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

Herpes simplex type 1 antigen test by fluorescent staining

CPT 87274the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that uses fluorescent-labeled antibody staining to detect herpes simplex virus type 1 antigen directly in a specimen.

Hospitals typically charge $49 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 869 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $51. Most fall between $21 and $93 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
869
States
47
Filings dated
Jan 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 869 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$49$82$172

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($14 vs $172).

How the prices are spread

$12 – $16: 61 hospitals$12$16 – $22: 90 hospitals$22 – $31: 96 hospitals$22$31 – $42: 99 hospitals$42 – $57: 111 hospitals$42$57 – $78: 124 hospitals$78 – $107: 102 hospitals$78$107 – $146: 47 hospitals$146 – $199: 39 hospitals$146$199 – $273: 29 hospitals$199median $49price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (798 of 869 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$12$1661
$16$2290
$22$3196
$31$4299
$42$57111
$57$78124
$78$107102
$107$14647
$146$19939
$199$27329

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $49.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $27 across 20 hospitalsWA$27Idaho: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: median $21 across 10 hospitalsND$21Minnesota: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $70 across 34 hospitalsIL$70Wisconsin: median $75 across 39 hospitalsWI$75Michigan: median $35 across 22 hospitalsMI$35New York: median $14 across 26 hospitalsNY$14Massachusetts: median $49 across 15 hospitalsMA$49Oregon: median $29 across 10 hospitalsOR$29Nevada: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 7 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 $26 across 37 hospitalsIN$26Ohio: median $40 across 31 hospitalsOH$40Pennsylvania: median $26 across 33 hospitalsPA$26New Jersey: median $13 across 28 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 65 hospitalsCA$75Utah: median $232 across 28 hospitalsUT$232Colorado: median $67 across 22 hospitalsCO$67Nebraska: median $41 across 10 hospitalsNE$41Missouri: median $68 across 11 hospitalsMO$68Kentucky: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: median $30 across 22 hospitalsWV$30Virginia: median $34 across 26 hospitalsVA$34Maryland: median $72 across 21 hospitalsMD$72Delaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: median $52 across 19 hospitalsAZ$52New Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $65 across 11 hospitalsKS$65Arkansas: median $63 across 16 hospitalsAR$63Tennessee: median $20 across 22 hospitalsTN$20North Carolina: median $56 across 16 hospitalsNC$56South Carolina: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $43 across 26 hospitalsOK$43Louisiana: median $28 across 18 hospitalsLA$28Mississippi: median $49 across 20 hospitalsMS$49Alabama: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $280 across 20 hospitalsGA$280Hawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $82 across 67 hospitalsTX$82Florida: median $44 across 42 hospitalsFL$44
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $49. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Georgia GA20$280+474%$22 – $280
Utah UT28$232+375%$191 – $273
Texas TX67$82+68%$67 – $133
Wisconsin WI39$75+55%$49 – $136
California CA65$75+54%$18 – $79
Maryland MD21$72+47%$60 – $82
Illinois IL34$70+44%$18 – $126
Missouri MO11$68+40%$43 – $85
Colorado CO22$67+37%$35 – $103
Kansas KS11$65+33%$47 – $195
Arkansas AR16$63+29%$30 – $68
North Carolina NC16$56+14%$32 – $59
Arizona AZ19$52+7%$20 – $55
Massachusetts MA15$490%$37 – $147
Mississippi MS20$49−1%$27 – $90
Florida FL42$44−9%$18 – $83
Oklahoma OK26$43−12%$31 – $59
Nebraska NE10$41−15%$8 – $113
Ohio OH31$40−19%$34 – $81
Iowa IA15$39−21%$39 – $39
Michigan MI22$35−28%$17 – $75
Virginia VA26$34−30%$20 – $134
West Virginia WV22$30−38%$30 – $36
Oregon OR10$29−41%$29 – $94
Louisiana LA18$28−43%$20 – $46
Washington WA20$27−46%$25 – $53
Indiana IN37$26−47%$20 – $49
Pennsylvania PA33$26−47%$9 – $67
North Dakota ND10$21−57%$19 – $50
Tennessee TN22$20−59%$20 – $95
New York NY26$14−71%$12 – $49
New Jersey NJ28$13−73%$12 – $14
Kentucky KY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not 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 $49.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care699$46$20 – $88
Children’s18fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access149$52$26 – $113
Ownership
For-profit108$55$20 – $202
Government92$42$18 – $93
Non-profit666$49$22 – $88
System affiliation
Part of a system772$48$21 – $89
Independent97$50$20 – $99

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$86
Median cash price$49
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

613 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $55 and the average of the middle 60% is $58; most fall between $27 and $107.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 613 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$31$55$83$181

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($20 vs $181).

Of the 696 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 613 gave a usable cash price; 55 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 28 a list price only.

How complete is this

869 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (22%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 974 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted869
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here75
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 — excluded29
Hospitals that filed this code974

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 1 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 1 antigen test by fluorescent staining (CPT 87274) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87274-herpes-simplex-type-1-antigen-test-by-fluorescent-staining