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

Tuberculosis bacteria genetic test, direct probe

CPT 87555the billing code this page is about

A laboratory test that looks for genetic material of the tuberculosis bacterium in a sample using a direct probe method, without amplification.

Hospitals typically charge $62 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 394 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $73. Most fall between $29 and $156 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
394
States
39
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 394 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
$26$31$62$133$267

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($26 vs $267).

How the prices are spread

$20 – $26: 33 hospitals$20$26 – $35: 63 hospitals$35 – $47: 23 hospitals$35$47 – $64: 67 hospitals$64 – $86: 47 hospitals$64$86 – $115: 27 hospitals$115 – $154: 36 hospitals$115$154 – $208: 30 hospitals$208 – $279: 16 hospitals$208$279 – $375: 18 hospitals$279median $62price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (360 of 394 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$20$2633
$26$3563
$35$4723
$47$6467
$64$8647
$86$11527
$115$15436
$154$20830
$208$27916
$279$37518

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $62.

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: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $58 across 13 hospitalsIL$58Wisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: median $37 across 13 hospitalsMI$37New York: median $57 across 36 hospitalsNY$57Massachusetts: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 6 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 $58 across 14 hospitalsIA$58Indiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $31 across 30 hospitalsPA$31New Jersey: median $30 across 24 hospitalsNJ$30Connecticut: 5 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 $72 across 32 hospitalsCA$72Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCONebraska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $62 across 28 hospitalsVA$62Maryland: median $257 across 14 hospitalsMD$257Delaware: 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 $35 across 12 hospitalsTN$35North Carolina: median $181 across 15 hospitalsNC$181South Carolina: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $48 across 17 hospitalsOK$48Louisiana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: median $150 across 13 hospitalsHI$150Texas: median $146 across 12 hospitalsTX$146Florida: median $123 across 22 hospitalsFL$123
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $62. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Maryland MD14$257+311%$42 – $352
North Carolina NC15$181+189%$62 – $181
Hawaii HI13$150+140%$127 – $267
Texas TX12$146+135%$44 – $625
Florida FL22$123+97%$50 – $283
California CA32$72+15%$72 – $102
Virginia VA28$620%$20 – $122
Iowa IA14$58−6%$58 – $205
Illinois IL13$58−8%$27 – $288
New York NY36$57−9%$27 – $97
Oklahoma OK17$48−24%$48 – $85
Michigan MI13$37−41%$26 – $198
Tennessee TN12$35−44%$19 – $65
Pennsylvania PA30$31−50%$18 – $109
New Jersey NJ24$30−53%$27 – $30
Georgia GA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not 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 $62.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care344$62$27 – $156
Children’s6fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access44$63$48 – $153
Ownership
For-profit61$90$27 – $283
Government41$61$27 – $150
Non-profit292$62$29 – $145
System affiliation
Part of a system353$63$29 – $162
Independent41$57$29 – $105

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$128
Median cash price$62
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

206 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $72 and the average of the middle 60% is $80; most fall between $36 and $150.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 206 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
$24$44$72$137$267

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($24 vs $267).

Of the 223 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 206 gave a usable cash price; 11 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 6 a list price only.

How complete is this

394 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 420 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted394
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here21
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 — excluded4
Hospitals that filed this code420

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 M.TUBERCULO 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, “Tuberculosis bacteria genetic test, direct probe (CPT 87555) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87555-tuberculosis-bacteria-genetic-test-direct-probe