Bacterial culture (wound) cost in Bluefield, WV
In Bluefield, WV-VA, 3 hospitals list a cash price for bacterial culture of a sample other than urine, blood or stool (wound, throat, fluid): from $44.50 to $204.99, with a median of $68.95. The lowest listed price is at Princeton Community Hospital Assn — $24.45 less than the median here. Across West Virginia, the median is $50.50 at 34 hospitals.
Cash prices at 3 facilities across 3 cities for code 87070, as an outpatient — the setting a self-pay patient normally buys. Collected Sep 29, 2026; the hospital files themselves were last updated between — and —.
Where each hospital's price falls
Each dot is one hospital's cash price on a scale from the lowest to the highest in Bluefield, WV-VA.
Hospitals, cheapest first
| Hospital | Cash price | List price | Insurers pay | Off list | File date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Princeton Community Hospital Assn lowest Princeton, WV · (304) 487-7000 BACTERIAL CULTURE; ANY OTHER SOURCE EXCEPT URINE; BLOOD OR STOOL; AEROBIC | $44.50 | $89.00 | $6.90–$50.21 | 50% | — source file |
| Princeton Community Hospital Assn Princeton, WV · (304) 487-7000 CULTURE OTHR SPECIMN AEROBIC | $46.50 | $93.00 | $6.90–$50.21 | 50% | — source file |
| Carilion Tazewell Community Hospital Tazewell, VA · (276) 988-8700 HB CULTURE BACTERIA AEROBIC | $68.95 | $197.00 | $7.94–$189.12 | 65% | — source file |
| Clinch Valley Health Richlands, VA · (276) 596-6000 Culture, bacterial; any other source except urine, blood or stool, aerobic, with isolation and presumptive identification of isolates | $204.99 | $512.48 | $8.62–$512.48 | 60% | — source file |
Outpatient: lowest $44.50, median $68.95, highest $204.99 — a 4.6× difference within the same market.
Cash or insurance?
At 3 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
A bacterial culture grows bacteria from a sample such as a wound, throat swab, eye or fluid to find which germ causes an infection. It takes one to three days.
What the price covers
The price usually covers running the test; collecting the sample may be billed separately.