Texas TX172$350%$24 – $143
Missouri MO57$34−3%$25 – $45
Michigan MI66$34−3%$13 – $45
Montana MT18$33−5%$15 – $43
Colorado CO50$32−9%$17 – $56
Minnesota MN76$32−9%$16 – $61
North Dakota ND15$32−10%$26 – $43
Oregon OR37$32−10%$25 – $70
Alabama AL21$30−13%$14 – $65
Massachusetts MA34$29−17%$15 – $75
Utah UT34$29−17%$25 – $36
Florida FL133$29−18%$15 – $85
Vermont VT11$28−20%$20 – $70
Washington WA54$28−20%$20 – $57
Ohio OH109$27−24%$20 – $75
Kentucky KY36$26−25%$15 – $56
Idaho ID13$26−26%$22 – $31
Maine ME10$26−26%$6 – $40
Connecticut CT21$25−28%$17 – $49
New York NY65$25−28%$7 – $45
Pennsylvania PA106$24−31%$7 – $77
Arkansas AR28$21−41%$5 – $51
Tennessee TN54$20−44%$10 – $47
New Hampshire NH14$18−49%$11 – $80
Oklahoma OK40$17−51%$11 – $54
Mississippi MS35$15−58%$10 – $23
Louisiana LA35$14−60%$8 – $67
New Jersey NJ44$6−82%$6 – $7
Hawaii HI9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
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 $35.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,778$34$15 – $75
Children’s51$48$28 – $67
Critical access430$37$21 – $67
Ownership
For-profit319$41$19 – $124
Government288$34$17 – $62
Non-profit1,652$34$16 – $66
System affiliation
Part of a system1,990$35$16 – $72
Independent279$33$17 – $69

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$58
Median cash price$35
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

1,633 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $35 and the average of the middle 60% is $37; most fall between $18 and $69.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,633 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
$12$22$35$61$98

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($12 vs $98).

Of the 1,800 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,633 gave a usable cash price; 93 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 74 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,269 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (57%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,469 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,269
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 — excluded84
Hospitals that filed this code2,469

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 Homogenization Tissue.

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, “Tissue grinding to prepare a sample for culture (CPT 87176) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87176-tissue-grinding-to-prepare-a-sample-for-culture