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

Rapid C. difficile toxin A stool test read by eye

CPT 87803the billing code this page is about

A quick antigen test on a stool sample for toxin A of Clostridioides difficile, with the result read visually at the time of testing.

Hospitals typically charge $35 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 255 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $43. Most fall between $16 and $94 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
255
States
42
Filings dated
Nov 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
$16$18$35$94$149

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($16 vs $149).

How the prices are spread

$13 – $17: 46 hospitals$13$17 – $23: 28 hospitals$23 – $31: 25 hospitals$23$31 – $42: 23 hospitals$42 – $56: 19 hospitals$42$56 – $75: 9 hospitals$75 – $102: 44 hospitals$75$102 – $137: 17 hospitals$137 – $185: 9 hospitals$137$185 – $249: 11 hospitals$185median $35price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (231 of 255 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$13$1746
$17$2328
$23$3125
$31$4223
$42$5619
$56$759
$75$10244
$102$13717
$137$1859
$185$24911

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $35.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 4 hospitals 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: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital 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 $35 across 13 hospitalsIL$35Wisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $16 across 19 hospitalsNY$16Massachusetts: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMAOregon: 5 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 $35 across 12 hospitalsIA$35Indiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $13 across 17 hospitalsPA$13New Jersey: median $18 across 24 hospitalsNJ$18Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $94 across 40 hospitalsCA$94Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $28 across 14 hospitalsOK$28Louisiana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $117 across 10 hospitalsTX$117Florida: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $35. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Texas TX10$117+232%$34 – $790
California CA40$94+167%$83 – $94
Iowa IA12$350%$35 – $35
Illinois IL13$350%$16 – $126
Oklahoma OK14$28−20%$28 – $34
New Jersey NJ24$18−50%$16 – $18
New York NY19$16−55%$16 – $48
Pennsylvania PA17$13−63%$11 – $18
Michigan MI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not 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 $35.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care211$34$16 – $94
Children’s1fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access43$77$28 – $142
Ownership
For-profit45$45$16 – $149
Government38$51$16 – $134
Non-profit172$35$16 – $94
System affiliation
Part of a system211$35$16 – $94
Independent44$51$18 – $106

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$128
Median cash price$35
Cash as a share of list, median hospital56%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 44%. 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

135 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $80 and the average of the middle 60% is $64; most fall between $28 and $106.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 135 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$35$80$94$145

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($24 vs $145).

Of the 150 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 135 gave a usable cash price; 7 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 8 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 279 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 here16
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 — excluded7
Hospitals that filed this code279

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 CLOSTRIDIUM TOXIN A W/OPTIC.

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, “Rapid C. difficile toxin A stool test read by eye (CPT 87803) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87803-rapid-c-difficile-toxin-a-stool-test-read-by-eye