How much does a comprehensive metabolic panel cost in the US?

Across 1,276 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $21.12, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $11.09 and $85. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $111 across the 1,023 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.

Why do Comprehensive Metabolic Panel prices vary so much?

Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 16.0 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $8.02 in Nevada to $175 in South Dakota.

Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?

Sometimes. At 242 of the 1,023 hospitals that list a cash price (24%), it is lower than that hospital's own median negotiated rate. If you have a high deductible, ask the hospital for its self-pay price before you book.

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Comprehensive Metabolic Panel Cost in the US (2026): What 1,276 Hospitals NegotiatedNPI VERIFIED

Across 1,276 US hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate for a comprehensive metabolic panel is $21.12. The middle half of hospitals negotiated between $11.09 and $85; the priciest tenth negotiated more than $169, 16.0× the cheapest tenth (under $10.56). Hospitals that list a self-pay price ask a median of $111 (1,023 hospitals).

Code CPT 80053 · Source: hospital machine-readable files (45 CFR §180), file dates 2022-11-12 to 2026-09-28 (median 2026-04-01) · Medicare baseline: CMS OPPS Addendum B · Data extracted 2026-10-06 · Page updated 2026-10-07

National median

$21.12

all plan types · 1,276 hospitals

Middle half

$11.09–$85

25th–75th percentile of hospitals

Median cash price

$111

self-pay · 1,023 hospitals list one

Medicare baseline

—

no OPPS rate for this service

1,276 hospitals, one bar per price band

median $21.12

$0$125$250

Each bar counts hospitals whose median rate falls in that price band; the last, dashed bar holds the 46 at $250 or more. The cheapest tenth negotiated under $10.56, the priciest tenth over $169 — 16.0× apart for the same procedure.

These are contract reference rates, not your bill. A median across hospitals is not a quote for your plan or network. Your out-of-pocket cost depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network status.

Medicare pays lab tests from its Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, not the outpatient (OPPS) table we use as a baseline, so no Medicare multiple is shown.

Coverage: 1,276 of the 5,419 hospitals in the CMS roster have an identity-verified price file with this procedure in our data. It is not a random sample, and a hospital missing here has not been judged non-compliant — we may simply not have its file yet. 100 of these 1,276 hospital files were more than 12 months old at extraction — hospitals must update yearly; we keep the figures and say so rather than hide them.

By insurance type

Insurance type	Hospitals	Median	Middle half	× Medicare
Commercial (plan type not stated)	782	$66	$21.71 – $167	—
PPO	806	$69	$24.66 – $172	—
HMO	533	$44.62	$20.52 – $127	—
EPO	125	$67	$21.31 – $162	—
POS	75	$74	$20.18 – $203	—
ACA Marketplace	478	$19.54	$15.59 – $55	—
Medicare Advantage	733	$11.20	$10.56 – $62	—
Medicare (as listed)	716	$10.88	$10.56 – $15.83	—
Medicaid	827	$15.33	$10.56 – $59	—
Federal employees (FEP)	23	$68	$45.32 – $77	—
Workers' comp	138	$28.80	$14.78 – $109	—

Plan types are grouped from each hospital's plan names. Each figure is a median of hospital-level medians; types with fewer than 20 hospitals are left out.

By state

State	Hospitals	Median	Middle half	× Medicare	Median cash
Alabama	17	$10.56	$10.35 – $10.62	—	$99
Arizona	12	$11.09	$10.88 – $15.48	—	$125
Arkansas	15	$44.61	$15.53 – $53	—	$128
California	45	$15.84	$10.56 – $55	—	$98
Colorado	9	$25.47	$10.56 – $110	—	$107
Florida	47	$11.19	$11.09 – $14.23	—	$179
Georgia	33	$18.88	$13.15 – $64	—	$96
Hawaii	11	$26.61	$10.59 – $28.29	—	$86
Idaho	14	$45.78	$41.02 – $62	—	$70
Illinois	49	$64	$14.70 – $164	—	$185
Indiana	27	$15.84	$10.73 – $57	—	$103
Iowa	43	$68	$51 – $112	—	$114
Kansas	52	$56	$24.33 – $116	—	$75
Kentucky	51	$11.09	$10.56 – $69	—	$142
Louisiana	28	$13.97	$10.56 – $35.78	—	$84
Maine	9	$99	$40.66 – $107	—	$105
Maryland	9	$44.00	$40.04 – $44.95	—	$43.73
Massachusetts	9	$20.62	$15.84 – $44.46	—	$120
Michigan	32	$12.84	$10.30 – $14.07	—	$87
Minnesota	30	$120	$22.26 – $142	—	$197
Mississippi	22	$10.46	$9.50 – $11.01	—	$70
Missouri	31	$22.86	$10.46 – $56	—	$76
Montana	22	$111	$63 – $142	—	$145
Nebraska	34	$104	$16.57 – $161	—	$147
Nevada	9	$8.02	$8.02 – $27.80	—	$619
New Hampshire	5	$43.83	$42.26 – $68	—	$342
New Jersey	25	$10.56	$5.81 – $11.19	—	$12.14
New Mexico	18	$157	$13.54 – $243	—	$199
New York	38	$12.21	$10.73 – $22.12	—	$76
North Carolina	23	$23.52	$10.93 – $87	—	$88
North Dakota	13	$97	$67 – $138	—	$100
Ohio	58	$14.52	$11.43 – $29.38	—	$138
Oklahoma	37	$13.55	$10.36 – $41.91	—	$55
Oregon	24	$19.75	$16.18 – $47.57	—	$88
Pennsylvania	61	$17.34	$12.36 – $31.87	—	$71
Puerto Rico	12	$14.00	$13.76 – $14.35	—	$30.00
Rhode Island	5	$15.28	$13.29 – $19.06	—	$64
South Carolina	27	$10.99	$10.56 – $21.02	—	$150
South Dakota	12	$175	$131 – $188	—	$192
Tennessee	23	$11.09	$10.75 – $11.88	—	$73
Texas	111	$41.00	$12.91 – $125	—	$144
Utah	21	$69	$69 – $77	—	$72
Vermont	9	$81	$59 – $112	—	$100
Virginia	19	$14.47	$10.97 – $162	—	$170
Washington	20	$55	$39.40 – $100	—	$119
West Virginia	8	$72	$48.62 – $104	—	$108
Wisconsin	29	$37.26	$13.20 – $93	—	$124
Wyoming	10	$103	$28.23 – $142	—	$79

middle half of hospitalsstate median · a dotted end means the range runs past $200

States with at least 5 hospitals in our data (48 states). 3 smaller states are counted in the national figures but not listed — a median of two or three hospitals says more about those hospitals than about the state.

Get the data

Hospital-level and insurer-level rates for this procedure are in the full dataset. A free three-procedure sample (brain MRI, head CT, diagnostic colonoscopy) is open under CC BY 4.0: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23199844 · Kaggle.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a comprehensive metabolic panel cost in the US?: Across 1,276 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $21.12, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $11.09 and $85. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $111 across the 1,023 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.
Why do Comprehensive Metabolic Panel prices vary so much?: Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 16.0 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $8.02 in Nevada to $175 in South Dakota.
Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?: Sometimes. At 242 of the 1,023 hospitals that list a cash price (24%), it is lower than that hospital's own median negotiated rate. If you have a high deductible, ask the hospital for its self-pay price before you book.

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median $29.93 · 1,276 hospitals

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median $4.58 · 1,227 hospitals

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