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

Minimum lethal concentration antibiotic test, per plate

CPT 87187the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that finds the lowest antibiotic concentration that kills the bacteria rather than just stopping their growth; billed once for each test plate used.

Hospitals typically charge $67 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 532 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $74. Most fall between $40 and $126 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
532
States
46
Filings dated
Dec 2024 – 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 532 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
$27$42$67$117$184

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($27 vs $184).

How the prices are spread

$20 – $27: 29 hospitals$20$27 – $37: 27 hospitals$37 – $50: 94 hospitals$37$50 – $69: 101 hospitals$69 – $94: 95 hospitals$69$94 – $129: 65 hospitals$129 – $176: 39 hospitals$129$176 – $241: 18 hospitals$241 – $330: 4 hospitals$241$330 – $452: 8 hospitals$330median $67price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (480 of 532 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$20$2729
$27$3727
$37$5094
$50$69101
$69$9495
$94$12965
$129$17639
$176$24118
$241$3304
$330$4528

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $67.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $49 across 22 hospitalsWA$49Idaho: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $80 across 37 hospitalsIL$80Wisconsin: median $80 across 23 hospitalsWI$80Michigan: median $40 across 14 hospitalsMI$40New York: median $48 across 31 hospitalsNY$48Massachusetts: median $89 across 12 hospitalsMA$89Oregon: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $67 across 12 hospitalsIA$67Indiana: median $30 across 16 hospitalsIN$30Ohio: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $40 across 26 hospitalsPA$40New Jersey: median $44 across 28 hospitalsNJ$44Connecticut: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $116 across 42 hospitalsCA$116Utah: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $61 across 17 hospitalsMO$61Kentucky: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $130 across 11 hospitalsVA$130Maryland: median $23 across 12 hospitalsMD$23Delaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $71 across 17 hospitalsOK$71Louisiana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $59 across 18 hospitalsGA$59Hawaii: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $87 across 45 hospitalsTX$87Florida: median $319 across 23 hospitalsFL$319
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $67. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL23$319+375%$106 – $797
Virginia VA11$130+93%$106 – $130
California CA42$116+72%$93 – $126
Massachusetts MA12$89+32%$57 – $148
Texas TX45$87+30%$62 – $146
Illinois IL37$80+19%$58 – $170
Wisconsin WI23$80+19%$67 – $80
Oklahoma OK17$71+5%$71 – $86
Iowa IA12$670%$67 – $67
Missouri MO17$61−10%$20 – $81
Georgia GA18$59−13%$59 – $83
Washington WA22$49−28%$20 – $97
New York NY31$48−28%$40 – $118
New Jersey NJ28$44−34%$40 – $44
Michigan MI14$40−40%$38 – $55
Pennsylvania PA26$40−40%$28 – $56
Indiana IN16$30−55%$13 – $96
Maryland MD12$23−66%$21 – $29
North Dakota ND9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY1not 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 $67.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care463$67$40 – $126
Children’s9fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access60$70$47 – $146
Ownership
For-profit77$98$40 – $407
Government58$59$38 – $117
Non-profit397$67$40 – $125
System affiliation
Part of a system474$68$40 – $126
Independent58$49$29 – $105

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$128
Median cash price$67
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

341 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $72 and the average of the middle 60% is $80; most fall between $45 and $126.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 341 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
$26$51$72$118$149

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.7× what the cheapest tenth charges ($26 vs $149).

Of the 387 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 341 gave a usable cash price; 18 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 28 a list price only.

How complete is this

532 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (13%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 603 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted532
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here39
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 — excluded31
Hospitals that filed this code603

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 5, 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 SC STD MICRODIL/AGAR MLC.

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, “Minimum lethal concentration antibiotic test, per plate (CPT 87187) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87187-minimum-lethal-concentration-antibiotic-test-per-plate