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

Rapid COVID-19 antigen test read by eye

CPT 87811the billing code this page is about

A quick antigen test for the virus that causes COVID-19 from a nose or throat swab, with the result read visually at the time of testing.

Hospitals typically charge $58 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 926 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $61. Most fall between $36 and $103 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
926
States
48
Filings dated
Dec 2023 – 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 926 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
$25$40$58$89$132

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($25 vs $132).

How the prices are spread

$17 – $21: 27 hospitals$17$21 – $27: 31 hospitals$27 – $34: 63 hospitals$27$34 – $43: 135 hospitals$43 – $54: 134 hospitals$43$54 – $68: 119 hospitals$68 – $86: 125 hospitals$68$86 – $108: 79 hospitals$108 – $136: 84 hospitals$108$136 – $172: 45 hospitals$136median $58price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (842 of 926 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$17$2127
$21$2731
$27$3463
$34$43135
$43$54134
$54$68119
$68$86125
$86$10879
$108$13684
$136$17245

By state

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

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $19 across 16 hospitalsME$19Vermont: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $58 across 27 hospitalsWA$58Idaho: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $54 across 15 hospitalsMN$54Illinois: median $69 across 61 hospitalsIL$69Wisconsin: median $78 across 40 hospitalsWI$78Michigan: median $48 across 22 hospitalsMI$48New York: median $42 across 26 hospitalsNY$42Massachusetts: median $113 across 16 hospitalsMA$113Oregon: median $58 across 19 hospitalsOR$58Nevada: median $70 across 11 hospitalsNV$70Wyoming: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $57 across 39 hospitalsIA$57Indiana: median $57 across 31 hospitalsIN$57Ohio: median $83 across 17 hospitalsOH$83Pennsylvania: median $50 across 42 hospitalsPA$50New Jersey: median $46 across 33 hospitalsNJ$46Connecticut: median $41 across 12 hospitalsCT$41Rhode Island: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $104 across 84 hospitalsCA$104Utah: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $40 across 18 hospitalsCO$40Nebraska: median $74 across 12 hospitalsNE$74Missouri: median $59 across 13 hospitalsMO$59Kentucky: median $56 across 13 hospitalsKY$56West Virginia: median $67 across 19 hospitalsWV$67Virginia: median $28 across 28 hospitalsVA$28Maryland: 5 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: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: median $52 across 11 hospitalsKS$52Arkansas: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $34 across 30 hospitalsTN$34North Carolina: median $58 across 14 hospitalsNC$58South Carolina: median $81 across 28 hospitalsSC$81Oklahoma: median $73 across 18 hospitalsOK$73Louisiana: median $30 across 21 hospitalsLA$30Mississippi: median $36 across 26 hospitalsMS$36Alabama: median $47 across 15 hospitalsAL$47Georgia: median $113 across 25 hospitalsGA$113Hawaii: median $147 across 11 hospitalsHI$147Texas: median $32 across 31 hospitalsTX$32Florida: 6 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
Hawaii HI11$147+153%$27 – $208
Massachusetts MA16$113+95%$93 – $151
Georgia GA25$113+94%$48 – $172
California CA84$104+80%$78 – $132
Ohio OH17$83+43%$54 – $120
South Carolina SC28$81+40%$50 – $90
Wisconsin WI40$78+34%$48 – $144
Nebraska NE12$74+27%$38 – $108
Oklahoma OK18$73+26%$63 – $73
Nevada NV11$70+21%$34 – $105
Illinois IL61$69+18%$42 – $109
West Virginia WV19$67+16%$67 – $67
Missouri MO13$59+1%$38 – $59
Oregon OR19$58+1%$34 – $80
Washington WA27$580%$38 – $74
North Carolina NC14$58−1%$58 – $69
Indiana IN31$57−2%$44 – $93
Iowa IA39$57−3%$40 – $80
Kentucky KY13$56−3%$19 – $124
Minnesota MN15$54−6%$26 – $111
Kansas KS11$52−10%$34 – $66
Pennsylvania PA42$50−14%$29 – $124
Michigan MI22$48−17%$43 – $57
Alabama AL15$47−19%$22 – $59
New Jersey NJ33$46−22%$41 – $48
New York NY26$42−28%$41 – $71
Connecticut CT12$41−30%$27 – $114
Colorado CO18$40−31%$33 – $40
Mississippi MS26$36−39%$32 – $54
Tennessee TN30$34−41%$12 – $38
Texas TX31$32−44%$26 – $74
Louisiana LA21$30−48%$17 – $48
Virginia VA28$28−52%$12 – $53
Maine ME16$19−67%$9 – $89
Arkansas AR9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not 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 care654$52$36 – $90
Children’s13fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access259$68$36 – $116
Ownership
For-profit93$41$29 – $89
Government162$58$38 – $105
Non-profit671$59$38 – $103
System affiliation
Part of a system770$57$36 – $103
Independent156$64$39 – $107

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$110
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

640 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $65 and the average of the middle 60% is $67; most fall between $39 and $113.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 640 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
$27$42$65$103$144

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($27 vs $144).

Of the 712 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 640 gave a usable cash price; 35 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 37 a list price only.

How complete is this

926 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (23%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,035 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted926
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here70
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded39
Hospitals that filed this code1,035

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 Hc Sars-Cov-2 Covid19 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 COVID-19 antigen test read by eye (CPT 87811) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87811-rapid-covid-19-antigen-test-read-by-eye