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

Parainfluenza virus antigen test, each type

CPT 87279the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that looks for parainfluenza virus proteins in a specimen using fluorescent-tagged antibodies; billed once for each virus type tested.

Hospitals typically charge $45 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 873 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $49. Most fall between $20 and $93 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
873
States
48
Filings dated
Nov 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 873 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
$16$23$45$81$132

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($16 vs $132).

How the prices are spread

$12 – $16: 41 hospitals$12$16 – $21: 109 hospitals$21 – $28: 80 hospitals$21$28 – $37: 97 hospitals$37 – $48: 84 hospitals$37$48 – $64: 96 hospitals$64 – $84: 125 hospitals$64$84 – $110: 39 hospitals$110 – $145: 92 hospitals$110$145 – $191: 28 hospitals$145median $45price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (791 of 873 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$12$1641
$16$21109
$21$2880
$28$3797
$37$4884
$48$6496
$64$84125
$84$11039
$110$14592
$145$19128

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $45.

Alaska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: 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 $42 across 30 hospitalsWA$42Idaho: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $46 across 12 hospitalsMN$46Illinois: median $44 across 33 hospitalsIL$44Wisconsin: median $49 across 11 hospitalsWI$49Michigan: median $34 across 18 hospitalsMI$34New York: median $20 across 30 hospitalsNY$20Massachusetts: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: median $39 across 14 hospitalsOR$39Nevada: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $62 across 19 hospitalsSD$62Iowa: median $35 across 18 hospitalsIA$35Indiana: median $24 across 30 hospitalsIN$24Ohio: median $20 across 20 hospitalsOH$20Pennsylvania: median $19 across 27 hospitalsPA$19New Jersey: median $18 across 29 hospitalsNJ$18Connecticut: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $75 across 81 hospitalsCA$75Utah: median $45 across 27 hospitalsUT$45Colorado: median $69 across 16 hospitalsCO$69Nebraska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $48 across 23 hospitalsMO$48Kentucky: median $43 across 22 hospitalsKY$43West Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: median $66 across 21 hospitalsMD$66Delaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $31 across 10 hospitalsKS$31Arkansas: median $59 across 11 hospitalsAR$59Tennessee: median $10 across 18 hospitalsTN$10North Carolina: median $113 across 21 hospitalsNC$113South Carolina: median $61 across 26 hospitalsSC$61Oklahoma: median $41 across 36 hospitalsOK$41Louisiana: median $30 across 23 hospitalsLA$30Mississippi: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $80 across 15 hospitalsGA$80Hawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $81 across 90 hospitalsTX$81Florida: median $55 across 51 hospitalsFL$55
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $45. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
North Carolina NC21$113+152%$14 – $114
Texas TX90$81+81%$26 – $137
Georgia GA15$80+78%$52 – $130
California CA81$75+68%$16 – $113
Colorado CO16$69+54%$59 – $191
Maryland MD21$66+48%$42 – $80
South Dakota SD19$62+38%$30 – $84
South Carolina SC26$61+37%$60 – $86
Arkansas AR11$59+31%$55 – $64
Florida FL51$55+22%$22 – $254
Wisconsin WI11$49+10%$36 – $75
Missouri MO23$48+8%$35 – $73
Minnesota MN12$46+3%$30 – $60
Utah UT27$450%$45 – $53
Illinois IL33$44−1%$26 – $123
Kentucky KY22$43−3%$17 – $145
Washington WA30$42−6%$34 – $80
Oklahoma OK36$41−9%$31 – $58
Oregon OR14$39−14%$20 – $66
Iowa IA18$35−21%$35 – $44
Michigan MI18$34−25%$23 – $127
Kansas KS10$31−30%$23 – $33
Louisiana LA23$30−33%$21 – $50
Indiana IN30$24−45%$17 – $48
Ohio OH20$20−56%$18 – $38
New York NY30$20−56%$16 – $68
Pennsylvania PA27$19−58%$12 – $35
New Jersey NJ29$18−60%$16 – $19
Tennessee TN18$10−77%$7 – $26
Alabama AL9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV1not 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 $45.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care713$47$19 – $98
Children’s16fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access142$43$25 – $69
Ownership
For-profit133$71$22 – $163
Government93$36$18 – $70
Non-profit645$45$20 – $84
System affiliation
Part of a system771$47$20 – $92
Independent102$37$22 – $95

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$78
Median cash price$45
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

579 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $50 and the average of the middle 60% is $53; most fall between $23 and $92.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 579 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
$16$26$50$81$126

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.7× what the cheapest tenth charges ($16 vs $126).

Of the 676 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 579 gave a usable cash price; 59 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 38 a list price only.

How complete is this

873 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 997 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted873
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here79
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded2
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded43
Hospitals that filed this code997

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 PARAINFLUENZA 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, “Parainfluenza virus antigen test, each type (CPT 87279) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87279-parainfluenza-virus-antigen-test-each-type