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

Stool test for 6 to 11 gut infection germs by DNA

CPT 87506the billing code this page is about

A single multiplex genetic test on a stool or similar sample that looks for 6 to 11 different diarrhea-causing bacteria, viruses, or parasites at once.

Hospitals typically charge $421 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,487 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $456. Most fall between $252 and $767 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,487
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 1,487 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
$185$273$421$718$1,058

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.7× what the cheapest tenth charges ($185 vs $1,058).

How the prices are spread

$161 – $203: 116 hospitals$161$203 – $256: 118 hospitals$256 – $322: 201 hospitals$256$322 – $405: 196 hospitals$405 – $510: 166 hospitals$405$510 – $642: 177 hospitals$642 – $808: 185 hospitals$642$808 – $1,017: 95 hospitals$1,017 – $1,280: 57 hospitals$1,017$1,280 – $1,611: 28 hospitals$1,280median $421price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,339 of 1,487 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$161$203116
$203$256118
$256$322201
$322$405196
$405$510166
$510$642177
$642$808185
$808$1,01795
$1,017$1,28057
$1,280$1,61128

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $421.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $350 across 19 hospitalsME$350Vermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: median $630 across 10 hospitalsNH$630Washington: median $312 across 37 hospitalsWA$312Idaho: median $707 across 14 hospitalsID$707Montana: median $357 across 10 hospitalsMT$357North Dakota: median $617 across 11 hospitalsND$617Minnesota: median $279 across 70 hospitalsMN$279Illinois: median $661 across 32 hospitalsIL$661Wisconsin: median $870 across 64 hospitalsWI$870Michigan: median $335 across 33 hospitalsMI$335New York: median $366 across 61 hospitalsNY$366Massachusetts: median $771 across 30 hospitalsMA$771Oregon: median $502 across 22 hospitalsOR$502Nevada: median $558 across 11 hospitalsNV$558Wyoming: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $592 across 13 hospitalsSD$592Iowa: median $356 across 47 hospitalsIA$356Indiana: median $379 across 43 hospitalsIN$379Ohio: median $438 across 73 hospitalsOH$438Pennsylvania: median $553 across 88 hospitalsPA$553New Jersey: median $289 across 43 hospitalsNJ$289Connecticut: median $792 across 11 hospitalsCT$792Rhode Island: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $762 across 52 hospitalsCA$762Utah: median $617 across 29 hospitalsUT$617Colorado: median $339 across 25 hospitalsCO$339Nebraska: median $459 across 34 hospitalsNE$459Missouri: median $271 across 21 hospitalsMO$271Kentucky: median $475 across 22 hospitalsKY$475West Virginia: median $338 across 16 hospitalsWV$338Virginia: median $442 across 51 hospitalsVA$442Maryland: median $317 across 21 hospitalsMD$317Delaware: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $485 across 10 hospitalsAZ$485New Mexico: median $318 across 14 hospitalsNM$318Kansas: median $470 across 28 hospitalsKS$470Arkansas: median $171 across 20 hospitalsAR$171Tennessee: median $366 across 36 hospitalsTN$366North Carolina: median $441 across 36 hospitalsNC$441South Carolina: median $569 across 14 hospitalsSC$569Oklahoma: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOKLouisiana: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: median $207 across 27 hospitalsMS$207Alabama: median $409 across 14 hospitalsAL$409Georgia: median $329 across 59 hospitalsGA$329Hawaii: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $515 across 123 hospitalsTX$515Florida: median $357 across 54 hospitalsFL$357
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $421. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Wisconsin WI64$870+107%$308 – $1,359
Connecticut CT11$792+88%$361 – $801
Massachusetts MA30$771+83%$413 – $1,262
California CA52$762+81%$283 – $811
Idaho ID14$707+68%$500 – $1,170
Illinois IL32$661+57%$257 – $888
New Hampshire NH10$630+50%$433 – $834
Utah UT29$617+47%$617 – $726
North Dakota ND11$617+47%$200 – $697
South Dakota SD13$592+41%$361 – $758
South Carolina SC14$569+35%$521 – $1,254
Nevada NV11$558+33%$336 – $736
Pennsylvania PA88$553+31%$302 – $1,088
Texas TX123$515+22%$351 – $700
Oregon OR22$502+19%$391 – $996
Arizona AZ10$485+15%$302 – $789
Kentucky KY22$475+13%$245 – $675
Kansas KS28$470+12%$306 – $742
Nebraska NE34$459+9%$356 – $700
Virginia VA51$442+5%$283 – $1,058
North Carolina NC36$441+5%$298 – $2,147
Ohio OH73$438+4%$262 – $704
Alabama AL14$409−3%$298 – $712
Indiana IN43$379−10%$233 – $438
Tennessee TN36$366−13%$197 – $475
New York NY61$366−13%$263 – $718
Montana MT10$357−15%$357 – $459
Florida FL54$357−15%$232 – $1,681
Iowa IA47$356−15%$252 – $458
Maine ME19$350−17%$138 – $1,008
Colorado CO25$339−19%$222 – $571
West Virginia WV16$338−20%$283 – $505
Michigan MI33$335−20%$209 – $504
Georgia GA59$329−22%$163 – $685
New Mexico NM14$318−24%$201 – $799
Maryland MD21$317−25%$231 – $607
Washington WA37$312−26%$184 – $473
New Jersey NJ43$289−31%$263 – $302
Minnesota MN70$279−34%$169 – $477
Missouri MO21$271−36%$195 – $684
Mississippi MS27$207−51%$173 – $288
Arkansas AR20$171−59%$171 – $267
Oklahoma OK9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not 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 $421.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,084$394$231 – $762
Children’s30$978$282 – $1,340
Critical access370$488$300 – $799
Ownership
For-profit142$457$224 – $789
Government228$421$249 – $693
Non-profit1,114$414$253 – $781
System affiliation
Part of a system1,280$412$252 – $789
Independent207$461$277 – $693

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$789
Median cash price$421
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

1,044 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $461 and the average of the middle 60% is $484; most fall between $262 and $794.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,044 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
$195$295$461$740$1,145

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($195 vs $1,145).

Of the 1,149 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,044 gave a usable cash price; 61 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 44 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,487 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (38%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,610 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,487
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here78
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 code1,610

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 IADNA-DNA/RNA PROBE TQ 6-11.

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, “Stool test for 6 to 11 gut infection germs by DNA (CPT 87506) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87506-stool-test-for-6-to-11-gut-infection-germs-by-dna