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

Antigen test by fluorescent stain, organism not specified

CPT 87299the billing code this page is about

Laboratory test using fluorescent-tagged antibodies to look for an infectious organism not covered by a specific code; billed once for each organism tested.

Hospitals typically charge $56 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 992 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $60. Most fall between $23 and $123 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
992
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 992 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$56$103$168

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($16 vs $168).

How the prices are spread

$14 – $18: 78 hospitals$14$18 – $25: 108 hospitals$25 – $33: 87 hospitals$25$33 – $44: 106 hospitals$44 – $58: 87 hospitals$44$58 – $78: 128 hospitals$78 – $104: 105 hospitals$78$104 – $139: 91 hospitals$139 – $186: 76 hospitals$139$186 – $249: 34 hospitals$186median $56price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (900 of 992 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$14$1878
$18$25108
$25$3387
$33$44106
$44$5887
$58$78128
$78$104105
$104$13991
$139$18676
$186$24934

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $56.

Alaska: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 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: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $42 across 25 hospitalsWA$42Idaho: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $47 across 15 hospitalsMN$47Illinois: median $73 across 43 hospitalsIL$73Wisconsin: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: median $25 across 17 hospitalsMI$25New York: median $25 across 38 hospitalsNY$25Massachusetts: median $75 across 16 hospitalsMA$75Oregon: median $51 across 16 hospitalsOR$51Nevada: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $55 across 16 hospitalsSD$55Iowa: median $39 across 17 hospitalsIA$39Indiana: median $47 across 41 hospitalsIN$47Ohio: median $34 across 32 hospitalsOH$34Pennsylvania: median $25 across 38 hospitalsPA$25New Jersey: median $18 across 32 hospitalsNJ$18Connecticut: 8 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 $67 across 64 hospitalsCA$67Utah: median $166 across 31 hospitalsUT$166Colorado: median $101 across 23 hospitalsCO$101Nebraska: median $21 across 10 hospitalsNE$21Missouri: median $103 across 19 hospitalsMO$103Kentucky: median $48 across 24 hospitalsKY$48West Virginia: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $47 across 22 hospitalsVA$47Maryland: median $60 across 15 hospitalsMD$60Delaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $258 across 17 hospitalsAZ$258New Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $110 across 15 hospitalsKS$110Arkansas: median $59 across 10 hospitalsAR$59Tennessee: median $24 across 23 hospitalsTN$24North Carolina: median $56 across 33 hospitalsNC$56South Carolina: median $122 across 13 hospitalsSC$122Oklahoma: median $41 across 31 hospitalsOK$41Louisiana: median $32 across 20 hospitalsLA$32Mississippi: median $14 across 15 hospitalsMS$14Alabama: median $27 across 15 hospitalsAL$27Georgia: median $52 across 33 hospitalsGA$52Hawaii: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $71 across 78 hospitalsTX$71Florida: median $35 across 44 hospitalsFL$35
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $56. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Arizona AZ17$258+361%$34 – $258
Utah UT31$166+197%$166 – $196
South Carolina SC13$122+118%$28 – $122
Kansas KS15$110+96%$56 – $141
Missouri MO19$103+84%$60 – $173
Colorado CO23$101+81%$67 – $424
Massachusetts MA16$75+34%$36 – $168
Illinois IL43$73+31%$33 – $136
Texas TX78$71+28%$51 – $137
California CA64$67+20%$29 – $102
Maryland MD15$60+6%$40 – $78
Arkansas AR10$59+5%$30 – $80
North Carolina NC33$560%$24 – $131
South Dakota SD16$55−1%$27 – $97
Georgia GA33$52−6%$24 – $149
Oregon OR16$51−9%$20 – $95
Kentucky KY24$48−14%$34 – $145
Indiana IN41$47−15%$24 – $113
Virginia VA22$47−16%$29 – $126
Minnesota MN15$47−17%$27 – $82
Washington WA25$42−25%$13 – $104
Oklahoma OK31$41−26%$29 – $60
Iowa IA17$39−31%$39 – $43
Florida FL44$35−37%$11 – $172
Ohio OH32$34−39%$23 – $113
Louisiana LA20$32−44%$18 – $49
Alabama AL15$27−53%$18 – $46
Pennsylvania PA38$25−55%$12 – $93
Michigan MI17$25−56%$16 – $25
New York NY38$25−56%$16 – $72
Tennessee TN23$24−57%$20 – $33
Nebraska NE10$21−62%$14 – $99
New Jersey NJ32$18−68%$16 – $23
Mississippi MS15$14−75%$12 – $20
Idaho ID9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not 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 $56.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care806$54$22 – $122
Children’s13fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access172$55$28 – $124
Ownership
For-profit131$71$24 – $185
Government122$39$20 – $103
Non-profit738$56$23 – $122
System affiliation
Part of a system853$56$22 – $123
Independent139$57$26 – $128

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$98
Median cash price$56
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

694 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $61 and the average of the middle 60% is $63; most fall between $28 and $123.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 694 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$30$61$102$168

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($20 vs $168).

Of the 781 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 694 gave a usable cash price; 51 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 36 a list price only.

How complete is this

992 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (25%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,103 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted992
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here74
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded37
Hospitals that filed this code1,103

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 Antibody Detection Nos 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, “Antigen test by fluorescent stain, organism not specified (CPT 87299) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87299-antigen-test-by-fluorescent-stain-organism-not-specified