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Procedure price report · Other Laboratory

Sputum sample collection using a mist inhaler

CPT 89220the billing code this page is about

Collection of a mucus sample from the lungs by having the patient breathe in a saline mist to bring up sputum for testing.

Hospitals typically charge $152 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,069 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $164. Most fall between $62 and $333 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,069
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 1,069 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
$43$77$152$290$485

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($43 vs $485).

How the prices are spread

$28 – $39: 40 hospitals$28$39 – $54: 68 hospitals$54 – $74: 92 hospitals$54$74 – $102: 109 hospitals$102 – $141: 142 hospitals$102$141 – $195: 155 hospitals$195 – $270: 126 hospitals$195$270 – $374: 132 hospitals$374 – $516: 51 hospitals$374$516 – $714: 49 hospitals$516median $152price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (964 of 1,069 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$28$3940
$39$5468
$54$7492
$74$102109
$102$141142
$141$195155
$195$270126
$270$374132
$374$51651
$516$71449

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$174
Median cash price$152
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.88×

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 $152.

Alaska: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $296 across 14 hospitalsWA$296Idaho: 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: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $153 across 16 hospitalsMN$153Illinois: median $128 across 27 hospitalsIL$128Wisconsin: median $140 across 19 hospitalsWI$140Michigan: median $196 across 24 hospitalsMI$196New York: median $202 across 50 hospitalsNY$202Massachusetts: median $289 across 11 hospitalsMA$289Oregon: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $172 across 29 hospitalsIA$172Indiana: median $187 across 25 hospitalsIN$187Ohio: median $312 across 64 hospitalsOH$312Pennsylvania: median $386 across 34 hospitalsPA$386New Jersey: median $197 across 25 hospitalsNJ$197Connecticut: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $418 across 89 hospitalsCA$418Utah: median $296 across 25 hospitalsUT$296Colorado: median $221 across 16 hospitalsCO$221Nebraska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $98 across 13 hospitalsMO$98Kentucky: median $83 across 22 hospitalsKY$83West Virginia: median $243 across 13 hospitalsWV$243Virginia: median $113 across 32 hospitalsVA$113Maryland: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $149 across 14 hospitalsAZ$149New Mexico: median $94 across 10 hospitalsNM$94Kansas: median $62 across 12 hospitalsKS$62Arkansas: median $101 across 16 hospitalsAR$101Tennessee: median $49 across 37 hospitalsTN$49North Carolina: median $88 across 45 hospitalsNC$88South Carolina: median $122 across 30 hospitalsSC$122Oklahoma: median $129 across 22 hospitalsOK$129Louisiana: median $54 across 39 hospitalsLA$54Mississippi: median $66 across 24 hospitalsMS$66Alabama: median $81 across 15 hospitalsAL$81Georgia: median $78 across 47 hospitalsGA$78Hawaii: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $120 across 96 hospitalsTX$120Florida: median $170 across 38 hospitalsFL$170
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $152. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA89$418+174%$161 – $750
Pennsylvania PA34$386+153%$158 – $566
Ohio OH64$312+105%$120 – $658
Utah UT25$296+94%$296 – $348
Washington WA14$296+94%$150 – $407
Massachusetts MA11$289+90%$30 – $394
West Virginia WV13$243+59%$113 – $557
Colorado CO16$221+45%$182 – $303
New York NY50$202+33%$60 – $292
New Jersey NJ25$197+29%$138 – $228
Michigan MI24$196+29%$142 – $239
Indiana IN25$187+22%$95 – $254
Iowa IA29$172+13%$103 – $180
Florida FL38$170+12%$99 – $485
Minnesota MN16$1530%$77 – $153
Arizona AZ14$149−2%$57 – $222
Wisconsin WI19$140−8%$109 – $247
Oklahoma OK22$129−15%$77 – $202
Illinois IL27$128−16%$32 – $281
South Carolina SC30$122−20%$25 – $122
Texas TX96$120−21%$96 – $200
Virginia VA32$113−26%$47 – $216
Arkansas AR16$101−33%$30 – $145
Missouri MO13$98−36%$60 – $398
New Mexico NM10$94−38%$45 – $218
North Carolina NC45$88−43%$62 – $165
Kentucky KY22$83−45%$59 – $201
Alabama AL15$81−47%$26 – $111
Georgia GA47$78−49%$57 – $178
Mississippi MS24$66−57%$24 – $153
Kansas KS12$62−59%$50 – $398
Louisiana LA39$54−65%$28 – $135
Tennessee TN37$49−68%$47 – $176
Wyoming WY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not 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 $152.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care849$157$60 – $338
Children’s12fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access203$125$62 – $277
Ownership
For-profit167$143$57 – $338
Government177$104$54 – $213
Non-profit720$161$68 – $338
System affiliation
Part of a system905$159$68 – $337
Independent164$121$44 – $232

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$258
Median cash price$152
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

781 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $154 and the average of the middle 60% is $177; most fall between $66 and $338.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 781 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
$47$83$154$316$514

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($47 vs $514).

Of the 874 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 781 gave a usable cash price; 50 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 43 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,069 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (27%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,174 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,069
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here59
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 — excluded45
Hospitals that filed this code1,174

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 Other Laboratory family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Sputum Obtaining Spec Aerosol Induced Tx Spx.

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, “Sputum sample collection using a mist inhaler (CPT 89220) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-89220-sputum-sample-collection-using-a-mist-inhaler