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

Pneumocystis antigen test by fluorescent staining

CPT 87281the billing code this page is about

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

Hospitals typically charge $63 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,528 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $73. Most fall between $26 and $157 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,528
States
49
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 1,528 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
$18$31$63$139$252

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 14× what the cheapest tenth charges ($18 vs $252).

How the prices are spread

$12 – $17: 74 hospitals$12$17 – $24: 136 hospitals$24 – $34: 129 hospitals$24$34 – $48: 169 hospitals$48 – $67: 215 hospitals$48$67 – $94: 186 hospitals$94 – $132: 134 hospitals$94$132 – $186: 156 hospitals$186 – $261: 106 hospitals$186$261 – $366: 71 hospitals$261median $63price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,376 of 1,528 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$12$1774
$17$24136
$24$34129
$34$48169
$48$67215
$67$94186
$94$132134
$132$186156
$186$261106
$261$36671

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $63.

Alaska: median $117 across 10 hospitalsAK$117Maine: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $76 across 49 hospitalsWA$76Idaho: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: median $80 across 12 hospitalsMT$80North Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: median $40 across 19 hospitalsMN$40Illinois: median $70 across 66 hospitalsIL$70Wisconsin: median $75 across 61 hospitalsWI$75Michigan: median $17 across 30 hospitalsMI$17New York: median $43 across 54 hospitalsNY$43Massachusetts: median $54 across 34 hospitalsMA$54Oregon: median $69 across 26 hospitalsOR$69Nevada: median $51 across 12 hospitalsNV$51Wyoming: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $30 across 19 hospitalsIA$30Indiana: median $41 across 58 hospitalsIN$41Ohio: median $42 across 60 hospitalsOH$42Pennsylvania: median $44 across 50 hospitalsPA$44New Jersey: median $13 across 37 hospitalsNJ$13Connecticut: median $64 across 13 hospitalsCT$64Rhode Island: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $54 across 99 hospitalsCA$54Utah: median $131 across 36 hospitalsUT$131Colorado: median $69 across 31 hospitalsCO$69Nebraska: median $109 across 10 hospitalsNE$109Missouri: median $79 across 24 hospitalsMO$79Kentucky: median $54 across 25 hospitalsKY$54West Virginia: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $72 across 37 hospitalsVA$72Maryland: median $67 across 26 hospitalsMD$67Delaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $108 across 24 hospitalsAZ$108New Mexico: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $100 across 21 hospitalsKS$100Arkansas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $62 across 34 hospitalsTN$62North Carolina: median $90 across 45 hospitalsNC$90South Carolina: median $208 across 32 hospitalsSC$208Oklahoma: median $44 across 35 hospitalsOK$44Louisiana: median $27 across 17 hospitalsLA$27Mississippi: median $49 across 14 hospitalsMS$49Alabama: median $35 across 16 hospitalsAL$35Georgia: median $72 across 62 hospitalsGA$72Hawaii: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $71 across 152 hospitalsTX$71Florida: median $51 across 108 hospitalsFL$51
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $63. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Carolina SC32$208+229%$49 – $311
Utah UT36$131+108%$86 – $154
Alaska AK10$117+86%$82 – $147
Nebraska NE10$109+72%$52 – $109
Arizona AZ24$108+71%$17 – $535
Kansas KS21$100+58%$59 – $360
North Carolina NC45$90+42%$22 – $213
Montana MT12$80+26%$59 – $127
Missouri MO24$79+24%$39 – $127
Washington WA49$76+21%$52 – $157
Wisconsin WI61$75+19%$51 – $138
Georgia GA62$72+15%$21 – $187
Virginia VA37$72+14%$45 – $151
Texas TX152$71+13%$18 – $288
Illinois IL66$70+11%$27 – $179
Colorado CO31$69+9%$22 – $191
Oregon OR26$69+9%$30 – $110
Maryland MD26$67+6%$55 – $82
Connecticut CT13$64+1%$44 – $100
Tennessee TN34$62−2%$48 – $256
Massachusetts MA34$54−14%$31 – $186
California CA99$54−15%$30 – $149
Kentucky KY25$54−15%$20 – $145
Florida FL108$51−20%$36 – $185
Nevada NV12$51−20%$31 – $118
Mississippi MS14$49−22%$35 – $69
Oklahoma OK35$44−30%$35 – $110
Pennsylvania PA50$44−30%$11 – $163
New York NY54$43−31%$12 – $125
Ohio OH60$42−33%$23 – $164
Indiana IN58$41−35%$20 – $133
Minnesota MN19$40−37%$39 – $56
Alabama AL16$35−45%$18 – $96
Iowa IA19$30−52%$30 – $131
Louisiana LA17$27−58%$24 – $66
Michigan MI30$17−74%$12 – $40
New Jersey NJ37$13−79%$12 – $35
Hawaii HI9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not 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 $63.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,303$65$25 – $163
Children’s25$102$24 – $216
Critical access192$59$28 – $131
Ownership
For-profit282$84$33 – $329
Government189$55$26 – $151
Non-profit1,049$61$25 – $146
System affiliation
Part of a system1,326$63$25 – $160
Independent202$61$29 – $151

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$119
Median cash price$63
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

1,095 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $63 and the average of the middle 60% is $72; most fall between $30 and $151.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,095 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$32$63$135$213

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($20 vs $213).

Of the 1,213 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,095 gave a usable cash price; 77 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

1,528 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (39%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,695 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,528
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here116
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 — excluded50
Hospitals that filed this code1,695

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 PNEUMOCYSTIS CARINII 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, “Pneumocystis antigen test by fluorescent staining (CPT 87281) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87281-pneumocystis-antigen-test-by-fluorescent-staining