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

RSV antigen test by fluorescent staining

CPT 87280the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that uses fluorescent-labeled antibody staining to detect respiratory syncytial virus antigen directly in a specimen.

Hospitals typically charge $51 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,160 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $55. Most fall between $21 and $112 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,160
States
50
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 1,160 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
$15$25$51$96$168

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($15 vs $168).

How the prices are spread

$13 – $17: 98 hospitals$13$17 – $23: 132 hospitals$23 – $31: 108 hospitals$23$31 – $42: 112 hospitals$42 – $57: 117 hospitals$42$57 – $76: 175 hospitals$76 – $102: 102 hospitals$76$102 – $137: 94 hospitals$137 – $183: 76 hospitals$137$183 – $246: 41 hospitals$183median $51price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,055 of 1,160 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$13$1798
$17$23132
$23$31108
$31$42112
$42$57117
$57$76175
$76$102102
$102$13794
$137$18376
$183$24641

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $51.

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $50 across 40 hospitalsWA$50Idaho: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: median $24 across 12 hospitalsND$24Minnesota: median $71 across 16 hospitalsMN$71Illinois: median $66 across 39 hospitalsIL$66Wisconsin: median $30 across 12 hospitalsWI$30Michigan: median $30 across 26 hospitalsMI$30New York: median $32 across 43 hospitalsNY$32Massachusetts: median $54 across 17 hospitalsMA$54Oregon: median $48 across 18 hospitalsOR$48Nevada: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $59 across 19 hospitalsSD$59Iowa: median $34 across 16 hospitalsIA$34Indiana: median $31 across 38 hospitalsIN$31Ohio: median $58 across 47 hospitalsOH$58Pennsylvania: median $20 across 33 hospitalsPA$20New Jersey: median $15 across 30 hospitalsNJ$15Connecticut: 8 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 87 hospitalsCA$75Utah: median $145 across 30 hospitalsUT$145Colorado: median $77 across 35 hospitalsCO$77Nebraska: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $47 across 28 hospitalsMO$47Kentucky: median $38 across 29 hospitalsKY$38West Virginia: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $77 across 26 hospitalsVA$77Maryland: median $60 across 19 hospitalsMD$60Delaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $58 across 20 hospitalsAZ$58New Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $52 across 11 hospitalsKS$52Arkansas: median $58 across 13 hospitalsAR$58Tennessee: median $20 across 30 hospitalsTN$20North Carolina: median $41 across 32 hospitalsNC$41South Carolina: median $75 across 28 hospitalsSC$75Oklahoma: median $64 across 36 hospitalsOK$64Louisiana: median $31 across 25 hospitalsLA$31Mississippi: median $26 across 14 hospitalsMS$26Alabama: median $29 across 18 hospitalsAL$29Georgia: median $62 across 51 hospitalsGA$62Hawaii: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $60 across 84 hospitalsTX$60Florida: median $28 across 68 hospitalsFL$28
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $51. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT30$145+182%$112 – $171
Colorado CO35$77+50%$59 – $118
Virginia VA26$77+50%$46 – $112
South Carolina SC28$75+46%$41 – $140
California CA87$75+45%$23 – $119
Minnesota MN16$71+38%$47 – $104
Illinois IL39$66+28%$24 – $121
Oklahoma OK36$64+24%$43 – $96
Georgia GA51$62+21%$46 – $82
Maryland MD19$60+17%$29 – $73
Texas TX84$60+16%$19 – $186
South Dakota SD19$59+15%$33 – $74
Ohio OH47$58+13%$20 – $191
Arkansas AR13$58+12%$56 – $93
Arizona AZ20$58+12%$20 – $258
Massachusetts MA17$54+6%$30 – $217
Kansas KS11$52+1%$40 – $75
Washington WA40$50−2%$25 – $76
Oregon OR18$48−7%$17 – $152
Missouri MO28$47−8%$31 – $76
North Carolina NC32$41−21%$22 – $107
Kentucky KY29$38−26%$13 – $145
Iowa IA16$34−33%$34 – $34
New York NY43$32−38%$13 – $59
Louisiana LA25$31−39%$22 – $56
Indiana IN38$31−39%$19 – $68
Wisconsin WI12$30−42%$20 – $99
Michigan MI26$30−42%$16 – $115
Alabama AL18$29−44%$13 – $46
Florida FL68$28−47%$20 – $207
Mississippi MS14$26−50%$15 – $41
North Dakota ND12$24−53%$23 – $90
Pennsylvania PA33$20−61%$10 – $75
Tennessee TN30$20−61%$17 – $34
New Jersey NJ30$15−71%$13 – $15
New Hampshire NH9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not 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 $51.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care925$50$20 – $115
Children’s17fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access213$54$27 – $104
Ownership
For-profit174$60$22 – $258
Government158$41$18 – $77
Non-profit823$51$20 – $112
System affiliation
Part of a system1,018$52$20 – $119
Independent142$47$21 – $84

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$81
Median cash price$51
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

796 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $52 and the average of the middle 60% is $56; most fall between $24 and $118.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 796 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
$19$27$52$92$171

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($19 vs $171).

Of the 903 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 796 gave a usable cash price; 66 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 41 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,160 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (29%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,293 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,160
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here93
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 — excluded39
Hospitals that filed this code1,293

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 Resp Syncytial Ag, 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, “RSV antigen test by fluorescent staining (CPT 87280) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87280-rsv-antigen-test-by-fluorescent-staining