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

Genetic test for several germs at once, amplified method

CPT 87801the billing code this page is about

A single molecular test panel that copies and detects the genetic material of multiple organisms in one run; billed once for the multi-organism test.

Hospitals typically charge $176 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,607 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $189. Most fall between $78 and $343 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,607
States
50
Filings dated
Dec 2023 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 25, 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 2,607 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
$52$87$176$311$494

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($52 vs $494).

How the prices are spread

$35 – $47: 115 hospitals$35$47 – $64: 129 hospitals$64 – $87: 279 hospitals$64$87 – $118: 225 hospitals$118 – $160: 316 hospitals$118$160 – $217: 328 hospitals$217 – $293: 372 hospitals$217$293 – $397: 293 hospitals$397 – $538: 196 hospitals$397$538 – $730: 95 hospitals$538median $176price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,348 of 2,607 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$35$47115
$47$64129
$64$87279
$87$118225
$118$160316
$160$217328
$217$293372
$293$397293
$397$538196
$538$73095

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $176.

Alaska: median $121 across 11 hospitalsAK$121Maine: median $112 across 26 hospitalsME$112Vermont: median $263 across 10 hospitalsVT$263New Hampshire: median $241 across 22 hospitalsNH$241Washington: median $221 across 68 hospitalsWA$221Idaho: median $137 across 18 hospitalsID$137Montana: median $180 across 22 hospitalsMT$180North Dakota: median $242 across 16 hospitalsND$242Minnesota: median $176 across 83 hospitalsMN$176Illinois: median $213 across 111 hospitalsIL$213Wisconsin: median $267 across 101 hospitalsWI$267Michigan: median $108 across 82 hospitalsMI$108New York: median $172 across 104 hospitalsNY$172Massachusetts: median $271 across 47 hospitalsMA$271Oregon: median $154 across 42 hospitalsOR$154Nevada: median $259 across 15 hospitalsNV$259Wyoming: median $157 across 12 hospitalsWY$157South Dakota: median $164 across 14 hospitalsSD$164Iowa: median $188 across 58 hospitalsIA$188Indiana: median $152 across 91 hospitalsIN$152Ohio: median $149 across 119 hospitalsOH$149Pennsylvania: median $287 across 118 hospitalsPA$287New Jersey: median $77 across 55 hospitalsNJ$77Connecticut: median $169 across 19 hospitalsCT$169Rhode Island: median $163 across 10 hospitalsRI$163California: median $221 across 113 hospitalsCA$221Utah: median $620 across 40 hospitalsUT$620Colorado: median $126 across 55 hospitalsCO$126Nebraska: median $241 across 43 hospitalsNE$241Missouri: median $175 across 71 hospitalsMO$175Kentucky: median $168 across 47 hospitalsKY$168West Virginia: median $43 across 32 hospitalsWV$43Virginia: median $281 across 66 hospitalsVA$281Maryland: median $317 across 39 hospitalsMD$317Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $288 across 32 hospitalsAZ$288New Mexico: median $221 across 15 hospitalsNM$221Kansas: median $196 across 51 hospitalsKS$196Arkansas: median $85 across 31 hospitalsAR$85Tennessee: median $79 across 51 hospitalsTN$79North Carolina: median $105 across 60 hospitalsNC$105South Carolina: median $292 across 50 hospitalsSC$292Oklahoma: median $85 across 47 hospitalsOK$85Louisiana: median $76 across 40 hospitalsLA$76Mississippi: median $107 across 41 hospitalsMS$107Alabama: median $122 across 34 hospitalsAL$122Georgia: median $210 across 80 hospitalsGA$210Hawaii: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $169 across 169 hospitalsTX$169Florida: median $130 across 112 hospitalsFL$130
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $176. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT40$620+252%$293 – $730
Maryland MD39$317+80%$251 – $390
South Carolina SC50$292+66%$156 – $465
Arizona AZ32$288+64%$118 – $986
Pennsylvania PA118$287+63%$81 – $495
Virginia VA66$281+59%$57 – $399
Massachusetts MA47$271+54%$118 – $524
Wisconsin WI101$267+52%$198 – $395
Vermont VT10$263+49%$139 – $438
Nevada NV15$259+47%$70 – $479
North Dakota ND16$242+38%$109 – $512
Nebraska NE43$241+37%$159 – $363
New Hampshire NH22$241+37%$147 – $368
Washington WA68$221+25%$68 – $350
California CA113$221+25%$70 – $287
New Mexico NM15$221+25%$155 – $310
Illinois IL111$213+21%$101 – $313
Georgia GA80$210+19%$133 – $325
Kansas KS51$196+11%$122 – $494
Iowa IA58$188+7%$67 – $363
Montana MT22$180+2%$78 – $246
Minnesota MN83$1760%$61 – $370
Missouri MO71$175−1%$85 – $338
New York NY104$172−2%$84 – $345
Texas TX169$169−4%$47 – $399
Connecticut CT19$169−4%$133 – $219
Kentucky KY47$168−4%$86 – $247
South Dakota SD14$164−7%$62 – $1,078
Rhode Island RI10$163−8%$152 – $437
Wyoming WY12$157−11%$133 – $251
Oregon OR42$154−12%$34 – $297
Indiana IN91$152−14%$84 – $255
Ohio OH119$149−15%$99 – $315
Idaho ID18$137−22%$46 – $312
Florida FL112$130−26%$70 – $338
Colorado CO55$126−28%$59 – $273
Alabama AL34$122−31%$84 – $643
Alaska AK11$121−31%$81 – $231
Maine ME26$112−36%$55 – $301
Michigan MI82$108−38%$70 – $278
Mississippi MS41$107−39%$65 – $145
North Carolina NC60$105−40%$60 – $133
Arkansas AR31$85−52%$64 – $183
Oklahoma OK47$85−52%$28 – $208
Tennessee TN51$79−55%$57 – $197
New Jersey NJ55$77−56%$70 – $146
Louisiana LA40$76−57%$41 – $222
West Virginia WV32$43−76%$40 – $323
Delaware DE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI7not 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 $176.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,929$172$72 – $341
Children’s47$179$89 – $494
Critical access621$194$90 – $343
Ownership
For-profit325$205$81 – $518
Government391$156$78 – $298
Non-profit1,881$179$77 – $341
System affiliation
Part of a system2,174$175$76 – $359
Independent433$182$86 – $313

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$301
Median cash price$176
Cash as a share of list, median hospital62%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 38%. 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

1,811 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $198 and the average of the middle 60% is $205; most fall between $81 and $374.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,811 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
$56$96$198$323$505

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($56 vs $505).

Of the 2,015 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,811 gave a usable cash price; 118 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 86 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,607 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (66%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,827 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,607
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here119
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded100
Hospitals that filed this code2,827

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 25, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 25, 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 HC Legionella Pcr.

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, “Genetic test for several germs at once, amplified method (CPT 87801) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87801-genetic-test-for-several-germs-at-once-amplified-method