How much does an automated urinalysis cost in the US?

Across 1,227 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $4.58, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $2.36 and $19.69. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $24.60 across the 974 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.

Why do Urinalysis prices vary so much?

Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 17.2 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $1.70 in Nevada to $37.87 in South Dakota.

Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?

Sometimes. At 219 of the 974 hospitals that list a cash price (22%), 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.

All procedures / Urinalysis

Urinalysis Cost in the US (2026): What 1,227 Hospitals NegotiatedNPI VERIFIED

Across 1,227 US hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate for an automated urinalysis is $4.58. The middle half of hospitals negotiated between $2.36 and $19.69; the priciest tenth negotiated more than $38.79, 17.2× the cheapest tenth (under $2.25). Hospitals that list a self-pay price ask a median of $24.60 (974 hospitals).

Code CPT 81003 · 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

$4.58

all plan types · 1,227 hospitals

Middle half

$2.36–$19.69

25th–75th percentile of hospitals

Median cash price

$24.60

self-pay · 974 hospitals list one

Medicare baseline

—

no OPPS rate for this service

1,227 hospitals, one bar per price band

median $4.58

$0$25.00$50

Each bar counts hospitals whose median rate falls in that price band; the last, dashed bar holds the 60 at $50 or more. The cheapest tenth negotiated under $2.25, the priciest tenth over $38.79 — 17.2× 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: 1,227 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. 91 of these 1,227 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)	760	$13.67	$4.57 – $36.90	—
PPO	783	$16.72	$5.63 – $38.75	—
HMO	513	$9.48	$4.37 – $27.70	—
EPO	120	$21.06	$4.54 – $43.19	—
POS	74	$13.16	$3.45 – $36.22	—
ACA Marketplace	471	$4.16	$3.33 – $15.51	—
Medicare Advantage	700	$2.36	$2.25 – $14.00	—
Medicare (as listed)	689	$2.32	$2.25 – $3.02	—
Medicaid	798	$3.55	$2.25 – $13.96	—
Federal employees (FEP)	22	$14.49	$14.44 – $32.90	—
Workers' comp	136	$6.75	$3.10 – $35.80	—

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	$2.24	$2.20 – $2.30	—	$27.38
Arizona	12	$2.36	$2.32 – $3.93	—	$12.94
Arkansas	14	$7.29	$2.38 – $15.16	—	$37.58
California	44	$3.38	$2.25 – $8.99	—	$18.20
Colorado	7	$5.57	$3.05 – $5.95	—	$7.93
Florida	47	$2.39	$2.36 – $3.04	—	$36.00
Georgia	30	$4.00	$2.83 – $12.50	—	$14.25
Hawaii	10	$4.73	$2.23 – $5.66	—	$17.10
Idaho	13	$9.87	$8.80 – $14.85	—	$13.50
Illinois	47	$16.00	$3.89 – $35.20	—	$44.15
Indiana	27	$3.38	$2.25 – $5.56	—	$23.72
Iowa	41	$21.29	$12.00 – $26.95	—	$25.81
Kansas	48	$14.01	$8.30 – $28.66	—	$19.89
Kentucky	51	$2.34	$2.25 – $11.70	—	$27.84
Louisiana	26	$3.34	$2.25 – $7.75	—	$14.65
Maine	10	$20.68	$11.28 – $21.50	—	$21.60
Maryland	9	$11.73	$10.68 – $11.99	—	$11.66
Massachusetts	9	$4.58	$3.38 – $9.47	—	$28.00
Michigan	31	$2.25	$2.19 – $2.81	—	$14.00
Minnesota	30	$23.75	$9.46 – $33.68	—	$36.95
Mississippi	22	$2.22	$2.03 – $2.31	—	$14.67
Missouri	31	$4.52	$2.27 – $14.25	—	$30.88
Montana	22	$21.17	$14.02 – $34.03	—	$28.41
Nebraska	32	$27.30	$4.92 – $40.70	—	$42.00
Nevada	9	$1.70	$1.70 – $10.25	—	$246
New Hampshire	6	$11.96	$9.10 – $14.65	—	$75
New Jersey	25	$2.25	$1.24 – $2.32	—	$2.59
New Mexico	18	$16.75	$2.89 – $40.40	—	$24.30
New York	37	$3.04	$2.32 – $4.24	—	$16.27
North Carolina	23	$8.68	$2.34 – $13.43	—	$18.63
North Dakota	12	$19.91	$17.32 – $24.99	—	$23.50
Ohio	57	$3.04	$2.43 – $8.44	—	$21.70
Oklahoma	35	$2.89	$2.16 – $21.32	—	$28.85
Oregon	23	$4.21	$3.45 – $21.12	—	$37.15
Pennsylvania	60	$4.14	$2.62 – $8.26	—	$16.95
Rhode Island	5	$3.26	$2.83 – $4.06	—	$27.63
South Carolina	27	$2.36	$2.36 – $3.56	—	$38.35
South Dakota	12	$37.87	$29.74 – $46.06	—	$47.00
Tennessee	23	$2.36	$2.30 – $2.53	—	$7.13
Texas	98	$8.81	$3.08 – $26.41	—	$22.91
Utah	21	$16.73	$16.73 – $44.65	—	$30.56
Vermont	9	$24.82	$14.38 – $35.00	—	$38.00
Virginia	19	$3.64	$2.34 – $23.95	—	$24.50
Washington	20	$21.07	$9.36 – $25.53	—	$33.60
West Virginia	8	$18.34	$11.80 – $19.54	—	$18.73
Wisconsin	28	$8.14	$3.24 – $18.13	—	$25.00
Wyoming	10	$19.53	$6.67 – $30.88	—	$17.07

middle half of hospitalsstate median · a dotted end means the range runs past $50

States with at least 5 hospitals in our data (47 states). 4 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 an automated urinalysis cost in the US?: Across 1,227 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $4.58, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $2.36 and $19.69. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $24.60 across the 974 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.
Why do Urinalysis prices vary so much?: Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 17.2 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $1.70 in Nevada to $37.87 in South Dakota.
Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?: Sometimes. At 219 of the 974 hospitals that list a cash price (22%), 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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