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

Mycobacteria genetic test, amplified method

CPT 87551the billing code this page is about

A laboratory test that detects mycobacterial genetic material in a sample by copying it many times so it can be identified.

Hospitals typically charge $225 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 969 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $241. Most fall between $79 and $438 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
969
States
49
Filings dated
Dec 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 969 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
$55$109$225$386$635

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($55 vs $635).

How the prices are spread

$48 – $64: 88 hospitals$48$64 – $84: 68 hospitals$84 – $112: 53 hospitals$84$112 – $149: 63 hospitals$149 – $197: 83 hospitals$149$197 – $261: 171 hospitals$261 – $347: 109 hospitals$261$347 – $460: 113 hospitals$460 – $610: 74 hospitals$460$610 – $809: 56 hospitals$610median $225price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (878 of 969 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$48$6488
$64$8468
$84$11253
$112$14963
$149$19783
$197$261171
$261$347109
$347$460113
$460$61074
$610$80956

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $225.

Alaska: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $150 across 42 hospitalsWA$150Idaho: median $386 across 12 hospitalsID$386Montana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $319 across 13 hospitalsMN$319Illinois: median $294 across 41 hospitalsIL$294Wisconsin: median $482 across 33 hospitalsWI$482Michigan: median $172 across 23 hospitalsMI$172New York: median $64 across 30 hospitalsNY$64Massachusetts: median $227 across 22 hospitalsMA$227Oregon: median $360 across 20 hospitalsOR$360Nevada: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $107 across 23 hospitalsIA$107Indiana: median $123 across 27 hospitalsIN$123Ohio: median $313 across 73 hospitalsOH$313Pennsylvania: median $55 across 34 hospitalsPA$55New Jersey: median $53 across 33 hospitalsNJ$53Connecticut: 6 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 $210 across 33 hospitalsCA$210Utah: median $468 across 24 hospitalsUT$468Colorado: median $334 across 29 hospitalsCO$334Nebraska: median $150 across 10 hospitalsNE$150Missouri: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: median $152 across 23 hospitalsKY$152West Virginia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $339 across 20 hospitalsVA$339Maryland: median $350 across 21 hospitalsMD$350Delaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $337 across 11 hospitalsAZ$337New Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $109 across 31 hospitalsTN$109North Carolina: median $122 across 13 hospitalsNC$122South Carolina: median $345 across 22 hospitalsSC$345Oklahoma: median $103 across 22 hospitalsOK$103Louisiana: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: median $67 across 15 hospitalsMS$67Alabama: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $167 across 40 hospitalsGA$167Hawaii: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $225 across 88 hospitalsTX$225Florida: median $245 across 57 hospitalsFL$245
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $225. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Wisconsin WI33$482+114%$145 – $635
Utah UT24$468+108%$468 – $550
Idaho ID12$386+71%$287 – $468
Oregon OR20$360+60%$196 – $371
Maryland MD21$350+55%$288 – $419
South Carolina SC22$345+53%$244 – $366
Virginia VA20$339+51%$62 – $367
Arizona AZ11$337+50%$101 – $678
Colorado CO29$334+48%$151 – $627
Minnesota MN13$319+42%$142 – $319
Ohio OH73$313+39%$216 – $448
Illinois IL41$294+31%$67 – $493
Florida FL57$245+9%$80 – $522
Massachusetts MA22$227+1%$137 – $405
Texas TX88$2250%$214 – $795
California CA33$210−7%$160 – $306
Michigan MI23$172−24%$55 – $229
Georgia GA40$167−26%$68 – $240
Kentucky KY23$152−33%$66 – $438
Washington WA42$150−33%$89 – $315
Nebraska NE10$150−33%$98 – $309
Indiana IN27$123−45%$70 – $211
North Carolina NC13$122−46%$50 – $168
Tennessee TN31$109−52%$56 – $161
Iowa IA23$107−53%$67 – $643
Oklahoma OK22$103−54%$14 – $145
Mississippi MS15$67−70%$37 – $85
New York NY30$64−72%$48 – $150
Pennsylvania PA34$55−75%$35 – $363
New Jersey NJ33$53−76%$48 – $1,072
Louisiana LA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not 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 $225.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care830$225$73 – $419
Children’s30$385$124 – $523
Critical access102$225$95 – $468
Ownership
For-profit103$229$101 – $636
Government102$189$75 – $339
Non-profit757$225$75 – $438
System affiliation
Part of a system879$225$76 – $438
Independent90$240$85 – $400

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$400
Median cash price$225
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

740 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $225 and the average of the middle 60% is $242; most fall between $109 and $406.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 740 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
$64$130$225$370$550

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($64 vs $550).

Of the 806 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 740 gave a usable cash price; 40 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 26 a list price only.

How complete is this

969 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (24%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,034 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted969
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here40
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 — excluded24
Hospitals that filed this code1,034

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 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, “Mycobacteria genetic test, amplified method (CPT 87551) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87551-mycobacteria-genetic-test-amplified-method