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Procedure price report · Pathology

Cell sample exam for forensic purposes

CPT 88125the billing code this page is about

Microscopic examination of a specimen for forensic evidence, such as identifying sperm cells, performed on collected material.

Hospitals typically charge $57 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 262 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $60. Most fall between $22 and $117 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
262
States
36
Filings dated
Jun 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 262 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
$14$23$57$105$132

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($14 vs $132).

How the prices are spread

$9 – $12: 9 hospitals$9$12 – $17: 16 hospitals$17 – $23: 31 hospitals$17$23 – $32: 23 hospitals$32 – $45: 15 hospitals$32$45 – $62: 44 hospitals$62 – $87: 42 hospitals$62$87 – $120: 28 hospitals$120 – $167: 25 hospitals$120$167 – $231: 5 hospitals$167median $57price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (238 of 262 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$9$129
$12$1716
$17$2331
$23$3223
$32$4515
$45$6244
$62$8742
$87$12028
$120$16725
$167$2315

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$53
Median cash price$57
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.08×

The Medicare figure is the national unadjusted OPPS rate for this code — what Medicare itself pays a hospital before local wage adjustment. It is a benchmark, not a price anyone is charged.

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $57.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $26 across 13 hospitalsIL$26Wisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $63 across 28 hospitalsNY$63Massachusetts: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMAOregon: 2 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 $26 across 13 hospitalsIA$26Indiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $51 across 27 hospitalsPA$51New Jersey: median $59 across 11 hospitalsNJ$59Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $132 across 21 hospitalsCA$132Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCONebraska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: median $14 across 10 hospitalsWV$14Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 7 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: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKSArkansas: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $22 across 14 hospitalsOK$22Louisiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $117 across 26 hospitalsTX$117Florida: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $57. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA21$132+130%$132 – $132
Texas TX26$117+104%$117 – $231
New York NY28$63+10%$32 – $65
New Jersey NJ11$59+3%$59 – $63
Pennsylvania PA27$51−11%$9 – $116
Iowa IA13$26−54%$26 – $26
Illinois IL13$26−54%$8 – $66
Oklahoma OK14$22−61%$22 – $39
West Virginia WV10$14−76%$14 – $48
Michigan MI9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA1not 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 $57.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care224$59$22 – $117
Children’s8fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access29$22$13 – $62
Ownership
For-profit38$52$10 – $239
Government35$51$20 – $63
Non-profit188$59$22 – $117
System affiliation
Part of a system225$58$22 – $117
Independent37$54$23 – $75

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$89
Median cash price$57
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

139 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $73 and the average of the middle 60% is $76; most fall between $22 and $132.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 139 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$26$73$117$147

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($20 vs $147).

Of the 152 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 139 gave a usable cash price; 4 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 9 a list price only.

How complete is this

262 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (7%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 278 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted262
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here5
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 — excluded10
Hospitals that filed this code278

Sections not shown for this setting

  • 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 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 FORENSIC CYTOPATHOLOGY.

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, “Cell sample exam for forensic purposes (CPT 88125) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-88125-cell-sample-exam-for-forensic-purposes