HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

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

Cytomegalovirus early antigen test by fluorescent staining

CPT 87271the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that uses fluorescent-labeled antibody staining to detect cytomegalovirus immediate early antigen directly in a specimen.

Hospitals typically charge $75 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 415 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $74. Most fall between $19 and $142 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
415
States
40
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 415 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$24$75$135$193

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 14× what the cheapest tenth charges ($13 vs $193).

How the prices are spread

$13 – $18: 62 hospitals$13$18 – $25: 29 hospitals$25 – $35: 33 hospitals$25$35 – $48: 22 hospitals$48 – $67: 32 hospitals$48$67 – $93: 47 hospitals$93 – $129: 59 hospitals$93$129 – $179: 70 hospitals$179 – $248: 14 hospitals$179$248 – $344: 10 hospitals$248median $75price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (378 of 415 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$13$1862
$18$2529
$25$3533
$35$4822
$48$6732
$67$9347
$93$12959
$129$17970
$179$24814
$248$34410

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $75.

Alaska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: median $56 across 11 hospitalsWA$56Idaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $47 across 23 hospitalsIL$47Wisconsin: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: median $19 across 14 hospitalsMI$19New York: median $13 across 15 hospitalsNY$13Massachusetts: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 5 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 $34 across 11 hospitalsIA$34Indiana: median $90 across 16 hospitalsIN$90Ohio: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $13 across 23 hospitalsPA$13New Jersey: median $15 across 23 hospitalsNJ$15Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $94 across 43 hospitalsCA$94Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKSArkansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $75 across 17 hospitalsTN$75North Carolina: median $121 across 11 hospitalsNC$121South Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSCOklahoma: median $24 across 17 hospitalsOK$24Louisiana: median $88 across 12 hospitalsLA$88Mississippi: median $26 across 21 hospitalsMS$26Alabama: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $152 across 59 hospitalsTX$152Florida: median $43 across 26 hospitalsFL$43
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $75. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Texas TX59$152+102%$105 – $263
North Carolina NC11$121+61%$121 – $125
California CA43$94+26%$75 – $94
Indiana IN16$90+20%$66 – $130
Louisiana LA12$88+18%$30 – $141
Tennessee TN17$750%$21 – $79
Washington WA11$56−25%$52 – $75
Illinois IL23$47−37%$19 – $109
Florida FL26$43−43%$43 – $362
Iowa IA11$34−54%$34 – $34
Mississippi MS21$26−65%$15 – $93
Oklahoma OK17$24−68%$24 – $131
Michigan MI14$19−75%$16 – $74
New Jersey NJ23$15−80%$13 – $15
New York NY15$13−82%$13 – $25
Pennsylvania PA23$13−83%$9 – $32
Kentucky KY9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not 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 $75.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care374$74$17 – $142
Children’s9fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access32$68$34 – $145
Ownership
For-profit69$86$24 – $307
Government42$26$13 – $135
Non-profit304$75$19 – $138
System affiliation
Part of a system371$75$19 – $142
Independent44$40$15 – $170

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$168
Median cash price$75
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

266 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $79 and the average of the middle 60% is $81; most fall between $34 and $142.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 266 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
$24$43$79$142$171

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($24 vs $171).

Of the 286 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 266 gave a usable cash price; 5 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 15 a list price only.

How complete is this

415 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (10%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 447 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted415
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here10
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 — excluded21
Hospitals that filed this code447

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 CYTOMEGALOVIRUS DFA.

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, “Cytomegalovirus early antigen test by fluorescent staining (CPT 87271) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87271-cytomegalovirus-early-antigen-test-by-fluorescent-staining