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Procedure price report · Other Laboratory

Thawing and growing of frozen cells, each batch

CPT 88241the billing code this page is about

Laboratory work to thaw previously frozen cells and grow them so they can be tested; billed once for each batch (aliquot) of cells thawed and expanded.

Hospitals typically charge $35 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 343 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $52. Most fall between $16 and $167 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
343
States
41
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 343 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
$12$19$35$103$262

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 22× what the cheapest tenth charges ($12 vs $262).

How the prices are spread

$12 – $17: 63 hospitals$12$17 – $23: 28 hospitals$23 – $32: 62 hospitals$23$32 – $44: 28 hospitals$44 – $61: 14 hospitals$44$61 – $85: 15 hospitals$85 – $117: 41 hospitals$85$117 – $162: 8 hospitals$162 – $224: 24 hospitals$162$224 – $311: 29 hospitals$224median $35price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (312 of 343 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$12$1763
$17$2328
$23$3262
$32$4428
$44$6114
$61$8515
$85$11741
$117$1628
$162$22424
$224$31129

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $35.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: median $35 across 14 hospitalsWA$35Idaho: 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: median $31 across 11 hospitalsMN$31Illinois: median $19 across 14 hospitalsIL$19Wisconsin: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $12 across 19 hospitalsNY$12Massachusetts: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 1 hospital 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 $25 across 14 hospitalsIA$25Indiana: median $18 across 12 hospitalsIN$18Ohio: median $24 across 19 hospitalsOH$24Pennsylvania: median $14 across 19 hospitalsPA$14New Jersey: median $13 across 24 hospitalsNJ$13Connecticut: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $103 across 36 hospitalsCA$103Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $75 across 10 hospitalsVA$75Maryland: median $214 across 11 hospitalsMD$214Delaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 1 hospital 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: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: median $262 across 14 hospitalsSC$262Oklahoma: median $22 across 16 hospitalsOK$22Louisiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceALGeorgia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $95 across 22 hospitalsTX$95Florida: median $29 across 12 hospitalsFL$29
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $35. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Carolina SC14$262+644%$44 – $262
Maryland MD11$214+508%$41 – $292
California CA36$103+193%$37 – $103
Texas TX22$95+170%$95 – $200
Virginia VA10$75+112%$75 – $203
Washington WA14$350%$30 – $173
Minnesota MN11$31−13%$25 – $32
Florida FL12$29−16%$29 – $29
Iowa IA14$25−30%$25 – $34
Ohio OH19$24−32%$24 – $54
Oklahoma OK16$22−38%$22 – $105
Illinois IL14$19−45%$14 – $109
Indiana IN12$18−48%$16 – $25
Pennsylvania PA19$14−61%$8 – $126
New Jersey NJ24$13−62%$12 – $13
New York NY19$12−66%$12 – $207
Missouri MO9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI1not 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 $35.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care298$36$14 – $158
Children’s22$68$22 – $204
Critical access23$25$20 – $84
Ownership
For-profit25$33$14 – $200
Government34$53$12 – $218
Non-profit284$34$16 – $124
System affiliation
Part of a system306$33$16 – $138
Independent37$37$18 – $199

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$90
Median cash price$35
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

234 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $42 and the average of the middle 60% is $62; most fall between $25 and $147.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 234 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
$22$25$42$103$262

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($22 vs $262).

Of the 243 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 234 gave a usable cash price; 3 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 6 a list price only.

How complete is this

343 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (9%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 354 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted343
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here3
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 — excluded7
Hospitals that filed this code354

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 Other Laboratory family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Thawing&Expansion Frozen Cells Each Aliquot.

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, “Thawing and growing of frozen cells, each batch (CPT 88241) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-88241-thawing-and-growing-of-frozen-cells-each-batch