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Procedure price report · Microscopic examination (bacterial smear, culture, toxicology)

Cell culture of blood lymphocytes for genetic testing

CPT 88230the billing code this page is about

Growing white blood cells in the laboratory so their chromosomes can be studied for non-cancer conditions; covers the culture step only, not the chromosome analysis.

Hospitals typically charge $301 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,655 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $316. Most fall between $144 and $584 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,655
States
50
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – 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 2,655 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
$112$172$301$515$853

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($112 vs $853).

How the prices are spread

$89 – $117: 201 hospitals$89$117 – $152: 239 hospitals$152 – $198: 240 hospitals$152$198 – $259: 318 hospitals$259 – $338: 367 hospitals$259$338 – $441: 360 hospitals$441 – $575: 248 hospitals$441$575 – $751: 198 hospitals$751 – $979: 136 hospitals$751$979 – $1,278: 86 hospitals$979median $301price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,393 of 2,655 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$89$117201
$117$152239
$152$198240
$198$259318
$259$338367
$338$441360
$441$575248
$575$751198
$751$979136
$979$1,27886

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $301.

Alaska: median $388 across 12 hospitalsAK$388Maine: median $182 across 23 hospitalsME$182Vermont: median $420 across 13 hospitalsVT$420New Hampshire: median $223 across 19 hospitalsNH$223Washington: median $386 across 57 hospitalsWA$386Idaho: median $229 across 18 hospitalsID$229Montana: median $356 across 16 hospitalsMT$356North Dakota: median $296 across 18 hospitalsND$296Minnesota: median $314 across 86 hospitalsMN$314Illinois: median $413 across 115 hospitalsIL$413Wisconsin: median $298 across 94 hospitalsWI$298Michigan: median $246 across 84 hospitalsMI$246New York: median $269 across 98 hospitalsNY$269Massachusetts: median $413 across 48 hospitalsMA$413Oregon: median $242 across 34 hospitalsOR$242Nevada: median $350 across 16 hospitalsNV$350Wyoming: median $280 across 11 hospitalsWY$280South Dakota: median $296 across 17 hospitalsSD$296Iowa: median $296 across 50 hospitalsIA$296Indiana: median $278 across 87 hospitalsIN$278Ohio: median $379 across 127 hospitalsOH$379Pennsylvania: median $409 across 118 hospitalsPA$409New Jersey: median $128 across 52 hospitalsNJ$128Connecticut: median $289 across 16 hospitalsCT$289Rhode Island: median $270 across 10 hospitalsRI$270California: median $162 across 111 hospitalsCA$162Utah: median $841 across 37 hospitalsUT$841Colorado: median $261 across 58 hospitalsCO$261Nebraska: median $390 across 39 hospitalsNE$390Missouri: median $323 across 66 hospitalsMO$323Kentucky: median $349 across 52 hospitalsKY$349West Virginia: median $266 across 27 hospitalsWV$266Virginia: median $288 across 64 hospitalsVA$288Maryland: median $272 across 38 hospitalsMD$272Delaware: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $505 across 35 hospitalsAZ$505New Mexico: median $427 across 11 hospitalsNM$427Kansas: median $361 across 55 hospitalsKS$361Arkansas: median $197 across 30 hospitalsAR$197Tennessee: median $227 across 61 hospitalsTN$227North Carolina: median $253 across 76 hospitalsNC$253South Carolina: median $314 across 46 hospitalsSC$314Oklahoma: median $280 across 56 hospitalsOK$280Louisiana: median $144 across 40 hospitalsLA$144Mississippi: median $127 across 42 hospitalsMS$127Alabama: median $299 across 36 hospitalsAL$299Georgia: median $384 across 87 hospitalsGA$384Hawaii: median $110 across 14 hospitalsHI$110Texas: median $316 across 201 hospitalsTX$316Florida: median $141 across 128 hospitalsFL$141
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $301. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT37$841+180%$681 – $990
Arizona AZ35$505+68%$156 – $1,846
New Mexico NM11$427+42%$342 – $620
Vermont VT13$420+40%$172 – $502
Illinois IL115$413+37%$190 – $752
Massachusetts MA48$413+37%$252 – $567
Pennsylvania PA118$409+36%$134 – $1,097
Nebraska NE39$390+30%$280 – $707
Alaska AK12$388+29%$320 – $740
Washington WA57$386+28%$209 – $597
Georgia GA87$384+28%$170 – $571
Ohio OH127$379+26%$179 – $570
Kansas KS55$361+20%$248 – $670
Montana MT16$356+18%$232 – $502
Nevada NV16$350+16%$106 – $820
Kentucky KY52$349+16%$166 – $618
Missouri MO66$323+8%$174 – $418
Texas TX201$316+5%$203 – $750
Minnesota MN86$314+4%$272 – $586
South Carolina SC46$314+4%$268 – $537
Alabama AL36$299−1%$154 – $805
Wisconsin WI94$298−1%$193 – $700
Iowa IA50$296−2%$180 – $533
North Dakota ND18$296−2%$195 – $610
South Dakota SD17$296−2%$234 – $1,032
Connecticut CT16$289−4%$217 – $521
Virginia VA64$288−4%$196 – $624
Oklahoma OK56$280−7%$136 – $447
Wyoming WY11$280−7%$173 – $371
Indiana IN87$278−8%$167 – $460
Maryland MD38$272−10%$209 – $325
Rhode Island RI10$270−10%$252 – $335
New York NY98$269−11%$116 – $489
West Virginia WV27$266−12%$115 – $524
Colorado CO58$261−13%$161 – $611
North Carolina NC76$253−16%$133 – $438
Michigan MI84$246−18%$115 – $538
Oregon OR34$242−20%$140 – $397
Idaho ID18$229−24%$181 – $468
Tennessee TN61$227−25%$153 – $466
New Hampshire NH19$223−26%$143 – $826
Arkansas AR30$197−35%$94 – $326
Maine ME23$182−39%$96 – $276
California CA111$162−46%$106 – $359
Louisiana LA40$144−52%$91 – $280
Florida FL128$141−53%$87 – $397
New Jersey NJ52$128−57%$116 – $395
Mississippi MS42$127−58%$60 – $220
Hawaii HI14$110−63%$92 – $843
Delaware DE6not 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 $301.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,008$292$134 – $578
Children’s50$289$131 – $538
Critical access587$336$186 – $637
Ownership
For-profit349$369$181 – $981
Government405$298$138 – $506
Non-profit1,891$297$142 – $545
System affiliation
Part of a system2,221$309$143 – $598
Independent434$280$149 – $512

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$523
Median cash price$301
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

1,884 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $314 and the average of the middle 60% is $325; most fall between $155 and $582.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,884 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
$116$181$314$517$833

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($116 vs $833).

Of the 2,076 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,884 gave a usable cash price; 106 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 86 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,655 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (67%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,898 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,655
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here138
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded104
Hospitals that filed this code2,898

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 Microscopic examination (bacterial smear, culture, toxicology) family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as HC Lymphocyte Culture.

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, “Cell culture of blood lymphocytes for genetic testing (CPT 88230) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-88230-cell-culture-of-blood-lymphocytes-for-genetic-testing