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Procedure price report · Pathology

Pap test, hand screening, Bethesda reporting

CPT 88164the billing code this page is about

Cervical or vaginal cell slides screened by a technologist under physician supervision and reported using the Bethesda system; billed per specimen.

Hospitals typically charge $51 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,301 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $52. Most fall between $24 and $95 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,301
States
50
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – 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 1,301 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$28$51$83$138

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($18 vs $138).

How the prices are spread

$14 – $17: 41 hospitals$14$17 – $23: 121 hospitals$23 – $29: 114 hospitals$23$29 – $38: 162 hospitals$38 – $49: 131 hospitals$38$49 – $63: 209 hospitals$63 – $82: 119 hospitals$63$82 – $106: 121 hospitals$106 – $137: 83 hospitals$106$137 – $177: 70 hospitals$137median $51price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,171 of 1,301 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$14$1741
$17$23121
$23$29114
$29$38162
$38$49131
$49$63209
$63$82119
$82$106121
$106$13783
$137$17770

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $51.

Alaska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $34 across 13 hospitalsME$34Vermont: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $32 across 33 hospitalsWA$32Idaho: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $82 across 23 hospitalsMN$82Illinois: median $63 across 66 hospitalsIL$63Wisconsin: median $81 across 53 hospitalsWI$81Michigan: median $33 across 53 hospitalsMI$33New York: median $39 across 56 hospitalsNY$39Massachusetts: median $54 across 18 hospitalsMA$54Oregon: median $37 across 20 hospitalsOR$37Nevada: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $37 across 29 hospitalsIA$37Indiana: median $25 across 48 hospitalsIN$25Ohio: median $82 across 77 hospitalsOH$82Pennsylvania: median $35 across 70 hospitalsPA$35New Jersey: median $20 across 38 hospitalsNJ$20Connecticut: median $51 across 13 hospitalsCT$51Rhode Island: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $59 across 66 hospitalsCA$59Utah: median $73 across 10 hospitalsUT$73Colorado: median $68 across 33 hospitalsCO$68Nebraska: median $35 across 27 hospitalsNE$35Missouri: median $57 across 42 hospitalsMO$57Kentucky: median $64 across 20 hospitalsKY$64West Virginia: median $61 across 13 hospitalsWV$61Virginia: median $66 across 23 hospitalsVA$66Maryland: median $50 across 20 hospitalsMD$50Delaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $55 across 12 hospitalsKS$55Arkansas: median $56 across 12 hospitalsAR$56Tennessee: median $15 across 17 hospitalsTN$15North Carolina: median $74 across 31 hospitalsNC$74South Carolina: median $39 across 20 hospitalsSC$39Oklahoma: median $49 across 31 hospitalsOK$49Louisiana: median $19 across 22 hospitalsLA$19Mississippi: median $26 across 23 hospitalsMS$26Alabama: median $22 across 10 hospitalsAL$22Georgia: median $32 across 36 hospitalsGA$32Hawaii: median $76 across 13 hospitalsHI$76Texas: median $58 across 88 hospitalsTX$58Florida: median $32 across 54 hospitalsFL$32
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $51. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Ohio OH77$82+61%$38 – $159
Minnesota MN23$82+61%$32 – $169
Wisconsin WI53$81+60%$44 – $95
Hawaii HI13$76+50%$34 – $92
North Carolina NC31$74+46%$58 – $107
Utah UT10$73+43%$43 – $130
Colorado CO33$68+35%$58 – $79
Virginia VA23$66+30%$38 – $90
Kentucky KY20$64+26%$25 – $121
Illinois IL66$63+23%$36 – $107
West Virginia WV13$61+19%$45 – $92
California CA66$59+17%$25 – $139
Texas TX88$58+14%$27 – $118
Missouri MO42$57+13%$37 – $86
Arkansas AR12$56+10%$36 – $59
Kansas KS12$55+9%$28 – $101
Massachusetts MA18$54+6%$35 – $134
Connecticut CT13$510%$42 – $58
Maryland MD20$50−2%$33 – $62
Oklahoma OK31$49−3%$32 – $73
South Carolina SC20$39−23%$21 – $95
New York NY56$39−23%$18 – $64
Oregon OR20$37−27%$28 – $90
Iowa IA29$37−28%$35 – $62
Pennsylvania PA70$35−31%$21 – $113
Nebraska NE27$35−31%$27 – $50
Maine ME13$34−33%$19 – $62
Michigan MI53$33−35%$16 – $49
Washington WA33$32−38%$24 – $50
Florida FL54$32−38%$23 – $105
Georgia GA36$32−38%$30 – $105
Mississippi MS23$26−49%$10 – $42
Indiana IN48$25−50%$19 – $64
Alabama AL10$22−57%$12 – $41
New Jersey NJ38$20−62%$18 – $59
Louisiana LA22$19−64%$12 – $33
Tennessee TN17$15−71%$13 – $24
Arizona AZ9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not 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 $51.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,055$50$23 – $98
Children’s13fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access230$52$29 – $90
Ownership
For-profit189$56$25 – $144
Government157$40$21 – $74
Non-profit952$51$25 – $95
System affiliation
Part of a system1,144$52$24 – $97
Independent157$44$25 – $75

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$90
Median cash price$51
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

884 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $56 and the average of the middle 60% is $56; most fall between $29 and $95.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 884 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
$21$31$56$88$138

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($21 vs $138).

Of the 962 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 884 gave a usable cash price; 34 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 44 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,301 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (33%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,400 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,301
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here52
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 — excluded46
Hospitals that filed this code1,400

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 4, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 24, 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 Hc Cytopath Tbs Cerv/Vag Manual.

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, “Pap test, hand screening, Bethesda reporting (CPT 88164) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-88164-pap-test-hand-screening-bethesda-reporting