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

Chickenpox and shingles virus antigen test

CPT 87290the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test that uses fluorescent-tagged antibodies on a specimen to detect varicella-zoster virus antigen, the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles.

Hospitals typically charge $68 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,105 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $64. Most fall between $25 and $120 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,105
States
50
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 1,105 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
$17$32$68$94$191

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($17 vs $191).

How the prices are spread

$13 – $19: 94 hospitals$13$19 – $26: 100 hospitals$26 – $37: 107 hospitals$26$37 – $51: 119 hospitals$51 – $72: 144 hospitals$51$72 – $100: 247 hospitals$100 – $140: 80 hospitals$100$140 – $195: 73 hospitals$195 – $273: 30 hospitals$195$273 – $381: 25 hospitals$273median $68price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,019 of 1,105 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$13$1994
$19$26100
$26$37107
$37$51119
$51$72144
$72$100247
$100$14080
$140$19573
$195$27330
$273$38125

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $68.

Alaska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $36 across 13 hospitalsME$36Vermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $70 across 11 hospitalsNH$70Washington: median $53 across 30 hospitalsWA$53Idaho: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: median $24 across 11 hospitalsND$24Minnesota: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $71 across 52 hospitalsIL$71Wisconsin: median $60 across 38 hospitalsWI$60Michigan: median $59 across 28 hospitalsMI$59New York: median $43 across 38 hospitalsNY$43Massachusetts: median $107 across 16 hospitalsMA$107Oregon: median $44 across 14 hospitalsOR$44Nevada: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $39 across 17 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: median $27 across 33 hospitalsIN$27Ohio: median $64 across 35 hospitalsOH$64Pennsylvania: median $75 across 53 hospitalsPA$75New Jersey: median $15 across 28 hospitalsNJ$15Connecticut: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $75 across 67 hospitalsCA$75Utah: median $916 across 32 hospitalsUT$916Colorado: median $72 across 14 hospitalsCO$72Nebraska: median $134 across 15 hospitalsNE$134Missouri: median $68 across 26 hospitalsMO$68Kentucky: median $99 across 17 hospitalsKY$99West Virginia: median $77 across 20 hospitalsWV$77Virginia: median $74 across 28 hospitalsVA$74Maryland: median $61 across 29 hospitalsMD$61Delaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $59 across 19 hospitalsAZ$59New Mexico: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: median $68 across 16 hospitalsAR$68Tennessee: median $24 across 25 hospitalsTN$24North Carolina: median $67 across 16 hospitalsNC$67South Carolina: median $80 across 20 hospitalsSC$80Oklahoma: median $68 across 30 hospitalsOK$68Louisiana: median $29 across 18 hospitalsLA$29Mississippi: median $24 across 23 hospitalsMS$24Alabama: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $75 across 47 hospitalsGA$75Hawaii: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $93 across 86 hospitalsTX$93Florida: median $47 across 64 hospitalsFL$47
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $68. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT32$916+1257%$82 – $1,078
Nebraska NE15$134+98%$41 – $222
Massachusetts MA16$107+59%$30 – $157
Kentucky KY17$99+46%$27 – $145
Texas TX86$93+37%$46 – $215
South Carolina SC20$80+18%$31 – $80
West Virginia WV20$77+14%$74 – $77
Georgia GA47$75+12%$24 – $175
California CA67$75+11%$32 – $83
Pennsylvania PA53$75+11%$13 – $199
Virginia VA28$74+10%$20 – $114
Colorado CO14$72+6%$26 – $191
Illinois IL52$71+5%$32 – $142
New Hampshire NH11$70+3%$57 – $174
Arkansas AR16$68+1%$38 – $116
Oklahoma OK30$68+1%$31 – $84
Missouri MO26$68+1%$32 – $92
North Carolina NC16$670%$54 – $88
Ohio OH35$64−6%$41 – $110
Maryland MD29$61−9%$52 – $81
Wisconsin WI38$60−11%$44 – $82
Arizona AZ19$59−13%$20 – $59
Michigan MI28$59−13%$19 – $82
Washington WA30$53−22%$25 – $90
Florida FL64$47−31%$20 – $184
Oregon OR14$44−35%$35 – $171
New York NY38$43−36%$13 – $88
Iowa IA17$39−43%$39 – $72
Maine ME13$36−46%$18 – $51
Louisiana LA18$29−57%$20 – $82
Indiana IN33$27−60%$20 – $68
Mississippi MS23$24−64%$14 – $43
Tennessee TN25$24−64%$20 – $36
North Dakota ND11$24−64%$23 – $50
New Jersey NJ28$15−78%$13 – $15
Kansas KS9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not 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 $68.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care882$64$24 – $119
Children’s21$82$62 – $201
Critical access201$68$34 – $115
Ownership
For-profit159$70$24 – $203
Government126$44$23 – $93
Non-profit819$70$27 – $117
System affiliation
Part of a system961$68$25 – $122
Independent144$62$25 – $115

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$116
Median cash price$68
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

755 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $70 and the average of the middle 60% is $68; most fall between $32 and $123.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 755 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
$22$36$70$96$194

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.7× what the cheapest tenth charges ($22 vs $194).

Of the 853 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 755 gave a usable cash price; 63 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 35 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,105 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (28%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,228 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,105
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here83
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 code1,228

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 VARICELLA ZOSTER 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, “Chickenpox and shingles virus antigen test (CPT 87290) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87290-chickenpox-and-shingles-virus-antigen-test