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

Cryptosporidium antigen test by fluorescent staining

CPT 87272the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that looks for proteins from the Cryptosporidium parasite in a specimen using fluorescent-tagged antibodies viewed under a microscope.

Hospitals typically charge $54 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 962 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $56. Most fall between $22 and $105 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
962
States
49
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 962 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$26$54$91$155

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($14 vs $155).

How the prices are spread

$12 – $16: 79 hospitals$12$16 – $21: 62 hospitals$21 – $27: 72 hospitals$21$27 – $36: 76 hospitals$36 – $48: 94 hospitals$36$48 – $64: 118 hospitals$64 – $84: 134 hospitals$64$84 – $112: 100 hospitals$112 – $148: 81 hospitals$112$148 – $196: 51 hospitals$148median $54price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (867 of 962 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$12$1679
$16$2162
$21$2772
$27$3676
$36$4894
$48$64118
$64$84134
$84$112100
$112$14881
$148$19651

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $54.

Alaska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: median $103 across 13 hospitalsVT$103New Hampshire: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $64 across 12 hospitalsWA$64Idaho: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: median $81 across 11 hospitalsMT$81North Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $68 across 40 hospitalsIL$68Wisconsin: median $74 across 23 hospitalsWI$74Michigan: median $17 across 26 hospitalsMI$17New York: median $32 across 60 hospitalsNY$32Massachusetts: median $72 across 25 hospitalsMA$72Oregon: median $66 across 13 hospitalsOR$66Nevada: median $36 across 10 hospitalsNV$36Wyoming: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $39 across 20 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: median $40 across 27 hospitalsIN$40Ohio: median $105 across 24 hospitalsOH$105Pennsylvania: median $60 across 73 hospitalsPA$60New Jersey: median $13 across 38 hospitalsNJ$13Connecticut: 5 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 $52 across 78 hospitalsCA$52Utah: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $66 across 22 hospitalsCO$66Nebraska: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $74 across 23 hospitalsMO$74Kentucky: median $135 across 19 hospitalsKY$135West Virginia: median $30 across 16 hospitalsWV$30Virginia: median $72 across 24 hospitalsVA$72Maryland: median $66 across 21 hospitalsMD$66Delaware: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $29 across 14 hospitalsAZ$29New Mexico: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $62 across 18 hospitalsKS$62Arkansas: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $20 across 23 hospitalsTN$20North Carolina: median $17 across 24 hospitalsNC$17South Carolina: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $36 across 25 hospitalsOK$36Louisiana: median $29 across 10 hospitalsLA$29Mississippi: median $30 across 34 hospitalsMS$30Alabama: median $60 across 15 hospitalsAL$60Georgia: median $35 across 32 hospitalsGA$35Hawaii: median $68 across 11 hospitalsHI$68Texas: median $66 across 45 hospitalsTX$66Florida: median $98 across 18 hospitalsFL$98
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $54. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Kentucky KY19$135+150%$41 – $143
Ohio OH24$105+94%$55 – $135
Vermont VT13$103+91%$32 – $185
Florida FL18$98+82%$12 – $446
Montana MT11$81+50%$63 – $108
Missouri MO23$74+37%$46 – $127
Wisconsin WI23$74+36%$47 – $89
Massachusetts MA25$72+34%$27 – $168
Virginia VA24$72+33%$20 – $94
Illinois IL40$68+26%$42 – $174
Hawaii HI11$68+25%$59 – $160
Maryland MD21$66+22%$52 – $78
Colorado CO22$66+22%$63 – $580
Oregon OR13$66+22%$45 – $80
Texas TX45$66+21%$25 – $66
Washington WA12$64+19%$47 – $102
Kansas KS18$62+14%$47 – $102
Pennsylvania PA73$60+11%$14 – $115
Alabama AL15$60+11%$25 – $180
California CA78$52−4%$17 – $84
Indiana IN27$40−25%$20 – $119
Iowa IA20$39−29%$39 – $81
Oklahoma OK25$36−33%$26 – $96
Nevada NV10$36−33%$27 – $88
Georgia GA32$35−35%$24 – $66
New York NY60$32−42%$12 – $67
Mississippi MS34$30−44%$18 – $58
West Virginia WV16$30−44%$26 – $68
Arizona AZ14$29−47%$21 – $114
Louisiana LA10$29−47%$19 – $98
Tennessee TN23$20−63%$20 – $42
North Carolina NC24$17−69%$14 – $66
Michigan MI26$17−69%$12 – $56
New Jersey NJ38$13−76%$12 – $85
Arkansas AR9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not 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 $54.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care721$52$20 – $97
Children’s29$64$44 – $128
Critical access210$64$30 – $114
Ownership
For-profit125$50$20 – $118
Government141$50$24 – $101
Non-profit694$55$21 – $105
System affiliation
Part of a system805$54$20 – $106
Independent157$56$29 – $100

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$95
Median cash price$54
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

629 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $57 and the average of the middle 60% is $58; most fall between $25 and $102.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 629 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
$17$30$57$89$147

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($17 vs $147).

Of the 718 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 629 gave a usable cash price; 44 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 45 a list price only.

How complete is this

962 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (24%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,065 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted962
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here58
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 — excluded44
Hospitals that filed this code1,065

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 Hc Cryptosporidum Ag, Immunofluor.

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, “Cryptosporidium antigen test by fluorescent staining (CPT 87272) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87272-cryptosporidium-antigen-test-by-fluorescent-staining