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

Thinning the embryo's outer shell under a microscope

CPT 89253the billing code this page is about

A microscope-guided laboratory step that opens or thins the outer coat of an embryo to help it break out and implant.

Hospitals typically charge $326 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 150 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $337. Most fall between $201 and $656 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
150
States
28
Filings dated
Jun 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 150 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
$168$203$326$521$734

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 4.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($168 vs $734).

How the prices are spread

$104 – $128: 3 hospitals$104$128 – $157: 0 hospitals$157 – $193: 15 hospitals$157$193 – $236: 41 hospitals$236 – $290: 1 hospitals$236$290 – $356: 13 hospitals$356 – $437: 16 hospitals$356$437 – $537: 17 hospitals$537 – $659: 7 hospitals$537$659 – $809: 23 hospitals$659median $326price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (136 of 150 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$104$1283
$128$1570
$157$19315
$193$23641
$236$2901
$290$35613
$356$43716
$437$53717
$537$6597
$659$80923

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$174
Median cash price$326
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.87×

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 $326.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWAIdaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $203 across 16 hospitalsNY$203Massachusetts: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceORNevada: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $213 across 11 hospitalsIA$213Indiana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceINOhio: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $113 across 16 hospitalsPA$113New Jersey: median $190 across 11 hospitalsNJ$190Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $734 across 19 hospitalsCA$734Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCONebraska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKYWest Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVAMaryland: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceARTennessee: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $455 across 10 hospitalsNC$455South Carolina: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOKLouisiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMSAlabama: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceALGeorgia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceGAHawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $392 across 17 hospitalsTX$392Florida: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $326. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA19$734+125%$734 – $734
North Carolina NC10$455+40%$455 – $455
Texas TX17$392+20%$326 – $392
Iowa IA11$213−35%$213 – $213
New York NY16$203−38%$203 – $203
New Jersey NJ11$190−42%$190 – $202
Pennsylvania PA16$113−65%$95 – $351
Illinois IL8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oklahoma OK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI1not 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 $326.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care143$326$198 – $656
Children’s3fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access4fewer than 20 hospitals
Ownership
For-profit9fewer than 20 hospitals
Government23$305$203 – $455
Non-profit118$341$201 – $734
System affiliation
Part of a system135$326$201 – $683
Independent15fewer than 20 hospitals

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$653
Median cash price$326
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.

How complete is this

150 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (4%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 151 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted150
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here0
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 — excluded0
Hospitals that filed this code151

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

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Asstd Embryo Hatching Microtqs Any Meth.

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, “Thinning the embryo's outer shell under a microscope (CPT 89253) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-89253-thinning-the-embryo-s-outer-shell-under-a-microscope