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

Cell culture test for a bacterial toxin

CPT 87230the billing code this page is about

A specimen is applied to living cells in culture to detect a bacterial toxin, such as the toxin from Clostridioides difficile, or the antibody that neutralizes it.

Hospitals typically charge $84 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,306 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $88. Most fall between $33 and $177 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,306
States
50
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – 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 1,306 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
$22$38$84$151$302

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 14× what the cheapest tenth charges ($22 vs $302).

How the prices are spread

$18 – $25: 107 hospitals$18$25 – $35: 136 hospitals$35 – $49: 108 hospitals$35$49 – $69: 125 hospitals$69 – $97: 214 hospitals$69$97 – $136: 174 hospitals$136 – $191: 140 hospitals$136$191 – $268: 86 hospitals$268 – $377: 48 hospitals$268$377 – $529: 38 hospitals$377median $84price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,176 of 1,306 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$18$25107
$25$35136
$35$49108
$49$69125
$69$97214
$97$136174
$136$191140
$191$26886
$268$37748
$377$52938

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $84.

Alaska: median $111 across 11 hospitalsAK$111Maine: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $125 across 39 hospitalsWA$125Idaho: median $65 across 10 hospitalsID$65Montana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $63 across 37 hospitalsIL$63Wisconsin: median $80 across 21 hospitalsWI$80Michigan: median $27 across 23 hospitalsMI$27New York: median $40 across 52 hospitalsNY$40Massachusetts: median $152 across 14 hospitalsMA$152Oregon: median $70 across 20 hospitalsOR$70Nevada: median $42 across 12 hospitalsNV$42Wyoming: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $39 across 15 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: median $43 across 53 hospitalsIN$43Ohio: median $81 across 84 hospitalsOH$81Pennsylvania: median $89 across 54 hospitalsPA$89New Jersey: median $22 across 34 hospitalsNJ$22Connecticut: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $151 across 74 hospitalsCA$151Utah: median $111 across 34 hospitalsUT$111Colorado: median $115 across 27 hospitalsCO$115Nebraska: median $112 across 12 hospitalsNE$112Missouri: median $195 across 27 hospitalsMO$195Kentucky: median $119 across 41 hospitalsKY$119West Virginia: median $85 across 13 hospitalsWV$85Virginia: median $27 across 49 hospitalsVA$27Maryland: median $56 across 11 hospitalsMD$56Delaware: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $90 across 14 hospitalsAZ$90New Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $110 across 19 hospitalsKS$110Arkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $41 across 40 hospitalsTN$41North Carolina: median $59 across 38 hospitalsNC$59South Carolina: median $106 across 32 hospitalsSC$106Oklahoma: median $58 across 32 hospitalsOK$58Louisiana: median $103 across 20 hospitalsLA$103Mississippi: median $64 across 30 hospitalsMS$64Alabama: median $66 across 15 hospitalsAL$66Georgia: median $95 across 35 hospitalsGA$95Hawaii: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $89 across 139 hospitalsTX$89Florida: median $196 across 61 hospitalsFL$196
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $84. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL61$196+134%$51 – $516
Missouri MO27$195+132%$117 – $320
Massachusetts MA14$152+81%$106 – $245
California CA74$151+80%$22 – $241
Washington WA39$125+49%$74 – $164
Kentucky KY41$119+42%$55 – $469
Colorado CO27$115+38%$41 – $602
Nebraska NE12$112+34%$44 – $166
Utah UT34$111+32%$111 – $190
Alaska AK11$111+32%$65 – $254
Kansas KS19$110+31%$75 – $141
South Carolina SC32$106+26%$62 – $174
Louisiana LA20$103+23%$38 – $206
Georgia GA35$95+13%$80 – $143
Arizona AZ14$90+7%$28 – $684
Pennsylvania PA54$89+7%$19 – $161
Texas TX139$89+6%$69 – $303
West Virginia WV13$85+1%$34 – $529
Ohio OH84$81−4%$46 – $112
Wisconsin WI21$80−4%$49 – $116
Oregon OR20$70−16%$40 – $84
Alabama AL15$66−21%$23 – $186
Idaho ID10$65−23%$60 – $73
Mississippi MS30$64−23%$20 – $99
Illinois IL37$63−25%$31 – $178
North Carolina NC38$59−29%$22 – $147
Oklahoma OK32$58−31%$35 – $111
Maryland MD11$56−33%$50 – $88
Indiana IN53$43−49%$24 – $110
Nevada NV12$42−50%$25 – $97
Tennessee TN40$41−51%$34 – $99
New York NY52$40−52%$20 – $94
Iowa IA15$39−54%$39 – $71
Virginia VA49$27−67%$10 – $166
Michigan MI23$27−68%$22 – $77
New Jersey NJ34$22−74%$20 – $23
Connecticut CT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not 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 $84.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,034$84$30 – $182
Children’s22$64$43 – $110
Critical access244$87$43 – $155
Ownership
For-profit210$120$36 – $538
Government190$84$37 – $160
Non-profit900$76$31 – $151
System affiliation
Part of a system1,102$83$32 – $182
Independent204$85$41 – $154

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$144
Median cash price$84
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

893 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $85 and the average of the middle 60% is $88; most fall between $35 and $169.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 893 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
$23$40$85$151$244

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($23 vs $244).

Of the 993 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 893 gave a usable cash price; 45 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 55 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,306 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (33%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,433 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,306
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here72
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 — excluded54
Hospitals that filed this code1,433

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 July 20, 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 Hc Assay, Toxin Or Antitoxin.

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, “Cell culture test for a bacterial toxin (CPT 87230) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87230-cell-culture-test-for-a-bacterial-toxin