Cost of Allergy Shots: 3-Year and 5-Year Totals Across Every Payer
The cost of allergy shots over a full 3–5 year course ranges from approximately $560 in patient out-of-pocket for Medicare with Medigap to $15,000+ in cash retail at a freestanding clinic — or up to $40,000 at a hospital outpatient department. Curex's at-home allergy shots at $129/month ($4,644 over 3 years) offer a predictable flat-rate alternative to variable SCIT out-of-pocket costs. Curex at-home IgE testing removes the largest single upfront diagnostic cost.
Plus the commute, copays, and facility fees that swing with your plan and state.
No copays, no facility fees, no commute. HSA/FSA eligible · cancel anytime.
The real CPT codes — what your allergist actually charges.
No competitor shows you this. Every shot visit triggers 1–3 CPT codes. Knowing them lets you audit your bill, negotiate cash pay, and verify what insurance covers.
Ranges reflect median commercial allowed amounts (CMS Physician Fee Schedule, MGMA Cost Survey). Your actual amount depends on your plan's in-network rates and deductible status.
Forget decoding CPT codes — Curex is one flat $129/month.
No 95115, 95117, or 95165 line items to reconcile. One membership covers your serum, dosing, and allergist oversight.
How Curex worksThe real cost in two phases — most articles miss the spike.
Allergy shots split into a costly build-up (6–12 months of frequent visits) and a cheaper maintenance phase. Lumping them gives misleading 'per-month' figures.
No front-loaded build-up bill — the rate never changes.
Conventional shots spike in year one during build-up. With Curex you pay the same $129 every month, build-up or maintenance.
How Curex worksThe hidden costs disappear when you dose at home.
No commute, no missed work, no parking — your weekly injection takes minutes in your own kitchen.
How Curex worksCoverage by major plan — searchable, with copays.
Most articles say 'it depends on your plan.' We list the actual coverage policy for each major carrier.
No prior auth, no claims, no EOBs to chase.
Curex isn't billed through insurance — so there's nothing to pre-authorize and no surprise denials. Just $129/mo, HSA/FSA eligible.
How Curex worksAllergy shot cost in all 50 states — searchable, sortable.
Cost-of-living and local provider density both shift the price. We pulled medians from CMS/MGMA + commercial payer data.
Alaska AK | $128 | $1,950 | 127 |
New York NY | $140 | $1,925 | 139 |
District of Columbia DC | $138 | $1,900 | 159 |
California CA | $115 | $1,800 | 151 |
Hawaii HI | $120 | $1,750 | 119 |
Massachusetts MA | $118 | $1,750 | 132 |
Connecticut CT | $113 | $1,675 | 118 |
Maryland MD | $108 | $1,600 | 121 |
New Jersey NJ | $110 | $1,600 | 119 |
Florida FL | $98 | $1,550 | 103 |
Washington WA | $100 | $1,550 | 110 |
Colorado CO | $98 | $1,513 | 108 |
Rhode Island RI | $98 | $1,500 | 110 |
Oregon OR | $95 | $1,475 | 109 |
Virginia VA | $98 | $1,475 | 106 |
Pennsylvania PA | $93 | $1,425 | 104 |
Illinois IL | $95 | $1,375 | 104 |
New Hampshire NH | $88 | $1,375 | 111 |
Texas TX | $88 | $1,375 | 97 |
Georgia GA | $90 | $1,363 | 96 |
Delaware DE | $93 | $1,350 | 104 |
Nevada NV | $85 | $1,343 | 102 |
Minnesota MN | $93 | $1,325 | 103 |
North Carolina NC | $88 | $1,325 | 96 |
Maine ME | $83 | $1,300 | 105 |
Utah UT | $81 | $1,300 | 99 |
South Carolina SC | $84 | $1,288 | 94 |
Tennessee TN | $84 | $1,288 | 94 |
Louisiana LA | $84 | $1,250 | 95 |
Vermont VT | $78 | $1,250 | 105 |
Montana MT | $74 | $1,225 | 99 |
Wyoming WY | $74 | $1,225 | 99 |
Kentucky KY | $80 | $1,213 | 93 |
Missouri MO | $78 | $1,213 | 92 |
Wisconsin WI | $85 | $1,213 | 97 |
Arizona AZ | $83 | $1,175 | 102 |
Michigan MI | $83 | $1,175 | 97 |
Ohio OH | $83 | $1,175 | 95 |
North Dakota ND | $80 | $1,150 | 95 |
Nebraska NE | $80 | $1,138 | 92 |
South Dakota SD | $80 | $1,138 | 93 |
Indiana IN | $85 | $1,100 | 92 |
West Virginia WV | $75 | $1,100 | 90 |
Kansas KS | $73 | $1,063 | 87 |
Mississippi MS | $69 | $1,063 | 85 |
Idaho ID | $78 | $1,050 | 97 |
New Mexico NM | $78 | $1,050 | 97 |
Oklahoma OK | $73 | $1,038 | 88 |
Alabama AL | $76 | $1,025 | 88 |
Iowa IA | $73 | $1,025 | 91 |
Arkansas AR | $73 | $988 | 89 |
Your ZIP code doesn't change the price.
