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Procedure price report · Pathology

Autopsy, visual exam only, excluding brain

CPT 88000the billing code this page is about

After-death examination of the body and organs by eye and by dissection, without microscope study and without examining the brain or spinal cord.

Hospitals typically charge $599 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 103 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $735. Most fall between $280 and $1,507 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
103
States
26
Filings dated
Nov 2025 – 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 103 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
$91$319$599$1,507$2,205

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 24× what the cheapest tenth charges ($91 vs $2,205).

How the prices are spread

$91 – $134: 10 hospitals$91$134 – $198: 1 hospitals$198 – $292: 8 hospitals$198$292 – $431: 11 hospitals$431 – $636: 34 hospitals$431$636 – $939: 2 hospitals$939 – $1,385: 4 hospitals$939$1,385 – $2,044: 16 hospitals$2,044 – $3,016: 7 hospitals$2,044$3,016 – $4,450: 2 hospitals$3,016median $599price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (95 of 103 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$91$13410
$134$1981
$198$2928
$292$43111
$431$63634
$636$9392
$939$1,3854
$1,385$2,04416
$2,044$3,0167
$3,016$4,4502

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $599.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMINew York: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNYMassachusetts: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceORNevada: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIAIndiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceOHPennsylvania: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figurePANew Jersey: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNJConnecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $599 across 23 hospitalsCA$599Utah: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: median $91 across 12 hospitalsKY$91West Virginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWVVirginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVAMaryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKSArkansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceTNNorth Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNCSouth Carolina: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $578 across 10 hospitalsOK$578Louisiana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $1,507 across 11 hospitalsGA$1,507Hawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceTXFlorida: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $599. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Georgia GA11$1,507+151%$1,507 – $1,507
California CA23$5990%$599 – $599
Oklahoma OK10$578−4%$578 – $578
Kentucky KY12$91−85%$91 – $2,205
Indiana IN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Illinois IL5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New York NY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Pennsylvania PA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Jersey NJ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA1not 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 $599.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care91$599$319 – $1,507
Children’s3fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access9fewer than 20 hospitals
Ownership
For-profit15fewer than 20 hospitals
Government10fewer than 20 hospitals
Non-profit78$599$280 – $1,507
System affiliation
Part of a system88$599$275 – $1,507
Independent15fewer than 20 hospitals

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,070
Median cash price$599
Cash as a share of list, median hospital63%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 37%. 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.

How complete is this

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

What the 130 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted103
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here8
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 — excluded19
Hospitals that filed this code130

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 23, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Pathology family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as AUTOPSY (NECROPSY) GROSS.

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, “Autopsy, visual exam only, excluding brain (CPT 88000) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-88000-autopsy-visual-exam-only-excluding-brain