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Procedure price report · Ancillary Services

Handling a specimen collected outside the office for the lab

CPT 99001the billing code this page is about

Charge for collecting, packaging, and transferring a specimen taken somewhere other than the physician's office to an outside laboratory.

Hospitals typically charge $25 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,568 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $27. Most fall between $12 and $51 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,568
States
50
Filings dated
Dec 2022 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 24, 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 1,568 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
$9$14$25$44$77

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($9 vs $77).

How the prices are spread

$6 – $8: 61 hospitals$6$8 – $11: 107 hospitals$11 – $14: 155 hospitals$11$14 – $19: 216 hospitals$19 – $26: 180 hospitals$19$26 – $35: 241 hospitals$35 – $47: 172 hospitals$35$47 – $63: 141 hospitals$63 – $85: 77 hospitals$63$85 – $113: 62 hospitals$85median $25price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,412 of 1,568 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$6$861
$8$11107
$11$14155
$14$19216
$19$26180
$26$35241
$35$47172
$47$63141
$63$8577
$85$11362

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $25.

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: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $28 across 11 hospitalsNH$28Washington: median $33 across 29 hospitalsWA$33Idaho: median $25 across 11 hospitalsID$25Montana: median $33 across 21 hospitalsMT$33North Dakota: median $32 across 16 hospitalsND$32Minnesota: median $33 across 70 hospitalsMN$33Illinois: median $27 across 68 hospitalsIL$27Wisconsin: median $29 across 48 hospitalsWI$29Michigan: median $17 across 38 hospitalsMI$17New York: median $35 across 31 hospitalsNY$35Massachusetts: median $38 across 18 hospitalsMA$38Oregon: median $16 across 28 hospitalsOR$16Nevada: median $44 across 12 hospitalsNV$44Wyoming: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $55 across 20 hospitalsSD$55Iowa: median $21 across 45 hospitalsIA$21Indiana: median $23 across 57 hospitalsIN$23Ohio: median $38 across 26 hospitalsOH$38Pennsylvania: median $28 across 47 hospitalsPA$28New Jersey: median $18 across 17 hospitalsNJ$18Connecticut: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $26 across 140 hospitalsCA$26Utah: median $71 across 27 hospitalsUT$71Colorado: median $24 across 44 hospitalsCO$24Nebraska: median $30 across 36 hospitalsNE$30Missouri: median $17 across 32 hospitalsMO$17Kentucky: median $23 across 47 hospitalsKY$23West Virginia: median $19 across 19 hospitalsWV$19Virginia: median $16 across 34 hospitalsVA$16Maryland: 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 $30 across 19 hospitalsAZ$30New Mexico: median $33 across 11 hospitalsNM$33Kansas: median $21 across 53 hospitalsKS$21Arkansas: median $16 across 17 hospitalsAR$16Tennessee: median $12 across 32 hospitalsTN$12North Carolina: median $27 across 38 hospitalsNC$27South Carolina: median $27 across 26 hospitalsSC$27Oklahoma: median $13 across 26 hospitalsOK$13Louisiana: median $14 across 29 hospitalsLA$14Mississippi: median $13 across 30 hospitalsMS$13Alabama: median $13 across 13 hospitalsAL$13Georgia: median $17 across 54 hospitalsGA$17Hawaii: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $33 across 104 hospitalsTX$33Florida: median $32 across 74 hospitalsFL$32
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $25. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT27$71+182%$71 – $91
South Dakota SD20$55+119%$41 – $72
Nevada NV12$44+75%$17 – $63
Ohio OH26$38+52%$22 – $38
Massachusetts MA18$38+51%$23 – $76
New York NY31$35+38%$10 – $54
New Mexico NM11$33+31%$20 – $43
Texas TX104$33+31%$18 – $95
Montana MT21$33+30%$28 – $48
Washington WA29$33+30%$15 – $61
Minnesota MN70$33+30%$22 – $52
Florida FL74$32+27%$12 – $51
North Dakota ND16$32+27%$20 – $48
Arizona AZ19$30+19%$22 – $97
Nebraska NE36$30+19%$14 – $46
Wisconsin WI48$29+16%$12 – $34
Pennsylvania PA47$28+11%$7 – $41
New Hampshire NH11$28+10%$14 – $41
South Carolina SC26$27+8%$17 – $31
Illinois IL68$27+7%$11 – $56
North Carolina NC38$27+7%$16 – $42
California CA140$26+2%$10 – $51
Idaho ID11$25−2%$16 – $71
Colorado CO44$24−5%$15 – $57
Indiana IN57$23−8%$6 – $49
Kentucky KY47$23−10%$16 – $55
Kansas KS53$21−16%$14 – $34
Iowa IA45$21−17%$19 – $32
West Virginia WV19$19−25%$9 – $24
New Jersey NJ17$18−27%$9 – $41
Georgia GA54$17−32%$9 – $103
Michigan MI38$17−33%$11 – $35
Missouri MO32$17−33%$10 – $29
Arkansas AR17$16−36%$8 – $17
Oregon OR28$16−37%$14 – $34
Virginia VA34$16−37%$8 – $36
Louisiana LA29$14−46%$7 – $25
Alabama AL13$13−48%$9 – $16
Oklahoma OK26$13−48%$12 – $21
Mississippi MS30$13−50%$8 – $17
Tennessee TN32$12−53%$6 – $39
Hawaii HI9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not 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 $25.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,046$24$11 – $52
Children’s27$26$15 – $87
Critical access491$28$16 – $48
Ownership
For-profit217$29$12 – $69
Government294$26$15 – $44
Non-profit1,053$24$12 – $51
System affiliation
Part of a system1,292$25$12 – $51
Independent276$25$12 – $50

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$42
Median cash price$25
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

1,077 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $27 and the average of the middle 60% is $27; most fall between $13 and $50.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,077 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
$9$15$27$43$73

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($9 vs $73).

Of the 1,141 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,077 gave a usable cash price; 19 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 45 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,568 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (40%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,698 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,568
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here44
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded85
Hospitals that filed this code1,698

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 July 20, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 24, 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 HANDLING AND/OR CONVEYANCE OF SPECIMEN FOR TRANSFER TO A LABORATORY.

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 a specimen collected outside the office for the lab (CPT 99001) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-99001-handling-a-specimen-collected-outside-the-office-for-the-lab