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Procedure price report · Psychological and psychiatric evaluation and therapy

Exam of thinking and behavior by a clinician, first hour

CPT 96116the billing code this page is about

A clinician assesses functions such as memory, attention, language, reasoning and judgment and prepares an interpretation; covers the first hour of assessment and report time.

Hospitals typically charge $288 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,095 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $313. Most fall between $142 and $573 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,095
States
49
Filings dated
Jan 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 1,095 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
$107$166$288$508$820

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.7× what the cheapest tenth charges ($107 vs $820).

How the prices are spread

$77 – $101: 42 hospitals$77$101 – $131: 90 hospitals$131 – $171: 105 hospitals$131$171 – $222: 108 hospitals$222 – $290: 152 hospitals$222$290 – $377: 156 hospitals$377 – $491: 97 hospitals$377$491 – $639: 94 hospitals$639 – $832: 96 hospitals$639$832 – $1,083: 50 hospitals$832median $288price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (990 of 1,095 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$77$10142
$101$13190
$131$171105
$171$222108
$222$290152
$290$377156
$377$49197
$491$63994
$639$83296
$832$1,08350

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$221
Median cash price$288
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.31×

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 $288.

Alaska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $438 across 21 hospitalsWA$438Idaho: median $351 across 12 hospitalsID$351Montana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $278 across 28 hospitalsMN$278Illinois: median $276 across 48 hospitalsIL$276Wisconsin: median $167 across 51 hospitalsWI$167Michigan: median $226 across 59 hospitalsMI$226New York: median $339 across 64 hospitalsNY$339Massachusetts: median $779 across 17 hospitalsMA$779Oregon: median $166 across 17 hospitalsOR$166Nevada: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $425 across 10 hospitalsSD$425Iowa: median $218 across 34 hospitalsIA$218Indiana: median $188 across 18 hospitalsIN$188Ohio: median $347 across 66 hospitalsOH$347Pennsylvania: median $255 across 49 hospitalsPA$255New Jersey: median $345 across 22 hospitalsNJ$345Connecticut: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $767 across 84 hospitalsCA$767Utah: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $290 across 17 hospitalsCO$290Nebraska: median $186 across 16 hospitalsNE$186Missouri: median $281 across 16 hospitalsMO$281Kentucky: median $369 across 23 hospitalsKY$369West Virginia: median $249 across 25 hospitalsWV$249Virginia: median $295 across 32 hospitalsVA$295Maryland: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $128 across 29 hospitalsTN$128North Carolina: median $283 across 29 hospitalsNC$283South Carolina: median $288 across 19 hospitalsSC$288Oklahoma: median $150 across 21 hospitalsOK$150Louisiana: median $159 across 20 hospitalsLA$159Mississippi: median $111 across 10 hospitalsMS$111Alabama: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $705 across 23 hospitalsGA$705Hawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $466 across 67 hospitalsTX$466Florida: median $331 across 38 hospitalsFL$331
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $288. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Massachusetts MA17$779+171%$437 – $1,064
California CA84$767+166%$294 – $796
Georgia GA23$705+145%$556 – $887
Texas TX67$466+62%$265 – $466
Washington WA21$438+52%$279 – $565
South Dakota SD10$425+48%$284 – $567
Kentucky KY23$369+28%$172 – $1,029
Idaho ID12$351+22%$173 – $894
Ohio OH66$347+21%$208 – $764
New Jersey NJ22$345+20%$250 – $445
New York NY64$339+18%$170 – $559
Florida FL38$331+15%$169 – $729
Virginia VA32$295+2%$106 – $390
Colorado CO17$290+1%$234 – $639
South Carolina SC19$2880%$132 – $288
North Carolina NC29$283−2%$150 – $353
Missouri MO16$281−2%$151 – $385
Minnesota MN28$278−4%$114 – $488
Illinois IL48$276−4%$83 – $805
Pennsylvania PA49$255−11%$92 – $450
West Virginia WV25$249−14%$83 – $447
Michigan MI59$226−21%$118 – $906
Iowa IA34$218−24%$137 – $263
Indiana IN18$188−35%$72 – $486
Nebraska NE16$186−36%$137 – $277
Wisconsin WI51$167−42%$136 – $307
Oregon OR17$166−42%$118 – $271
Louisiana LA20$159−45%$88 – $254
Oklahoma OK21$150−48%$130 – $276
Tennessee TN29$128−55%$82 – $229
Mississippi MS10$111−61%$100 – $125
Arizona AZ9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not 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 $288.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care867$304$150 – $641
Children’s33$252$159 – $548
Critical access190$256$121 – $426
Ownership
For-profit91$329$161 – $726
Government166$281$136 – $438
Non-profit833$286$143 – $630
System affiliation
Part of a system924$303$141 – $630
Independent171$232$148 – $427

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$509
Median cash price$288
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

755 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $307 and the average of the middle 60% is $338; most fall between $150 and $652.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 755 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
$117$181$307$556$826

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.1× what the cheapest tenth charges ($117 vs $826).

Of the 810 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 755 gave a usable cash price; 17 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 38 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,095 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (28%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,169 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,095
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here28
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded46
Hospitals that filed this code1,169

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 Psychological and psychiatric evaluation and therapy family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Neurobehavioral Status Xm Phys/Qhp 1st Hour.

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, “Exam of thinking and behavior by a clinician, first hour (CPT 96116) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-96116-exam-of-thinking-and-behavior-by-a-clinician-first-hour