HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

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

Stool test for undigested meat fibers

CPT 89160the billing code this page is about

Microscopic examination of a stool sample to look for undigested muscle fibers from meat.

Hospitals typically charge $31 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 544 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $32. Most fall between $7 and $70 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
544
States
44
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – 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 544 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
$5$10$31$56$116

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 22× what the cheapest tenth charges ($5 vs $116).

How the prices are spread

$5 – $7: 84 hospitals$5$7 – $11: 37 hospitals$11 – $16: 36 hospitals$11$16 – $23: 47 hospitals$23 – $34: 52 hospitals$23$34 – $50: 100 hospitals$50 – $74: 64 hospitals$50$74 – $109: 37 hospitals$109 – $160: 32 hospitals$109$160 – $236: 5 hospitals$160median $31price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (494 of 544 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$5$784
$7$1137
$11$1636
$16$2347
$23$3452
$34$50100
$50$7464
$74$10937
$109$16032
$160$2365

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $31.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMNIllinois: median $41 across 26 hospitalsIL$41Wisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: median $7 across 17 hospitalsMI$7New York: median $11 across 33 hospitalsNY$11Massachusetts: median $26 across 18 hospitalsMA$26Oregon: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: median $25 across 10 hospitalsNV$25Wyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $56 across 14 hospitalsIA$56Indiana: median $11 across 39 hospitalsIN$11Ohio: median $34 across 29 hospitalsOH$34Pennsylvania: median $12 across 35 hospitalsPA$12New Jersey: median $5 across 33 hospitalsNJ$5Connecticut: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $38 across 41 hospitalsCA$38Utah: median $51 across 26 hospitalsUT$51Colorado: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $77 across 12 hospitalsMO$77Kentucky: median $47 across 16 hospitalsKY$47West Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: median $25 across 10 hospitalsMD$25Delaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $83 across 23 hospitalsKS$83Arkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $38 across 25 hospitalsNC$38South Carolina: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $10 across 17 hospitalsOK$10Louisiana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $160 across 17 hospitalsTX$160Florida: median $24 across 16 hospitalsFL$24
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $31. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Texas TX17$160+419%$17 – $310
Kansas KS23$83+169%$62 – $181
Missouri MO12$77+151%$57 – $280
Iowa IA14$56+83%$56 – $68
Utah UT26$51+66%$44 – $51
Kentucky KY16$47+51%$47 – $58
Illinois IL26$41+34%$9 – $135
California CA41$38+24%$38 – $44
North Carolina NC25$38+23%$13 – $72
Ohio OH29$34+10%$20 – $46
Massachusetts MA18$26−15%$11 – $57
Nevada NV10$25−18%$15 – $77
Maryland MD10$25−19%$14 – $26
Florida FL16$24−22%$16 – $24
Pennsylvania PA35$12−61%$3 – $104
New York NY33$11−66%$5 – $21
Indiana IN39$11−66%$6 – $47
Oklahoma OK17$10−66%$9 – $39
Michigan MI17$7−77%$6 – $50
New Jersey NJ33$5−83%$5 – $6
Alabama AL8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV1not 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 $31.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care452$26$6 – $56
Children’s7fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access83$45$19 – $130
Ownership
For-profit77$35$9 – $160
Government66$25$8 – $75
Non-profit399$33$7 – $57
System affiliation
Part of a system462$32$7 – $66
Independent82$26$8 – $76

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$62
Median cash price$31
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

336 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $37 and the average of the middle 60% is $34; most fall between $14 and $56.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 336 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
$7$16$37$51$94

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($7 vs $94).

Of the 359 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 336 gave a usable cash price; 10 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 12 a list price only.

How complete is this

544 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (14%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 574 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted544
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here17
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 — excluded11
Hospitals that filed this code574

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

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Hc Exam Stool For Meat Fibers.

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, “Stool test for undigested meat fibers (CPT 89160) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-89160-stool-test-for-undigested-meat-fibers