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Procedure price report · Pathology

Extended cell smear study with extra slides or stains

CPT 88162the billing code this page is about

Expanded microscopic study of a cell sample involving more than five slides or multiple special stains; billed per specimen in addition to the basic smear exam.

Hospitals typically charge $110 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 953 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $121. Most fall between $56 and $223 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
953
States
49
Filings dated
Jun 2024 – 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 953 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
$38$62$110$207$366

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($38 vs $366).

How the prices are spread

$30 – $40: 59 hospitals$30$40 – $53: 59 hospitals$53 – $70: 143 hospitals$53$70 – $93: 95 hospitals$93 – $123: 127 hospitals$93$123 – $164: 112 hospitals$164 – $217: 93 hospitals$164$217 – $289: 93 hospitals$289 – $383: 46 hospitals$289$383 – $508: 33 hospitals$383median $110price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (860 of 953 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$30$4059
$40$5359
$53$70143
$70$9395
$93$123127
$123$164112
$164$21793
$217$28993
$289$38346
$383$50833

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$53
Median cash price$110
Cash as a multiple of Medicare2.1×

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 $110.

Alaska: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $127 across 32 hospitalsWA$127Idaho: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $134 across 44 hospitalsIL$134Wisconsin: median $172 across 30 hospitalsWI$172Michigan: median $72 across 38 hospitalsMI$72New York: median $84 across 46 hospitalsNY$84Massachusetts: median $134 across 12 hospitalsMA$134Oregon: median $80 across 17 hospitalsOR$80Nevada: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $70 across 20 hospitalsIA$70Indiana: median $97 across 29 hospitalsIN$97Ohio: median $152 across 28 hospitalsOH$152Pennsylvania: median $63 across 44 hospitalsPA$63New Jersey: median $70 across 30 hospitalsNJ$70Connecticut: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $211 across 86 hospitalsCA$211Utah: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $218 across 17 hospitalsCO$218Nebraska: median $57 across 15 hospitalsNE$57Missouri: median $146 across 10 hospitalsMO$146Kentucky: median $171 across 15 hospitalsKY$171West Virginia: median $41 across 12 hospitalsWV$41Virginia: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: median $219 across 14 hospitalsMD$219Delaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $238 across 17 hospitalsAZ$238New Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $111 across 15 hospitalsKS$111Arkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $205 across 39 hospitalsNC$205South Carolina: median $80 across 12 hospitalsSC$80Oklahoma: median $56 across 21 hospitalsOK$56Louisiana: median $77 across 15 hospitalsLA$77Mississippi: median $51 across 21 hospitalsMS$51Alabama: median $62 across 15 hospitalsAL$62Georgia: median $58 across 38 hospitalsGA$58Hawaii: median $106 across 12 hospitalsHI$106Texas: median $113 across 69 hospitalsTX$113Florida: median $121 across 54 hospitalsFL$121
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $110. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Arizona AZ17$238+116%$71 – $381
Maryland MD14$219+99%$161 – $264
Colorado CO17$218+98%$84 – $218
California CA86$211+92%$86 – $235
North Carolina NC39$205+86%$95 – $412
Wisconsin WI30$172+56%$95 – $504
Kentucky KY15$171+55%$70 – $312
Ohio OH28$152+38%$63 – $217
Missouri MO10$146+32%$146 – $1,100
Massachusetts MA12$134+22%$74 – $189
Illinois IL44$134+21%$66 – $180
Washington WA32$127+15%$80 – $213
Florida FL54$121+9%$19 – $296
Texas TX69$113+3%$66 – $194
Kansas KS15$111+1%$61 – $166
Hawaii HI12$106−3%$30 – $319
Indiana IN29$97−12%$54 – $227
New York NY46$84−24%$63 – $206
Oregon OR17$80−27%$58 – $113
South Carolina SC12$80−27%$51 – $118
Louisiana LA15$77−30%$33 – $116
Michigan MI38$72−35%$38 – $111
New Jersey NJ30$70−36%$59 – $122
Iowa IA20$70−36%$44 – $100
Pennsylvania PA44$63−43%$27 – $108
Alabama AL15$62−44%$48 – $207
Georgia GA38$58−47%$30 – $792
Nebraska NE15$57−48%$44 – $136
Oklahoma OK21$56−50%$38 – $72
Mississippi MS21$51−54%$40 – $78
West Virginia WV12$41−63%$39 – $263
Connecticut CT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not 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 $110.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care794$111$57 – $223
Children’s11fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access146$95$53 – $208
Ownership
For-profit162$124$48 – $381
Government128$110$62 – $209
Non-profit661$108$58 – $223
System affiliation
Part of a system798$113$56 – $223
Independent155$98$60 – $208

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$194
Median cash price$110
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

649 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $113 and the average of the middle 60% is $129; most fall between $61 and $223.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 649 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
$37$69$113$207$312

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($37 vs $312).

Of the 725 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 649 gave a usable cash price; 44 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 32 a list price only.

How complete is this

953 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (24%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,049 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted953
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here63
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 — excluded32
Hospitals that filed this code1,049

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 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 Pathology family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Cytp Smrs Any Oth Src Extnd Std > 5 Slides|PROFESSIONAL COMPONENT.

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, “Extended cell smear study with extra slides or stains (CPT 88162) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-88162-extended-cell-smear-study-with-extra-slides-or-stains