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Procedure price report · Pathology

Unlisted cell pathology laboratory procedure

CPT 88199the billing code this page is about

Used for a cytopathology laboratory service that has no specific code of its own; the report describes what was actually done.

Hospitals typically charge $79 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 198 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $111. Most fall between $58 and $200 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
198
States
29
Filings dated
Dec 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 198 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
$41$62$79$200$224

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($41 vs $224).

How the prices are spread

$25 – $32: 9 hospitals$25$32 – $42: 3 hospitals$42 – $55: 14 hospitals$42$55 – $72: 56 hospitals$72 – $94: 15 hospitals$72$94 – $122: 18 hospitals$122 – $160: 7 hospitals$122$160 – $209: 32 hospitals$209 – $273: 21 hospitals$209$273 – $356: 6 hospitals$273median $79price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (181 of 198 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$25$329
$32$423
$42$5514
$55$7256
$72$9415
$94$12218
$122$1607
$160$20932
$209$27321
$273$3566

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$53
Median cash price$79
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.49×

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 $79.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 1 hospital 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: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $63 across 22 hospitalsNY$63Massachusetts: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIAIndiana: median $72 across 15 hospitalsIN$72Ohio: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figurePANew Jersey: median $59 across 14 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 $200 across 38 hospitalsCA$200Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCONebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWVVirginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVAMaryland: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOKLouisiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $196 across 12 hospitalsGA$196Hawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $65 across 24 hospitalsTX$65Florida: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $79. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA38$200+152%$200 – $224
Georgia GA12$196+147%$196 – $196
Indiana IN15$72−9%$62 – $97
Texas TX24$65−18%$65 – $105
New York NY22$63−20%$53 – $65
New Jersey NJ14$59−25%$58 – $67
Pennsylvania PA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Illinois IL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oklahoma OK4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA1not 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 $79.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care176$79$59 – $200
Children’s6fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access15fewer than 20 hospitals
Ownership
For-profit26$75$46 – $440
Government22$63$61 – $113
Non-profit149$93$59 – $200
System affiliation
Part of a system161$91$59 – $200
Independent37$68$46 – $164

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$253
Median cash price$79
Cash as a share of list, median hospital52%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 48%. 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

108 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $196 and the average of the middle 60% is $168; most fall between $68 and $224.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 108 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
$63$79$196$219$258

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 4.1× what the cheapest tenth charges ($63 vs $258).

Of the 124 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 108 gave a usable cash price; 8 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 7 a list price only.

How complete is this

198 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (5%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 213 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted198
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here7
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded2
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded6
Hospitals that filed this code213

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 5, 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 UNLISTED CYTOPATHOLOGY PX.

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, “Unlisted cell pathology laboratory procedure (CPT 88199) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-88199-unlisted-cell-pathology-laboratory-procedure