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Procedure price report · Ancillary Services

Handling of a lab specimen sent from the office to a lab

CPT 99000the billing code this page is about

A handling and transport charge for preparing a specimen collected in the office and sending it to an outside laboratory; it does not include the lab test itself.

Hospitals typically charge $20 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 941 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $21. Most fall between $10 and $36 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
941
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 941 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
$6$11$20$32$48

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($6 vs $48).

How the prices are spread

$3 – $4: 15 hospitals$3$4 – $6: 14 hospitals$6 – $8: 76 hospitals$6$8 – $11: 71 hospitals$11 – $15: 115 hospitals$11$15 – $20: 129 hospitals$20 – $27: 138 hospitals$20$27 – $36: 147 hospitals$36 – $48: 97 hospitals$36$48 – $65: 45 hospitals$48median $20price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (847 of 941 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$3$415
$4$614
$6$876
$8$1171
$11$15115
$15$20129
$20$27138
$27$36147
$36$4897
$48$6545

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $20.

Alaska: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $10 across 20 hospitalsWA$10Idaho: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: median $24 across 18 hospitalsND$24Minnesota: median $23 across 53 hospitalsMN$23Illinois: median $25 across 41 hospitalsIL$25Wisconsin: median $23 across 41 hospitalsWI$23Michigan: median $12 across 17 hospitalsMI$12New York: median $29 across 29 hospitalsNY$29Massachusetts: median $39 across 11 hospitalsMA$39Oregon: median $34 across 17 hospitalsOR$34Nevada: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $42 across 11 hospitalsSD$42Iowa: median $19 across 45 hospitalsIA$19Indiana: median $6 across 29 hospitalsIN$6Ohio: median $32 across 18 hospitalsOH$32Pennsylvania: median $18 across 16 hospitalsPA$18New Jersey: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNJConnecticut: 2 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 $25 across 58 hospitalsCA$25Utah: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $38 across 11 hospitalsCO$38Nebraska: median $32 across 26 hospitalsNE$32Missouri: median $14 across 14 hospitalsMO$14Kentucky: median $21 across 23 hospitalsKY$21West Virginia: median $16 across 24 hospitalsWV$16Virginia: median $25 across 27 hospitalsVA$25Maryland: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $12 across 15 hospitalsAZ$12New Mexico: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $20 across 34 hospitalsKS$20Arkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $9 across 15 hospitalsTN$9North Carolina: median $15 across 20 hospitalsNC$15South Carolina: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $7 across 21 hospitalsOK$7Louisiana: median $10 across 19 hospitalsLA$10Mississippi: median $7 across 18 hospitalsMS$7Alabama: median $11 across 17 hospitalsAL$11Georgia: median $17 across 34 hospitalsGA$17Hawaii: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $19 across 96 hospitalsTX$19Florida: median $25 across 17 hospitalsFL$25
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $20. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Dakota SD11$42+110%$16 – $60
Massachusetts MA11$39+93%$16 – $69
Colorado CO11$38+89%$20 – $46
Oregon OR17$34+72%$23 – $142
Nebraska NE26$32+60%$13 – $46
Ohio OH18$32+59%$20 – $32
New York NY29$29+45%$9 – $49
Florida FL17$25+27%$3 – $43
California CA58$25+25%$9 – $46
Illinois IL41$25+24%$12 – $41
Virginia VA27$25+23%$12 – $48
North Dakota ND18$24+20%$21 – $35
Minnesota MN53$23+15%$18 – $33
Wisconsin WI41$23+15%$12 – $30
Kentucky KY23$21+5%$8 – $23
Kansas KS34$200%$10 – $38
Texas TX96$19−6%$12 – $30
Iowa IA45$19−7%$14 – $32
Pennsylvania PA16$18−12%$7 – $28
Georgia GA34$17−14%$17 – $31
West Virginia WV24$16−20%$11 – $19
North Carolina NC20$15−27%$5 – $16
Missouri MO14$14−31%$3 – $21
Michigan MI17$12−38%$11 – $20
Arizona AZ15$12−39%$2 – $48
Alabama AL17$11−45%$2 – $18
Washington WA20$10−50%$10 – $35
Louisiana LA19$10−52%$8 – $16
Tennessee TN15$9−55%$3 – $22
Mississippi MS18$7−65%$2 – $17
Oklahoma OK21$7−65%$7 – $20
Indiana IN29$6−69%$4 – $27
Idaho ID9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Jersey NJ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH1not 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 $20.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care611$17$8 – $32
Children’s6fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access323$25$13 – $42
Ownership
For-profit111$12$2 – $30
Government206$23$12 – $43
Non-profit623$20$10 – $34
System affiliation
Part of a system752$19$9 – $34
Independent189$22$11 – $42

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$31
Median cash price$20
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

612 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $19 and the average of the middle 60% is $20; most fall between $8 and $32.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 612 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
$6$10$19$30$46

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($6 vs $46).

Of the 656 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 612 gave a usable cash price; 11 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 33 a list price only.

How complete is this

941 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (24%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,021 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted941
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here26
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 — excluded54
Hospitals that filed this code1,021

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 Ancillary Services family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as PR Occ Hlth Specimen Collection.

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, “Handling of a lab specimen sent from the office to a lab (CPT 99000) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-99000-handling-of-a-lab-specimen-sent-from-the-office-to-a-lab