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

Rapid antigen test for an unspecified germ

CPT 87899the billing code this page is about

A quick test that looks for proteins from an infectious organism not covered by a more specific code, read by direct visual observation of the test device.

Hospitals typically charge $54 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,018 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $58. Most fall between $25 and $108 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,018
States
50
Filings dated
Dec 2022 – 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 3,018 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
$18$29$54$94$164

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.1× what the cheapest tenth charges ($18 vs $164).

How the prices are spread

$13 – $18: 133 hospitals$13$18 – $23: 220 hospitals$23 – $31: 299 hospitals$23$31 – $41: 337 hospitals$41 – $55: 389 hospitals$41$55 – $72: 421 hospitals$72 – $96: 342 hospitals$72$96 – $127: 285 hospitals$127 – $169: 159 hospitals$127$169 – $224: 134 hospitals$169median $54price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,719 of 3,018 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$13$18133
$18$23220
$23$31299
$31$41337
$41$55389
$55$72421
$72$96342
$96$127285
$127$169159
$169$224134

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $54.

Alaska: median $60 across 13 hospitalsAK$60Maine: median $50 across 22 hospitalsME$50Vermont: median $86 across 13 hospitalsVT$86New Hampshire: median $55 across 23 hospitalsNH$55Washington: median $68 across 66 hospitalsWA$68Idaho: median $72 across 21 hospitalsID$72Montana: median $69 across 23 hospitalsMT$69North Dakota: median $78 across 30 hospitalsND$78Minnesota: median $68 across 83 hospitalsMN$68Illinois: median $67 across 133 hospitalsIL$67Wisconsin: median $68 across 94 hospitalsWI$68Michigan: median $39 across 88 hospitalsMI$39New York: median $47 across 98 hospitalsNY$47Massachusetts: median $61 across 47 hospitalsMA$61Oregon: median $65 across 46 hospitalsOR$65Nevada: median $78 across 19 hospitalsNV$78Wyoming: median $55 across 15 hospitalsWY$55South Dakota: median $88 across 37 hospitalsSD$88Iowa: median $51 across 80 hospitalsIA$51Indiana: median $47 across 96 hospitalsIN$47Ohio: median $58 across 127 hospitalsOH$58Pennsylvania: median $80 across 113 hospitalsPA$80New Jersey: median $18 across 56 hospitalsNJ$18Connecticut: median $62 across 23 hospitalsCT$62Rhode Island: median $35 across 10 hospitalsRI$35California: median $53 across 151 hospitalsCA$53Utah: median $344 across 39 hospitalsUT$344Colorado: median $61 across 61 hospitalsCO$61Nebraska: median $87 across 65 hospitalsNE$87Missouri: median $39 across 71 hospitalsMO$39Kentucky: median $51 across 63 hospitalsKY$51West Virginia: median $77 across 38 hospitalsWV$77Virginia: median $51 across 72 hospitalsVA$51Maryland: median $66 across 39 hospitalsMD$66Delaware: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $43 across 42 hospitalsAZ$43New Mexico: median $53 across 27 hospitalsNM$53Kansas: median $67 across 58 hospitalsKS$67Arkansas: median $28 across 32 hospitalsAR$28Tennessee: median $35 across 79 hospitalsTN$35North Carolina: median $35 across 85 hospitalsNC$35South Carolina: median $69 across 47 hospitalsSC$69Oklahoma: median $29 across 63 hospitalsOK$29Louisiana: median $33 across 46 hospitalsLA$33Mississippi: median $24 across 53 hospitalsMS$24Alabama: median $47 across 42 hospitalsAL$47Georgia: median $86 across 90 hospitalsGA$86Hawaii: median $58 across 18 hospitalsHI$58Texas: median $63 across 214 hospitalsTX$63Florida: median $29 across 141 hospitalsFL$29
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $54. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT39$344+543%$91 – $404
South Dakota SD37$88+65%$63 – $131
Nebraska NE65$87+63%$47 – $168
Vermont VT13$86+61%$45 – $123
Georgia GA90$86+60%$31 – $107
Pennsylvania PA113$80+50%$18 – $188
Nevada NV19$78+47%$20 – $168
North Dakota ND30$78+45%$29 – $100
West Virginia WV38$77+43%$48 – $114
Idaho ID21$72+35%$52 – $187
Montana MT23$69+29%$35 – $128
South Carolina SC47$69+29%$49 – $96
Washington WA66$68+28%$37 – $101
Minnesota MN83$68+26%$32 – $90
Wisconsin WI94$68+26%$38 – $82
Illinois IL133$67+25%$34 – $114
Kansas KS58$67+24%$40 – $116
Maryland MD39$66+24%$52 – $81
Oregon OR46$65+21%$29 – $146
Texas TX214$63+18%$32 – $108
Connecticut CT23$62+16%$41 – $85
Colorado CO61$61+14%$28 – $127
Massachusetts MA47$61+14%$39 – $134
Alaska AK13$60+12%$41 – $103
Hawaii HI18$58+8%$39 – $84
Ohio OH127$58+8%$26 – $104
New Hampshire NH23$55+3%$36 – $168
Wyoming WY15$55+2%$40 – $123
California CA151$530%$16 – $167
New Mexico NM27$53−2%$46 – $109
Kentucky KY63$51−4%$30 – $112
Virginia VA72$51−5%$28 – $122
Iowa IA80$51−5%$32 – $95
Maine ME22$50−6%$35 – $93
Alabama AL42$47−12%$19 – $145
New York NY98$47−12%$17 – $86
Indiana IN96$47−13%$25 – $98
Arizona AZ42$43−19%$24 – $66
Missouri MO71$39−26%$24 – $68
Michigan MI88$39−28%$21 – $74
North Carolina NC85$35−35%$22 – $76
Rhode Island RI10$35−35%$28 – $44
Tennessee TN79$35−35%$20 – $77
Louisiana LA46$33−38%$13 – $50
Florida FL141$29−45%$14 – $96
Oklahoma OK63$29−46%$20 – $64
Arkansas AR32$28−47%$13 – $60
Mississippi MS53$24−56%$15 – $52
New Jersey NJ56$18−65%$18 – $37
Delaware DE6not 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 $54.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,196$49$23 – $104
Children’s48$75$42 – $153
Critical access764$65$34 – $116
Ownership
For-profit438$52$23 – $142
Government505$55$27 – $103
Non-profit2,065$54$26 – $105
System affiliation
Part of a system2,510$54$25 – $108
Independent508$55$30 – $102

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$88
Median cash price$54
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

2,084 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $57 and the average of the middle 60% is $60; most fall between $28 and $108.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,084 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$32$57$96$154

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($20 vs $154).

Of the 2,294 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,084 gave a usable cash price; 112 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 98 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,018 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (76%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,282 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,018
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here151
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded2
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded111
Hospitals that filed this code3,282

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 July 20, 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 Shigatoxin Eia.

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 antigen test for an unspecified germ (CPT 87899) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-87899-rapid-antigen-test-for-an-unspecified-germ