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Procedure price report · Pathology

Autopsy with microscopic exam, brain not included

CPT 88020the billing code this page is about

A full after-death examination of the body with tissue samples studied under a microscope; the brain and spinal cord are not examined.

Hospitals typically charge $1,187 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 170 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,203. Most fall between $683 and $2,145 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
170
States
34
Filings dated
Dec 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 170 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
$256$722$1,187$1,910$3,756

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 15× what the cheapest tenth charges ($256 vs $3,756).

How the prices are spread

$227 – $309: 10 hospitals$227$309 – $421: 7 hospitals$421 – $573: 4 hospitals$421$573 – $780: 19 hospitals$780 – $1,062: 33 hospitals$780$1,062 – $1,445: 36 hospitals$1,445 – $1,967: 17 hospitals$1,445$1,967 – $2,677: 8 hospitals$2,677 – $3,643: 9 hospitals$2,677$3,643 – $4,958: 11 hospitals$3,643median $1,187price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (154 of 170 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$227$30910
$309$4217
$421$5734
$573$78019
$780$1,06233
$1,062$1,44536
$1,445$1,96717
$1,967$2,6778
$2,677$3,6439
$3,643$4,95811

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $1,187.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 6 hospitals 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: median $799 across 12 hospitalsIL$799Wisconsin: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $2,146 across 10 hospitalsNY$2,146Massachusetts: 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: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIAIndiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figurePANew Jersey: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNJConnecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $1,030 across 40 hospitalsCA$1,030Utah: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWVVirginia: median $990 across 10 hospitalsVA$990Maryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceARTennessee: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceTNNorth Carolina: median $1,275 across 14 hospitalsNC$1,275South Carolina: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $722 across 10 hospitalsOK$722Louisiana: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTXFlorida: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,187. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New York NY10$2,146+81%$535 – $3,756
North Carolina NC14$1,275+7%$1,275 – $1,530
California CA40$1,030−13%$1,030 – $1,364
Virginia VA10$990−17%$229 – $4,958
Illinois IL12$799−33%$689 – $3,283
Oklahoma OK10$722−39%$722 – $722
Colorado CO8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Texas TX4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Pennsylvania PA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Iowa IA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not 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 $1,187.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care152$1,250$722 – $1,986
Children’s6fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access11fewer than 20 hospitals
Ownership
For-profit21$899$400 – $5,072
Government23$1,187$382 – $2,708
Non-profit125$1,255$722 – $1,913
System affiliation
Part of a system142$1,187$722 – $1,933
Independent28$916$400 – $2,708

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,840
Median cash price$1,187
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

116 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,030 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,170; most fall between $722 and $1,933.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 116 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
$400$722$1,030$1,580$3,045

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($400 vs $3,045).

Of the 140 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 116 gave a usable cash price; 20 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 4 a list price only.

How complete is this

170 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (4%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 223 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted170
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here24
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded2
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded27
Hospitals that filed this code223

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) COMPLETE.

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 with microscopic exam, brain not included (CPT 88020) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-88020-autopsy-with-microscopic-exam-brain-not-included