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

Strep A test by direct DNA probe

CPT 87650the billing code this page is about

A laboratory test that looks directly for the genetic material of group A streptococcus bacteria in a throat or other specimen, without an amplification step. Covers one test on one specimen.

Hospitals typically charge $58 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 255 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $77. Most fall between $24 and $192 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
255
States
38
Filings dated
Sep 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 255 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$28$58$179$232

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($20 vs $232).

How the prices are spread

$20 – $26: 45 hospitals$20$26 – $33: 19 hospitals$33 – $43: 23 hospitals$33$43 – $55: 26 hospitals$55 – $70: 19 hospitals$55$70 – $90: 13 hospitals$90 – $116: 18 hospitals$90$116 – $149: 8 hospitals$149 – $191: 22 hospitals$149$191 – $245: 49 hospitals$191median $58price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (242 of 255 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$20$2645
$26$3319
$33$4323
$43$5526
$55$7019
$70$9013
$90$11618
$116$1498
$149$19122
$191$24549

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $58.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMNIllinois: median $36 across 12 hospitalsIL$36Wisconsin: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $20 across 13 hospitalsNY$20Massachusetts: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 1 hospital 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 11 hospitalsIA$50Indiana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $113 across 33 hospitalsOH$113Pennsylvania: median $14 across 14 hospitalsPA$14New Jersey: median $22 across 23 hospitalsNJ$22Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $245 across 35 hospitalsCA$245Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWVVirginia: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceARTennessee: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $203 across 15 hospitalsNC$203South Carolina: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $36 across 12 hospitalsOK$36Louisiana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $39 across 10 hospitalsGA$39Hawaii: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTXFlorida: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $58. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA35$245+326%$179 – $245
North Carolina NC15$203+251%$24 – $229
Ohio OH33$113+96%$69 – $216
Iowa IA11$50−13%$50 – $50
Georgia GA10$39−32%$39 – $39
Illinois IL12$36−38%$27 – $58
Oklahoma OK12$36−38%$36 – $36
New Jersey NJ23$22−62%$20 – $22
New York NY13$20−65%$20 – $20
Pennsylvania PA14$14−75%$13 – $23
Michigan MI9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Texas TX2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI1not 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 $58.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care220$55$23 – $196
Children’s5fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access27$77$38 – $165
Ownership
For-profit21$50$30 – $90
Government27$39$20 – $104
Non-profit204$60$24 – $202
System affiliation
Part of a system212$58$23 – $202
Independent43$58$30 – $90

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$124
Median cash price$58
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

150 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $81 and the average of the middle 60% is $101; most fall between $39 and $215.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 150 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
$30$43$81$179$245

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($30 vs $245).

Of the 156 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 150 gave a usable cash price; 0 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

255 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (6%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 267 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted255
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here6
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 — excluded4
Hospitals that filed this code267

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 5, 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 STREP A 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, “Strep A test by direct DNA probe (CPT 87650) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87650-strep-a-test-by-direct-dna-probe