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

Mycobacteria genetic test, direct probe

CPT 87550the billing code this page is about

A laboratory test that looks for genetic material of mycobacteria (the group that includes tuberculosis-related germs) in a sample using a direct probe, without amplification.

Hospitals typically charge $53 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 287 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $69. Most fall between $22 and $195 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
287
States
35
Filings dated
Jun 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 287 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$24$53$147$245

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($20 vs $245).

How the prices are spread

$19 – $25: 64 hospitals$19$25 – $32: 26 hospitals$32 – $42: 22 hospitals$32$42 – $56: 23 hospitals$56 – $73: 18 hospitals$56$73 – $96: 27 hospitals$96 – $126: 19 hospitals$96$126 – $165: 12 hospitals$165 – $217: 14 hospitals$165$217 – $285: 37 hospitals$217median $53price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (262 of 287 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$19$2564
$25$3226
$32$4222
$42$5623
$56$7318
$73$9627
$96$12619
$126$16512
$165$21714
$217$28537

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $53.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMNIllinois: median $58 across 13 hospitalsIL$58Wisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: median $28 across 13 hospitalsMI$28New York: median $24 across 28 hospitalsNY$24Massachusetts: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $50 across 13 hospitalsIA$50Indiana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceINOhio: median $90 across 13 hospitalsOH$90Pennsylvania: median $20 across 20 hospitalsPA$20New Jersey: median $22 across 25 hospitalsNJ$22Connecticut: 5 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 $245 across 26 hospitalsCA$245Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMOKentucky: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKSArkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $26 across 12 hospitalsTN$26North Carolina: median $229 across 11 hospitalsNC$229South Carolina: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $36 across 12 hospitalsOK$36Louisiana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceGAHawaii: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTXFlorida: median $97 across 20 hospitalsFL$97
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $53. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA26$245+363%$74 – $245
North Carolina NC11$229+332%$229 – $243
Florida FL20$97+83%$41 – $254
Ohio OH13$90+69%$90 – $90
Illinois IL13$58+9%$27 – $107
Iowa IA13$50−5%$50 – $50
Oklahoma OK12$36−33%$36 – $36
Michigan MI13$28−48%$24 – $170
Tennessee TN12$26−51%$19 – $28
New York NY28$24−55%$20 – $85
New Jersey NJ25$22−58%$20 – $22
Pennsylvania PA20$20−62%$13 – $30
Montana MT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Texas TX7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY1not 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 $53.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care261$50$22 – $196
Children’s2fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access24$94$28 – $161
Ownership
For-profit42$74$27 – $170
Government32$29$20 – $139
Non-profit213$52$22 – $229
System affiliation
Part of a system249$50$22 – $229
Independent38$60$24 – $137

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$135
Median cash price$53
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. 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

161 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $89 and the average of the middle 60% is $116; most fall between $36 and $245.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 161 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$89$210$267

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($27 vs $267).

Of the 180 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 161 gave a usable cash price; 15 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 4 a list price only.

How complete is this

287 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (7%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 314 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted287
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here23
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 — excluded3
Hospitals that filed this code314

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 MYCOBACTERIA DNA DIR 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, “Mycobacteria genetic test, direct probe (CPT 87550) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87550-mycobacteria-genetic-test-direct-probe