HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

Procedure price report · Pathology

Pathologist consultation during surgery

CPT 88329the billing code this page is about

A pathologist is called to advise the surgeon while an operation is underway, examining tissue without slide preparation. Billed once per consultation episode.

Hospitals typically charge $97 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,448 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $104. Most fall between $52 and $179 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,448
States
50
Filings dated
Feb 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 1,448 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
$38$59$97$161$280

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($38 vs $280).

How the prices are spread

$30 – $39: 84 hospitals$30$39 – $51: 97 hospitals$51 – $66: 183 hospitals$51$66 – $86: 203 hospitals$86 – $112: 155 hospitals$86$112 – $146: 213 hospitals$146 – $189: 183 hospitals$146$189 – $247: 91 hospitals$247 – $321: 55 hospitals$247$321 – $417: 40 hospitals$321median $97price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,304 of 1,448 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$30$3984
$39$5197
$51$66183
$66$86203
$86$112155
$112$146213
$146$189183
$189$24791
$247$32155
$321$41740

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$60
Median cash price$97
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.61×

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 $97.

Alaska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $104 across 21 hospitalsWA$104Idaho: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $129 across 23 hospitalsMN$129Illinois: median $121 across 64 hospitalsIL$121Wisconsin: median $98 across 52 hospitalsWI$98Michigan: median $70 across 56 hospitalsMI$70New York: median $84 across 69 hospitalsNY$84Massachusetts: median $99 across 32 hospitalsMA$99Oregon: median $99 across 25 hospitalsOR$99Nevada: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $97 across 36 hospitalsIA$97Indiana: median $122 across 34 hospitalsIN$122Ohio: median $136 across 69 hospitalsOH$136Pennsylvania: median $77 across 81 hospitalsPA$77New Jersey: median $76 across 39 hospitalsNJ$76Connecticut: median $103 across 11 hospitalsCT$103Rhode Island: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $126 across 103 hospitalsCA$126Utah: median $137 across 14 hospitalsUT$137Colorado: median $120 across 31 hospitalsCO$120Nebraska: median $67 across 15 hospitalsNE$67Missouri: median $74 across 33 hospitalsMO$74Kentucky: median $122 across 16 hospitalsKY$122West Virginia: median $62 across 21 hospitalsWV$62Virginia: median $85 across 29 hospitalsVA$85Maryland: median $57 across 23 hospitalsMD$57Delaware: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $122 across 28 hospitalsAZ$122New Mexico: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $130 across 16 hospitalsKS$130Arkansas: median $68 across 12 hospitalsAR$68Tennessee: median $52 across 22 hospitalsTN$52North Carolina: median $51 across 44 hospitalsNC$51South Carolina: median $51 across 11 hospitalsSC$51Oklahoma: median $58 across 22 hospitalsOK$58Louisiana: median $59 across 24 hospitalsLA$59Mississippi: median $41 across 26 hospitalsMS$41Alabama: median $60 across 14 hospitalsAL$60Georgia: median $119 across 53 hospitalsGA$119Hawaii: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $75 across 122 hospitalsTX$75Florida: median $183 across 95 hospitalsFL$183
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $97. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL95$183+89%$88 – $335
Utah UT14$137+41%$96 – $164
Ohio OH69$136+40%$71 – $159
Kansas KS16$130+34%$88 – $325
Minnesota MN23$129+33%$70 – $184
California CA103$126+30%$121 – $231
Indiana IN34$122+26%$32 – $179
Kentucky KY16$122+26%$58 – $122
Arizona AZ28$122+25%$56 – $172
Illinois IL64$121+24%$51 – $200
Colorado CO31$120+23%$87 – $263
Georgia GA53$119+23%$113 – $180
Washington WA21$104+7%$73 – $142
Connecticut CT11$103+6%$63 – $127
Oregon OR25$99+2%$79 – $168
Massachusetts MA32$99+2%$61 – $178
Wisconsin WI52$98+1%$65 – $353
Iowa IA36$970%$55 – $162
Virginia VA29$85−13%$52 – $173
New York NY69$84−13%$60 – $227
Pennsylvania PA81$77−21%$41 – $159
New Jersey NJ39$76−21%$44 – $141
Texas TX122$75−23%$45 – $152
Missouri MO33$74−24%$39 – $87
Michigan MI56$70−28%$36 – $97
Arkansas AR12$68−30%$64 – $99
Nebraska NE15$67−31%$32 – $152
West Virginia WV21$62−36%$36 – $109
Alabama AL14$60−38%$33 – $2,507
Louisiana LA24$59−40%$32 – $101
Oklahoma OK22$58−40%$58 – $121
Maryland MD23$57−41%$42 – $75
Tennessee TN22$52−46%$39 – $58
North Carolina NC44$51−47%$43 – $108
South Carolina SC11$51−48%$45 – $142
Mississippi MS26$41−58%$30 – $91
New Hampshire NH9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not 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 $97.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,203$97$53 – $174
Children’s40$155$61 – $212
Critical access198$95$48 – $184
Ownership
For-profit223$135$64 – $253
Government155$88$53 – $155
Non-profit1,063$96$52 – $172
System affiliation
Part of a system1,251$97$52 – $179
Independent197$102$54 – $182

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$169
Median cash price$97
Cash as a share of list, median hospital63%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 37%. 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

1,034 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $101 and the average of the middle 60% is $107; most fall between $57 and $180.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,034 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
$42$63$101$160$291

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($42 vs $291).

Of the 1,150 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,034 gave a usable cash price; 74 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 41 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,448 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (37%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,592 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,448
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) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded43
Hospitals that filed this code1,592

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 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 Pathology Consultation During Surgery.

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, “Pathologist consultation during surgery (CPT 88329) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-88329-pathologist-consultation-during-surgery