Clinic costs swing by hundreds of dollars across states and facilities. Curex is the same flat $129/month everywhere we operate.
How Curex worksWhat patients actually paid — de-identified EOBs.
Every other article quotes ranges. We show you the real explanation-of-benefits documents — what was billed, what insurance paid, what the patient owed.
EOB image redacted
Medicare Part B maintenance visit in Florida, 2024 — deductible met. CPT 95117 ($12.32 allowed) plus 10-dose vial of CPT 95165 ($14.65 × 10 = $146.50 allowed) totaling $158.82 Medicare-allowed. Medicare paid $127.06 (80%); patient owed $31.76 (20%). This is Case 8 (PFS-anchored to ACAAI 2024 Final RVUs). A 14-visit maintenance year generates approximately $445 in annual coinsurance. With Medigap, this $445/year drops to $0 — making Medicare with Medigap the lowest-cost 5-year total among all payer types.
- Billed by provider
- $310
- Paid by insurance
- $127
- Patient owed
- $32
EOB image redacted
Hospital-owned allergy clinic, Minneapolis, 2024 — Case 14 (REAL): Kaitlin Johnson, M Health Fairview, as documented by PBS NewsHour Weekend. A single 40-allergen diagnostic panel billed $24,400 — more than the entire 5-year cash retail SCIT total at a low-cost freestanding clinic in Mississippi or Arkansas. Insurance paid approximately $19,000; patient owed $5,400+. This one HOPD testing day alone exceeds a full 3-year sublingual course total. The structural lesson: an HOPD surcharge on the diagnostic day is the largest single cost variable in any SCIT total-cost-of-care calculation.
- Billed by provider
- $24,400
- Paid by insurance
- $19,000
- Patient owed
- $5,400
EOB image redacted
Kaiser Permanente HMO, California, maintenance injection, 2024. No traditional EOB issued for internal-network visits. Per the Caltech 2024 Kaiser SoCal Plan Chart (September 2023): 'Allergy injections no charge.' Case 7 (Caltech 2024 Kaiser plan document). Five-year patient OOP = $0 for injections. Trade-off: care must occur at Kaiser facilities with Kaiser allergists; no out-of-network coverage for SCIT. This is the lowest-total-cost 5-year SCIT scenario among commercially insured patients.
- Billed by provider
- $0
- Paid by insurance
- $0
- Patient owed
- $0
Allergy immunotherapy, built for home — one flat $129/month.
Curex brings the proven science of allergy shots into your home and wraps it in one predictable membership. No per-visit billing to decode, no facility fees, no surprise statements — you know exactly what you pay before you start.
Billed monthly · HSA/FSA eligible · cancel anytime
- Personalized serum compounded to USP <797> sterile standards
- Weekly subcutaneous injection you give yourself at home
- Your first injection and every dose change supervised live over video
- Board-certified allergist oversight by telehealth
- A prescribed epinephrine auto-injector confirmed on hand before your first dose
- 1A board-certified allergist designs your plan
You complete testing, then an allergist builds your personalized immunotherapy prescription — the same subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) science used in clinics for decades.
