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Procedure price report · Pathology

Extra on-site check of needle aspiration sample

CPT 88177the billing code this page is about

An additional immediate microscopic evaluation of fluid or cells taken by fine needle aspiration from the same site, billed for each separate additional evaluation episode.

Hospitals typically charge $64 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,852 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $68. Most fall between $25 and $137 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,852
States
50
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 1,852 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
$16$30$64$116$225

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 14× what the cheapest tenth charges ($16 vs $225).

How the prices are spread

$10 – $14: 77 hospitals$10$14 – $20: 107 hospitals$20 – $29: 162 hospitals$20$29 – $41: 200 hospitals$41 – $59: 243 hospitals$41$59 – $83: 261 hospitals$83 – $118: 266 hospitals$83$118 – $168: 148 hospitals$168 – $239: 139 hospitals$168$239 – $340: 66 hospitals$239median $64price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,669 of 1,852 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$10$1477
$14$20107
$20$29162
$29$41200
$41$59243
$59$83261
$83$118266
$118$168148
$168$239139
$239$34066

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $64.

Alaska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $13 across 12 hospitalsME$13Vermont: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $38 across 46 hospitalsWA$38Idaho: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $31 across 33 hospitalsMN$31Illinois: median $105 across 89 hospitalsIL$105Wisconsin: median $65 across 74 hospitalsWI$65Michigan: median $21 across 57 hospitalsMI$21New York: median $77 across 59 hospitalsNY$77Massachusetts: median $45 across 34 hospitalsMA$45Oregon: median $69 across 28 hospitalsOR$69Nevada: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $70 across 35 hospitalsIA$70Indiana: median $55 across 66 hospitalsIN$55Ohio: median $96 across 96 hospitalsOH$96Pennsylvania: median $48 across 85 hospitalsPA$48New Jersey: median $74 across 31 hospitalsNJ$74Connecticut: median $71 across 16 hospitalsCT$71Rhode Island: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $43 across 119 hospitalsCA$43Utah: median $194 across 29 hospitalsUT$194Colorado: median $49 across 46 hospitalsCO$49Nebraska: median $28 across 17 hospitalsNE$28Missouri: median $44 across 35 hospitalsMO$44Kentucky: median $43 across 38 hospitalsKY$43West Virginia: median $32 across 17 hospitalsWV$32Virginia: median $80 across 56 hospitalsVA$80Maryland: median $86 across 31 hospitalsMD$86Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $42 across 29 hospitalsAZ$42New Mexico: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $58 across 18 hospitalsKS$58Arkansas: median $59 across 10 hospitalsAR$59Tennessee: median $14 across 51 hospitalsTN$14North Carolina: median $103 across 56 hospitalsNC$103South Carolina: median $101 across 30 hospitalsSC$101Oklahoma: median $28 across 38 hospitalsOK$28Louisiana: median $19 across 28 hospitalsLA$19Mississippi: median $63 across 23 hospitalsMS$63Alabama: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $68 across 66 hospitalsGA$68Hawaii: median $37 across 14 hospitalsHI$37Texas: median $114 across 144 hospitalsTX$114Florida: median $119 across 107 hospitalsFL$119
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $64. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT29$194+203%$74 – $228
Florida FL107$119+86%$48 – $252
Texas TX144$114+78%$43 – $448
Illinois IL89$105+64%$50 – $169
North Carolina NC56$103+62%$39 – $194
South Carolina SC30$101+59%$75 – $170
Ohio OH96$96+50%$39 – $137
Maryland MD31$86+35%$71 – $98
Virginia VA56$80+25%$24 – $107
New York NY59$77+20%$29 – $103
New Jersey NJ31$74+16%$16 – $276
Connecticut CT16$71+12%$27 – $125
Iowa IA35$70+10%$47 – $95
Oregon OR28$69+8%$25 – $86
Georgia GA66$68+6%$20 – $83
Wisconsin WI74$65+2%$43 – $105
Mississippi MS23$63−1%$18 – $90
Arkansas AR10$59−7%$18 – $97
Kansas KS18$58−10%$31 – $110
Indiana IN66$55−15%$32 – $81
Colorado CO46$49−24%$41 – $132
Pennsylvania PA85$48−25%$13 – $107
Massachusetts MA34$45−30%$25 – $140
Missouri MO35$44−31%$14 – $74
Kentucky KY38$43−33%$17 – $173
California CA119$43−33%$28 – $89
Arizona AZ29$42−34%$25 – $181
Washington WA46$38−40%$29 – $102
Hawaii HI14$37−42%$20 – $66
West Virginia WV17$32−49%$23 – $65
Minnesota MN33$31−52%$19 – $69
Oklahoma OK38$28−56%$25 – $73
Nebraska NE17$28−56%$11 – $65
Michigan MI57$21−67%$12 – $51
Louisiana LA28$19−70%$11 – $59
Tennessee TN51$14−78%$8 – $31
Maine ME12$13−80%$10 – $43
Alabama AL9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK3not 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 $64.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,562$64$25 – $139
Children’s32$71$32 – $164
Critical access251$59$25 – $119
Ownership
For-profit263$74$24 – $297
Government205$55$20 – $126
Non-profit1,377$63$26 – $123
System affiliation
Part of a system1,645$66$25 – $141
Independent207$49$21 – $122

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$107
Median cash price$64
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

1,396 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $65 and the average of the middle 60% is $70; most fall between $27 and $141.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,396 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
$16$31$65$118$212

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($16 vs $212).

Of the 1,562 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,396 gave a usable cash price; 100 carried a plausibility flag, 4 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 62 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,852 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (47%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,068 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,852
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here100
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded5
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded110
Hospitals that filed this code2,068

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 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 Fine Ndl Aspirate Immt Cytohist Std Ea Eval|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, “Extra on-site check of needle aspiration sample (CPT 88177) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-88177-extra-on-site-check-of-needle-aspiration-sample