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

Antibiotic sensitivity test for tuberculosis, each drug

CPT 87190the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that checks whether tuberculosis bacteria grown in culture are killed or slowed by a given drug; billed once for each drug tested.

Hospitals typically charge $35 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,152 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $42. Most fall between $14 and $93 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,152
States
48
Filings dated
Nov 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 1,152 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$17$35$84$170

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 18× what the cheapest tenth charges ($9 vs $170).

How the prices are spread

$7 – $11: 115 hospitals$7$11 – $16: 107 hospitals$16 – $23: 148 hospitals$16$23 – $34: 150 hospitals$34 – $50: 148 hospitals$34$50 – $73: 95 hospitals$73 – $107: 155 hospitals$73$107 – $158: 60 hospitals$158 – $231: 55 hospitals$158$231 – $340: 18 hospitals$231median $35price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,051 of 1,152 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$7$11115
$11$16107
$16$23148
$23$34150
$34$50148
$50$7395
$73$107155
$107$15860
$158$23155
$231$34018

By state

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

Alaska: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $26 across 36 hospitalsWA$26Idaho: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $28 across 43 hospitalsIL$28Wisconsin: median $78 across 19 hospitalsWI$78Michigan: median $11 across 12 hospitalsMI$11New York: median $21 across 61 hospitalsNY$21Massachusetts: median $25 across 13 hospitalsMA$25Oregon: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $39 across 17 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: median $17 across 45 hospitalsIN$17Ohio: median $81 across 41 hospitalsOH$81Pennsylvania: median $16 across 64 hospitalsPA$16New Jersey: median $8 across 45 hospitalsNJ$8Connecticut: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $47 across 72 hospitalsCA$47Utah: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $64 across 26 hospitalsCO$64Nebraska: median $24 across 16 hospitalsNE$24Missouri: median $38 across 16 hospitalsMO$38Kentucky: median $46 across 19 hospitalsKY$46West Virginia: median $24 across 14 hospitalsWV$24Virginia: median $71 across 47 hospitalsVA$71Maryland: median $32 across 20 hospitalsMD$32Delaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $39 across 27 hospitalsAZ$39New Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: median $176 across 11 hospitalsKS$176Arkansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $20 across 30 hospitalsTN$20North Carolina: median $86 across 50 hospitalsNC$86South Carolina: median $34 across 36 hospitalsSC$34Oklahoma: median $13 across 25 hospitalsOK$13Louisiana: median $22 across 20 hospitalsLA$22Mississippi: median $17 across 17 hospitalsMS$17Alabama: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $91 across 52 hospitalsGA$91Hawaii: median $36 across 13 hospitalsHI$36Texas: median $39 across 96 hospitalsTX$39Florida: median $55 across 79 hospitalsFL$55
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
Kansas KS11$176+406%$35 – $251
Georgia GA52$91+162%$40 – $107
North Carolina NC50$86+148%$25 – $231
Ohio OH41$81+133%$23 – $126
Wisconsin WI19$78+124%$36 – $120
Virginia VA47$71+104%$25 – $95
Colorado CO26$64+84%$23 – $191
Florida FL79$55+58%$13 – $123
California CA72$47+35%$23 – $85
Kentucky KY19$46+33%$20 – $86
Texas TX96$39+12%$18 – $391
Iowa IA17$39+11%$32 – $39
Arizona AZ27$39+11%$13 – $55
Missouri MO16$38+11%$26 – $127
Hawaii HI13$36+4%$13 – $65
South Carolina SC36$34−3%$16 – $83
Maryland MD20$32−7%$14 – $44
Illinois IL43$28−19%$18 – $122
Washington WA36$26−26%$12 – $37
Massachusetts MA13$25−28%$16 – $76
Nebraska NE16$24−30%$9 – $56
West Virginia WV14$24−31%$24 – $71
Louisiana LA20$22−38%$10 – $46
New York NY61$21−39%$9 – $43
Tennessee TN30$20−42%$9 – $93
Mississippi MS17$17−50%$10 – $20
Indiana IN45$17−51%$10 – $43
Pennsylvania PA64$16−54%$8 – $86
Oklahoma OK25$13−62%$12 – $19
Michigan MI12$11−68%$10 – $35
New Jersey NJ45$8−76%$7 – $98
Alabama AL9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not 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 care995$34$13 – $93
Children’s12fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access143$42$18 – $86
Ownership
For-profit220$56$16 – $240
Government146$35$14 – $112
Non-profit784$33$13 – $85
System affiliation
Part of a system1,005$36$14 – $89
Independent147$30$13 – $114

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$63
Median cash price$35
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

747 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $34 and the average of the middle 60% is $41; most fall between $17 and $85.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 747 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$19$34$78$117

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($12 vs $117).

Of the 872 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 747 gave a usable cash price; 74 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 50 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,152 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (29%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,280 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,152
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here79
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 — excluded48
Hospitals that filed this code1,280

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 SUSCEPT MYCOBACTERI.

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 for tuberculosis, each drug (CPT 87190) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87190-antibiotic-sensitivity-test-for-tuberculosis-each-drug