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Procedure price report · Ophthalmologic and otologic diagnosis and treatment

Vision sharpness screening test, both eyes

CPT 99173the billing code this page is about

A simple eye chart test that measures how clearly each eye sees, reported as a number for both eyes.

Hospitals typically charge $18 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 880 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $20. Most fall between $7 and $41 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
880
States
50
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 880 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
$5$8$18$36$59

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($5 vs $59).

How the prices are spread

$3 – $5: 44 hospitals$3$5 – $7: 69 hospitals$7 – $9: 95 hospitals$7$9 – $13: 90 hospitals$13 – $19: 107 hospitals$13$19 – $28: 107 hospitals$28 – $40: 135 hospitals$28$40 – $57: 76 hospitals$57 – $81: 55 hospitals$57$81 – $116: 17 hospitals$81median $18price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (795 of 880 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$3$544
$5$769
$7$995
$9$1390
$13$19107
$19$28107
$28$40135
$40$5776
$57$8155
$81$11617

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $18.

Alaska: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $5 across 13 hospitalsME$5Vermont: median $18 across 11 hospitalsVT$18New Hampshire: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $17 across 17 hospitalsWA$17Idaho: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $16 across 35 hospitalsMN$16Illinois: median $19 across 34 hospitalsIL$19Wisconsin: median $28 across 40 hospitalsWI$28Michigan: median $17 across 38 hospitalsMI$17New York: median $16 across 70 hospitalsNY$16Massachusetts: median $41 across 23 hospitalsMA$41Oregon: median $8 across 20 hospitalsOR$8Nevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $7 across 25 hospitalsIA$7Indiana: median $15 across 30 hospitalsIN$15Ohio: median $26 across 41 hospitalsOH$26Pennsylvania: median $21 across 26 hospitalsPA$21New Jersey: median $18 across 11 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 $37 across 55 hospitalsCA$37Utah: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $17 across 16 hospitalsCO$17Nebraska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $24 across 21 hospitalsMO$24Kentucky: median $8 across 11 hospitalsKY$8West Virginia: median $24 across 26 hospitalsWV$24Virginia: median $9 across 14 hospitalsVA$9Maryland: 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 $21 across 11 hospitalsAZ$21New Mexico: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $10 across 14 hospitalsKS$10Arkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $9 across 21 hospitalsTN$9North Carolina: median $22 across 22 hospitalsNC$22South Carolina: median $21 across 24 hospitalsSC$21Oklahoma: median $5 across 15 hospitalsOK$5Louisiana: median $11 across 23 hospitalsLA$11Mississippi: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $29 across 16 hospitalsGA$29Hawaii: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $30 across 55 hospitalsTX$30Florida: median $26 across 10 hospitalsFL$26
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $18. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Massachusetts MA23$41+124%$28 – $50
California CA55$37+103%$10 – $42
Texas TX55$30+64%$9 – $58
Georgia GA16$29+58%$13 – $29
Wisconsin WI40$28+53%$6 – $47
Ohio OH41$26+44%$16 – $117
Florida FL10$26+42%$10 – $153
West Virginia WV26$24+32%$8 – $33
Missouri MO21$24+31%$7 – $47
North Carolina NC22$22+23%$11 – $32
South Carolina SC24$21+18%$21 – $21
Arizona AZ11$21+15%$14 – $1,087
Pennsylvania PA26$21+14%$12 – $56
Illinois IL34$19+4%$7 – $37
Vermont VT11$18−1%$11 – $46
New Jersey NJ11$18−1%$3 – $41
Colorado CO16$17−6%$13 – $30
Washington WA17$17−6%$6 – $38
Michigan MI38$17−7%$4 – $37
Minnesota MN35$16−13%$7 – $48
New York NY70$16−15%$11 – $77
Indiana IN30$15−19%$4 – $23
Louisiana LA23$11−37%$5 – $21
Kansas KS14$10−44%$7 – $29
Tennessee TN21$9−50%$8 – $13
Virginia VA14$9−50%$2 – $115
Kentucky KY11$8−55%$3 – $16
Oregon OR20$8−56%$4 – $9
Iowa IA25$7−64%$6 – $11
Maine ME13$5−71%$3 – $11
Oklahoma OK15$5−73%$5 – $7
Alaska AK9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not 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 $18.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care604$19$7 – $42
Children’s21$34$11 – $47
Critical access251$17$8 – $39
Ownership
For-profit54$22$9 – $58
Government173$19$8 – $42
Non-profit649$18$7 – $41
System affiliation
Part of a system691$19$7 – $41
Independent189$18$7 – $42

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$33
Median cash price$18
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

610 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $21 and the average of the middle 60% is $23; most fall between $7 and $47.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 610 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
$5$9$21$40$70

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 15× what the cheapest tenth charges ($5 vs $70).

Of the 668 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 610 gave a usable cash price; 14 carried a plausibility flag, 7 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 37 a list price only.

How complete is this

880 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (22%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 989 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted880
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here29
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded7
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded73
Hospitals that filed this code989

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 Ophthalmologic and otologic diagnosis and treatment family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Screening Test Visual Acuity Quantitative Bilat.

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, “Vision sharpness screening test, both eyes (CPT 99173) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-99173-vision-sharpness-screening-test-both-eyes