HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

Procedure price report · Pathology

Pap test, hand screening and rescreening, Bethesda reporting

CPT 88165the billing code this page is about

Cervical or vaginal cell slides screened by hand and then screened a second time under physician supervision, reported using the Bethesda system.

Hospitals typically charge $55 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 258 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $64. Most fall between $42 and $108 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
258
States
38
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 258 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
$28$42$55$106$215

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($28 vs $215).

How the prices are spread

$21 – $27: 11 hospitals$21$27 – $35: 16 hospitals$35 – $46: 45 hospitals$35$46 – $60: 59 hospitals$60 – $78: 30 hospitals$60$78 – $101: 20 hospitals$101 – $132: 30 hospitals$101$132 – $173: 7 hospitals$173 – $225: 4 hospitals$173$225 – $294: 12 hospitals$225median $55price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (234 of 258 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$21$2711
$27$3516
$35$4645
$46$6059
$60$7830
$78$10120
$101$13230
$132$1737
$173$2254
$225$29412

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $55.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 2 hospitals 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: 2 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: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMNIllinois: median $42 across 12 hospitalsIL$42Wisconsin: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $42 across 25 hospitalsNY$42Massachusetts: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $55 across 13 hospitalsIA$55Indiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $42 across 25 hospitalsPA$42New Jersey: median $46 across 29 hospitalsNJ$46Connecticut: 4 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 $86 across 39 hospitalsCA$86Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 1 hospital 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: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceARTennessee: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $256 across 11 hospitalsNC$256South Carolina: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $74 across 14 hospitalsOK$74Louisiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceGAHawaii: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $47 across 11 hospitalsTX$47Florida: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $55. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
North Carolina NC11$256+365%$256 – $307
California CA39$86+56%$86 – $108
Oklahoma OK14$74+35%$74 – $76
Iowa IA13$550%$55 – $55
Texas TX11$47−15%$35 – $240
New Jersey NJ29$46−16%$42 – $49
Illinois IL12$42−23%$14 – $68
New York NY25$42−23%$42 – $51
Pennsylvania PA25$42−24%$28 – $49
Michigan MI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA1not 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 $55.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care239$55$42 – $108
Children’s1fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access18fewer than 20 hospitals
Ownership
For-profit35$63$21 – $294
Government21$42$35 – $62
Non-profit202$55$42 – $108
System affiliation
Part of a system227$55$42 – $108
Independent31$49$37 – $89

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$126
Median cash price$55
Cash as a share of list, median hospital57%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 43%. 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

136 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $74 and the average of the middle 60% is $76; most fall between $49 and $108.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 136 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
$33$49$74$108$129

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 3.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($33 vs $129).

Of the 143 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 136 gave a usable cash price; 5 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 2 a list price only.

How complete is this

258 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 269 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted258
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) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded2
Hospitals that filed this code269

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 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 CYTOPATH TBS C/V REDO.

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 and rescreening, Bethesda reporting (CPT 88165) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-88165-pap-test-hand-screening-and-rescreening-bethesda-reporting