Lab tests CPT 81003 Outpatient

Urine dipstick, automated cost in Oxnard, CA

In Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA, 3 hospitals list a cash price for urinalysis without microscope exam, automated: from $3.74 to $461.89, with a median of $3.95. The lowest listed price is at Dignity Health — $0.21 less than the median here. Across California, the median is $56.00 at 146 hospitals.

Cash prices at 3 facilities across 3 cities for code 81003, as an outpatient — the setting a self-pay patient normally buys. Collected Sep 27, 2026; the hospital files themselves were last updated between Feb 28, 2026 and Sep 1, 2026.

Lowest$3.74Dignity Health
Median$3.95half pay less
Highest$461.89in this market
Difference123.5×highest vs lowest

Where each hospital's price falls

Each dot is one hospital's cash price on a scale from the lowest to the highest in Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA.

median
Lowest $3.74Highest $461.89

Hospitals, cheapest first

HospitalCash price List priceInsurers payOff listFile date
Dignity Health lowest Camarillo, CA UA AUTO WO MICRO LAB $3.74 $9.00 $2.25–$9.00 58% Feb 28, 2026
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Dignity Health Oxnard, CA · (805) 988-2500 UA AUTO WO MICRO LAB $3.95 $9.00 $2.25–$9.00 56% Feb 28, 2026
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Dignity Health Camarillo, CA UA AUTO WO MICRO $36.94 $89.00 $2.25–$71.20 58% Feb 28, 2026
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Dignity Health Oxnard, CA · (805) 988-2500 UA AUTO WO MICRO $38.99 $89.00 $2.25–$69.42 56% Feb 28, 2026
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Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center Thousand Oaks, CA · (805) 497-2727 UA W O MICRO AUTO $461.89 $461.89 $69.28–$461.89 — Sep 1, 2026
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Outpatient: lowest $3.74, median $3.95, highest $461.89 — a 123.5× difference within the same market.

As an inpatient, the same code is billed by 2 facilities here, median $3.85. Inpatient and outpatient prices are not comparable and are kept on separate pages: the inpatient charge covers admission, not the same purchase.

Cash or insurance?

At 2 of 3 hospitals that publish insurer rates for this code here, the cash price is below the highest rate a health plan has negotiated, and at none is it below every plan's rate. If you have insurance but have not met your deductible, you usually pay your plan's negotiated rate, which falls somewhere in the "Insurers pay" column. Paying cash can cost less, but a cash payment usually does not count toward your deductible. Ask the hospital for both numbers before you book.

What it is

An automated urinalysis without microscopy tests a urine sample on a machine that reads the chemical dipstick results. It checks for protein, sugar, blood, ketones and signs of infection, without a microscope exam of cells.

What the price covers

The price covers the automated chemical test. A microscope exam or urine culture is billed separately if done.