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Procedure price report

Precise drug testing, 8 to 14 drug classes

HCPCS G0481the billing code this page is about

Covers laboratory testing that identifies and measures specific drugs in a sample, billed once per day when 8 to 14 drug classes are tested.

Hospitals typically charge $280 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 131 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $250. Most fall between $151 and $371 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
131
States
30
Filings dated
Jan 2024 – Aug 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 131 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$151$280$347$391

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 3.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($117 vs $391).

How the prices are spread

$44 – $59: 5 hospitals$44$59 – $77: 0 hospitals$77 – $102: 1 hospitals$77$102 – $134: 15 hospitals$134 – $177: 17 hospitals$134$177 – $234: 19 hospitals$234 – $309: 31 hospitals$234$309 – $407: 27 hospitals$407 – $537: 3 hospitals$407$537 – $708: 3 hospitals$537median $280price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (121 of 131 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$44$595
$59$770
$77$1021
$102$13415
$134$17717
$177$23419
$234$30931
$309$40727
$407$5373
$537$7083

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $280.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $290 across 13 hospitalsIL$290Wisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNYMassachusetts: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNVWyoming: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIAIndiana: median $226 across 21 hospitalsIN$226Ohio: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figurePANew Jersey: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNJConnecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCAUtah: median $151 across 22 hospitalsUT$151Colorado: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCONebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKYWest Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVAMaryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceARTennessee: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNCSouth Carolina: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceOKLouisiana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $298 across 18 hospitalsTX$298Florida: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $280. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Texas TX18$298+7%$298 – $298
Illinois IL13$290+4%$280 – $347
Indiana IN21$226−19%$122 – $321
Utah UT22$151−46%$151 – $391
New Jersey NJ7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Pennsylvania PA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New York NY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV1not 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 $280.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care94$282$151 – $384
Children’s4fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access32$227$151 – $347
Ownership
For-profit10fewer than 20 hospitals
Government12fewer than 20 hospitals
Non-profit108$259$151 – $359
System affiliation
Part of a system109$282$151 – $359
Independent22$187$114 – $705

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$431
Median cash price$280
Cash as a share of list, median hospital61%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 39%. 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.

How complete is this

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

What the 147 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted131
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here3
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 — excluded13
Hospitals that filed this code147

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 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 14, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Drug test def 8-14 classes.

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, “Precise drug testing, 8 to 14 drug classes (CPT G0481) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-g0481-precise-drug-testing-8-to-14-drug-classes