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

Gardnerella test by amplified DNA probe

CPT 87511the billing code this page is about

A genetic test for Gardnerella vaginalis bacteria in which the germ's genetic material is copied and amplified to make it easier to detect.

Hospitals typically charge $57 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 386 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $67. Most fall between $35 and $119 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
386
States
44
Filings dated
Oct 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 386 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
$27$36$57$107$244

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($27 vs $244).

How the prices are spread

$18 – $24: 22 hospitals$18$24 – $32: 14 hospitals$32 – $43: 84 hospitals$32$43 – $58: 61 hospitals$58 – $79: 31 hospitals$58$79 – $106: 63 hospitals$106 – $144: 35 hospitals$106$144 – $194: 16 hospitals$194 – $261: 13 hospitals$194$261 – $353: 28 hospitals$261median $57price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (367 of 386 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$18$2422
$24$3214
$32$4384
$43$5861
$58$7931
$79$10663
$106$14435
$144$19416
$194$26113
$261$35328

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $57.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $91 across 26 hospitalsWA$91Idaho: median $131 across 10 hospitalsID$131Montana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $82 across 15 hospitalsIL$82Wisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $35 across 18 hospitalsNY$35Massachusetts: median $106 across 14 hospitalsMA$106Oregon: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $89 across 13 hospitalsIA$89Indiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $36 across 13 hospitalsOH$36Pennsylvania: median $29 across 18 hospitalsPA$29New Jersey: median $39 across 24 hospitalsNJ$39Connecticut: 3 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 $353 across 26 hospitalsCA$353Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $70 across 21 hospitalsCO$70Nebraska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $76 across 11 hospitalsMO$76Kentucky: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $50 across 10 hospitalsNC$50South Carolina: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $52 across 32 hospitalsOK$52Louisiana: median $46 across 10 hospitalsLA$46Mississippi: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: median $56 across 12 hospitalsAL$56Georgia: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $57 across 21 hospitalsTX$57Florida: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $57. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA26$353+515%$39 – $353
Idaho ID10$131+128%$97 – $156
Massachusetts MA14$106+85%$45 – $142
Washington WA26$91+58%$77 – $119
Iowa IA13$89+55%$89 – $89
Illinois IL15$82+43%$47 – $107
Missouri MO11$76+33%$71 – $84
Colorado CO21$70+22%$48 – $92
Texas TX21$570%$57 – $83
Alabama AL12$56−3%$42 – $94
Oklahoma OK32$52−9%$18 – $105
North Carolina NC10$50−12%$33 – $50
Louisiana LA10$46−19%$21 – $81
New Jersey NJ24$39−33%$35 – $39
Ohio OH13$36−37%$36 – $112
New York NY18$35−39%$35 – $42
Pennsylvania PA18$29−50%$23 – $40
Maine ME8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA1not 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 $57.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care314$56$35 – $112
Children’s2fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access68$86$50 – $256
Ownership
For-profit51$57$35 – $120
Government57$56$32 – $118
Non-profit276$61$35 – $119
System affiliation
Part of a system326$57$35 – $120
Independent60$62$35 – $110

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$118
Median cash price$57
Cash as a share of list, median hospital59%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 41%. 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

230 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $82 and the average of the middle 60% is $79; most fall between $39 and $147.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 230 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
$28$45$82$119$278

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($28 vs $278).

Of the 258 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 230 gave a usable cash price; 9 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 19 a list price only.

How complete is this

386 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (10%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 414 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted386
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here10
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 — excluded17
Hospitals that filed this code414

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 GARDNER VAG DNA AMP PROBE.

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, “Gardnerella test by amplified DNA probe (CPT 87511) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87511-gardnerella-test-by-amplified-dna-probe