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

Herpes simplex type 2 antigen test by fluorescent staining

CPT 87273the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that uses fluorescent-labeled antibody staining to detect herpes simplex virus type 2 antigen directly in a specimen.

Hospitals typically charge $48 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 794 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $52. Most fall between $21 and $94 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
794
States
47
Filings dated
Dec 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 794 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$25$48$87$129

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($14 vs $129).

How the prices are spread

$12 – $16: 59 hospitals$12$16 – $21: 54 hospitals$21 – $27: 71 hospitals$21$27 – $35: 79 hospitals$35 – $46: 84 hospitals$35$46 – $60: 103 hospitals$60 – $79: 77 hospitals$60$79 – $104: 104 hospitals$104 – $136: 57 hospitals$104$136 – $178: 33 hospitals$136median $48price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (721 of 794 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$12$1659
$16$2154
$21$2771
$27$3579
$35$4684
$46$60103
$60$7977
$79$104104
$104$13657
$136$17833

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $48.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: median $20 across 10 hospitalsME$20Vermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $27 across 18 hospitalsWA$27Idaho: 2 hospitals 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: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $39 across 25 hospitalsIL$39Wisconsin: median $129 across 37 hospitalsWI$129Michigan: median $35 across 20 hospitalsMI$35New York: median $14 across 28 hospitalsNY$14Massachusetts: median $46 across 16 hospitalsMA$46Oregon: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $39 across 15 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: median $45 across 20 hospitalsIN$45Ohio: median $40 across 32 hospitalsOH$40Pennsylvania: median $14 across 36 hospitalsPA$14New Jersey: median $13 across 27 hospitalsNJ$13Connecticut: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $75 across 64 hospitalsCA$75Utah: median $99 across 28 hospitalsUT$99Colorado: median $67 across 20 hospitalsCO$67Nebraska: median $41 across 10 hospitalsNE$41Missouri: median $66 across 13 hospitalsMO$66Kentucky: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: median $59 across 21 hospitalsWV$59Virginia: median $34 across 24 hospitalsVA$34Maryland: median $72 across 21 hospitalsMD$72Delaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: median $45 across 19 hospitalsAZ$45New Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: median $59 across 13 hospitalsAR$59Tennessee: median $20 across 19 hospitalsTN$20North Carolina: median $47 across 16 hospitalsNC$47South Carolina: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $26 across 26 hospitalsOK$26Louisiana: median $28 across 14 hospitalsLA$28Mississippi: median $53 across 11 hospitalsMS$53Alabama: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $280 across 19 hospitalsGA$280Hawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $83 across 55 hospitalsTX$83Florida: median $44 across 35 hospitalsFL$44
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $48. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Georgia GA19$280+482%$22 – $280
Wisconsin WI37$129+167%$49 – $136
Utah UT28$99+106%$82 – $117
Texas TX55$83+73%$43 – $105
California CA64$75+56%$21 – $90
Maryland MD21$72+49%$60 – $82
Colorado CO20$67+39%$26 – $97
Missouri MO13$66+38%$43 – $99
West Virginia WV21$59+23%$59 – $59
Arkansas AR13$59+22%$30 – $69
Mississippi MS11$53+10%$41 – $104
North Carolina NC16$47−2%$32 – $56
Massachusetts MA16$46−4%$37 – $107
Indiana IN20$45−7%$23 – $73
Arizona AZ19$45−7%$13 – $55
Florida FL35$44−8%$26 – $83
Nebraska NE10$41−14%$5 – $113
Ohio OH32$40−18%$34 – $81
Iowa IA15$39−20%$39 – $39
Illinois IL25$39−20%$17 – $82
Michigan MI20$35−28%$17 – $125
Virginia VA24$34−29%$20 – $178
Louisiana LA14$28−41%$25 – $50
Washington WA18$27−45%$25 – $53
Oklahoma OK26$26−46%$21 – $47
Maine ME10$20−58%$14 – $46
Tennessee TN19$20−58%$20 – $98
New York NY28$14−70%$12 – $40
Pennsylvania PA36$14−71%$9 – $119
New Jersey NJ27$13−73%$12 – $13
Kansas KS9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not 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 $48.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care651$46$20 – $93
Children’s16fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access124$59$29 – $129
Ownership
For-profit86$53$21 – $129
Government79$41$20 – $77
Non-profit626$49$21 – $94
System affiliation
Part of a system712$49$21 – $97
Independent82$45$21 – $83

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$85
Median cash price$48
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

572 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $50 and the average of the middle 60% is $57; most fall between $25 and $99.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 572 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
$20$30$50$94$136

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($20 vs $136).

Of the 646 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 572 gave a usable cash price; 53 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 21 a list price only.

How complete is this

794 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (20%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 887 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted794
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here70
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 — excluded22
Hospitals that filed this code887

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 HERPES SIMPLEX 2 AG IF.

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, “Herpes simplex type 2 antigen test by fluorescent staining (CPT 87273) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87273-herpes-simplex-type-2-antigen-test-by-fluorescent-staining