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

Antibiotic sensitivity test by disk method, per plate

CPT 87184the billing code this page is about

Bacteria are grown on a plate with paper disks holding several antibiotics to see which ones stop growth; billed once per plate, covering up to about a dozen drugs.

Hospitals typically charge $47 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,704 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $50. Most fall between $21 and $97 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,704
States
50
Filings dated
Mar 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 2,704 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
$13$25$47$81$148

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($13 vs $148).

How the prices are spread

$9 – $12: 117 hospitals$9$12 – $17: 175 hospitals$17 – $24: 214 hospitals$17$24 – $34: 345 hospitals$34 – $48: 370 hospitals$34$48 – $67: 429 hospitals$67 – $93: 343 hospitals$67$93 – $130: 249 hospitals$130 – $183: 134 hospitals$130$183 – $256: 59 hospitals$183median $47price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,435 of 2,704 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$9$12117
$12$17175
$17$24214
$24$34345
$34$48370
$48$67429
$67$93343
$93$130249
$130$183134
$183$25659

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $47.

Alaska: median $70 across 10 hospitalsAK$70Maine: median $55 across 21 hospitalsME$55Vermont: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $50 across 18 hospitalsNH$50Washington: median $54 across 65 hospitalsWA$54Idaho: median $36 across 19 hospitalsID$36Montana: median $60 across 25 hospitalsMT$60North Dakota: median $49 across 26 hospitalsND$49Minnesota: median $57 across 72 hospitalsMN$57Illinois: median $56 across 115 hospitalsIL$56Wisconsin: median $51 across 84 hospitalsWI$51Michigan: median $42 across 82 hospitalsMI$42New York: median $25 across 94 hospitalsNY$25Massachusetts: median $49 across 48 hospitalsMA$49Oregon: median $31 across 41 hospitalsOR$31Nevada: median $68 across 18 hospitalsNV$68Wyoming: median $58 across 13 hospitalsWY$58South Dakota: median $110 across 23 hospitalsSD$110Iowa: median $39 across 52 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: median $42 across 88 hospitalsIN$42Ohio: median $37 across 106 hospitalsOH$37Pennsylvania: median $38 across 117 hospitalsPA$38New Jersey: median $9 across 50 hospitalsNJ$9Connecticut: median $37 across 20 hospitalsCT$37Rhode Island: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $76 across 147 hospitalsCA$76Utah: median $100 across 37 hospitalsUT$100Colorado: median $60 across 47 hospitalsCO$60Nebraska: median $80 across 64 hospitalsNE$80Missouri: median $48 across 67 hospitalsMO$48Kentucky: median $70 across 50 hospitalsKY$70West Virginia: median $22 across 33 hospitalsWV$22Virginia: median $63 across 56 hospitalsVA$63Maryland: median $26 across 39 hospitalsMD$26Delaware: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $38 across 30 hospitalsAZ$38New Mexico: median $53 across 20 hospitalsNM$53Kansas: median $46 across 54 hospitalsKS$46Arkansas: median $23 across 31 hospitalsAR$23Tennessee: median $27 across 67 hospitalsTN$27North Carolina: median $49 across 75 hospitalsNC$49South Carolina: median $65 across 51 hospitalsSC$65Oklahoma: median $29 across 64 hospitalsOK$29Louisiana: median $24 across 42 hospitalsLA$24Mississippi: median $31 across 44 hospitalsMS$31Alabama: median $29 across 28 hospitalsAL$29Georgia: median $39 across 81 hospitalsGA$39Hawaii: median $43 across 21 hospitalsHI$43Texas: median $76 across 199 hospitalsTX$76Florida: median $90 across 129 hospitalsFL$90
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $47. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Dakota SD23$110+133%$61 – $155
Utah UT37$100+111%$82 – $118
Florida FL129$90+89%$28 – $607
Nebraska NE64$80+69%$27 – $160
California CA147$76+61%$26 – $107
Texas TX199$76+59%$31 – $183
Alaska AK10$70+48%$49 – $101
Kentucky KY50$70+47%$22 – $116
Nevada NV18$68+43%$38 – $235
South Carolina SC51$65+37%$56 – $160
Virginia VA56$63+33%$27 – $92
Montana MT25$60+27%$35 – $90
Colorado CO47$60+26%$40 – $115
Wyoming WY13$58+22%$14 – $101
Minnesota MN72$57+20%$23 – $87
Illinois IL115$56+19%$28 – $101
Maine ME21$55+15%$23 – $116
Washington WA65$54+14%$33 – $86
New Mexico NM20$53+11%$42 – $76
Wisconsin WI84$51+8%$28 – $74
New Hampshire NH18$50+5%$30 – $88
Massachusetts MA48$49+3%$23 – $93
North Dakota ND26$49+3%$13 – $62
North Carolina NC75$49+3%$13 – $60
Missouri MO67$48+2%$29 – $71
Kansas KS54$46−3%$29 – $110
Hawaii HI21$43−10%$38 – $70
Michigan MI82$42−11%$22 – $53
Indiana IN88$42−12%$15 – $114
Georgia GA81$39−17%$16 – $67
Iowa IA52$39−19%$26 – $70
Pennsylvania PA117$38−21%$10 – $88
Arizona AZ30$38−21%$11 – $319
Connecticut CT20$37−22%$26 – $57
Ohio OH106$37−23%$32 – $77
Idaho ID19$36−23%$33 – $105
Oregon OR41$31−35%$18 – $65
Mississippi MS44$31−35%$16 – $54
Oklahoma OK64$29−38%$16 – $64
Alabama AL28$29−39%$13 – $95
Tennessee TN67$27−44%$13 – $45
Maryland MD39$26−44%$21 – $33
New York NY94$25−46%$12 – $72
Louisiana LA42$24−50%$13 – $49
Arkansas AR31$23−52%$11 – $26
West Virginia WV33$22−53%$21 – $44
New Jersey NJ50$9−82%$7 – $23
Rhode Island RI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT8not 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 $47.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,006$46$21 – $98
Children’s59$60$41 – $115
Critical access634$51$25 – $95
Ownership
For-profit395$66$27 – $280
Government425$46$20 – $86
Non-profit1,879$46$21 – $86
System affiliation
Part of a system2,268$48$21 – $97
Independent436$46$23 – $101

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$81
Median cash price$47
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

1,854 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $50 and the average of the middle 60% is $52; most fall between $23 and $96.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,854 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
$14$28$50$79$133

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($14 vs $133).

Of the 2,039 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,854 gave a usable cash price; 97 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

2,704 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (68%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,937 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,704
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here130
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded102
Hospitals that filed this code2,937

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 MICROBE SUSCEPTIBLE DISK.

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, “Antibiotic sensitivity test by disk method, per plate (CPT 87184) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87184-antibiotic-sensitivity-test-by-disk-method-per-plate