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Procedure price report · Psychological and psychiatric evaluation and therapy

Exam of thinking and behavior, each additional hour

CPT 96121the billing code this page is about

Added to the first-hour neurobehavioral exam charge; each unit covers one more hour of assessment and interpretation time by the clinician.

Hospitals typically charge $224 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 631 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $228. Most fall between $102 and $398 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
631
States
48
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 631 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
$77$116$224$365$549

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.1× what the cheapest tenth charges ($77 vs $549).

How the prices are spread

$47 – $62: 12 hospitals$47$62 – $81: 30 hospitals$81 – $107: 55 hospitals$81$107 – $141: 82 hospitals$141 – $186: 48 hospitals$141$186 – $244: 81 hospitals$244 – $322: 103 hospitals$244$322 – $424: 71 hospitals$424 – $558: 70 hospitals$424$558 – $735: 17 hospitals$558median $224price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (569 of 631 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$47$6212
$62$8130
$81$10755
$107$14182
$141$18648
$186$24481
$244$322103
$322$42471
$424$55870
$558$73517

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $224.

Alaska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $176 across 14 hospitalsMN$176Illinois: median $257 across 34 hospitalsIL$257Wisconsin: median $155 across 45 hospitalsWI$155Michigan: median $110 across 39 hospitalsMI$110New York: median $281 across 37 hospitalsNY$281Massachusetts: median $240 across 18 hospitalsMA$240Oregon: median $205 across 13 hospitalsOR$205Nevada: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $190 across 18 hospitalsIA$190Indiana: median $97 across 12 hospitalsIN$97Ohio: median $201 across 30 hospitalsOH$201Pennsylvania: median $50 across 25 hospitalsPA$50New Jersey: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNJConnecticut: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $472 across 72 hospitalsCA$472Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $192 across 23 hospitalsVA$192Maryland: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 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 $229 across 20 hospitalsNC$229South Carolina: median $283 across 14 hospitalsSC$283Oklahoma: median $124 across 11 hospitalsOK$124Louisiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $239 across 20 hospitalsGA$239Hawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $359 across 50 hospitalsTX$359Florida: median $145 across 15 hospitalsFL$145
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $224. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA72$472+111%$214 – $549
Texas TX50$359+61%$265 – $387
South Carolina SC14$283+27%$225 – $283
New York NY37$281+26%$121 – $414
Illinois IL34$257+15%$97 – $805
Massachusetts MA18$240+7%$150 – $686
Georgia GA20$239+7%$199 – $313
North Carolina NC20$229+2%$100 – $353
Oregon OR13$205−8%$131 – $212
Ohio OH30$201−10%$128 – $365
Virginia VA23$192−14%$52 – $269
Iowa IA18$190−15%$120 – $199
Minnesota MN14$176−21%$78 – $507
Wisconsin WI45$155−30%$107 – $254
Florida FL15$145−35%$64 – $991
Oklahoma OK11$124−45%$124 – $124
Michigan MI39$110−51%$92 – $377
Indiana IN12$97−56%$77 – $486
Pennsylvania PA25$50−77%$36 – $298
Washington WA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Jersey NJ5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not 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 $224.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care522$221$100 – $398
Children’s26$222$111 – $450
Critical access80$212$107 – $359
Ownership
For-profit36$239$97 – $373
Government85$192$86 – $353
Non-profit507$229$107 – $440
System affiliation
Part of a system552$239$100 – $414
Independent79$177$103 – $317

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$327
Median cash price$224
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. 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

498 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $234 and the average of the middle 60% is $236; most fall between $115 and $407.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 498 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
$90$125$234$373$549

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.1× what the cheapest tenth charges ($90 vs $549).

Of the 531 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 498 gave a usable cash price; 14 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 19 a list price only.

How complete is this

631 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (16%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 699 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted631
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here21
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 — excluded47
Hospitals that filed this code699

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 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 Ea Addl 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, each additional hour (CPT 96121) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-96121-exam-of-thinking-and-behavior-each-additional-hour