- 2Your first injection is supervised live over video
You give your first dose at home on a live video visit, and every time your dose steps up it is re-supervised — so you are never escalating alone.
- 3You continue weekly at home
Serum arrives on a schedule, you self-inject on your own time, and your allergist keeps oversight by telehealth. No commute, no waiting room.
Before your first dose, Curex confirms you have a prescribed epinephrine auto-injector on hand. Doses escalate gradually, week by week, with a board-certified allergist overseeing your progress throughout.
Same proven science — a very different bill.
Conventional clinic shots and Curex are both subcutaneous immunotherapy. The difference is where you do it, how you pay, and what it costs you in time and surprises.
Honest take: if you have a generous PPO that covers immunotherapy in full after a low deductible, a clinic can cost less per year than $129/month. Curex's edge is predictability, zero commute, and no facility-fee surprises — not a guaranteed lower sticker price.
What a clinic actually costs you — then compare flat $129/mo.
Adjust your insurance plan, distance to clinic, and time off work. We model the full 3-year clinic out-of-pocket — visits, copays, travel, and time — against Curex's flat monthly rate.
Your real clinic cost vs. flat $129/mo
Based on real CPT 95115 / 95117 / 95165 billing data, not generic price ranges.
- Medical & insurance
- $3,771
- Time at clinic (122 hr)
- $3,050
- Travel & gas
- $307
- Membership ($129/mo)
- $4,644
- Clinic time (at home)
- $0
- Travel & gas
- $0
Time at clinic valued at $25/hr opportunity cost (national median wage). Direct medical costs from CMS Physician Fee Schedule + commercial payer data. Travel at $0.21/mi (gas + wear).
Frequently asked questions
What is the total cost of allergy shots over a 5-year course?
A 5-year SCIT course — approximately 39 visits in Year 1 and 14–20 maintenance visits per year in Years 2–5 for a total of roughly 80 visits — generates the following total patient out-of-pocket ranges by payer type. Medicare Part B with Medigap: approximately $0–$200 over 5 years. Original Medicare without Medigap: approximately $560–$750 in 20% coinsurance. Commercial PPO with flat $30 copay (met deductible): approximately $2,400 in stacked copays. HDHP with annual deductible reset: approximately $5,000–$10,000 over 5 years. Cash retail at a freestanding clinic: approximately $9,500–$15,000. HOPD-billed: $25,000–$40,000 or more. Per Stachler 2020 (AAOA), a $20 specialist copay weekly over 3 years alone generates $3,120 in stacked copays — before vial charges or deductible contributions.
Do allergy shots pay for themselves?
Not on direct medical cost within a typical 3-year course — that is the honest answer supported by the clinical literature. Cox, Murphey, and Hankin (Immunol Allergy Clin North Am 2020;40[1]:69-85) place the cost-effectiveness break-even versus standard pharmacotherapy at approximately 6 years after initiation. However, two important caveats apply. First, the savings come primarily from reduced comorbidity costs (fewer asthma flares, fewer ENT visits, fewer emergency room visits) rather than from SCIT itself being cheaper than antihistamines and nasal steroids. Hankin et al. (J Allergy Clin Immunol 2013) documented 38% lower 18-month total healthcare costs for adult SCIT completers versus matched controls. Second, the durable post-treatment benefit lasts 5–10 years after course completion — meaning the economic calculation should include the 5–10 years after treatment ends, not just the treatment years.
Is it cheaper to get allergy shots at a hospital or a private allergist office?
A private freestanding allergist office is almost always significantly cheaper than a hospital outpatient department for allergy shots. The 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule sets $11.97 for CPT 95117 at both settings — but hospital outpatient departments add a facility fee under the Outpatient Prospective Payment System that can multiply the total billed amount by 10–40×. The documented cases illustrate the spread: Kaitlin Johnson's 40-allergen test at M Health Fairview (an HOPD) generated $24,400 in 2024 per PBS NewsHour Weekend, versus $800–$1,827 at nearby freestanding Minneapolis clinics for the same test. Over a 5-year course, a patient who inadvertently uses an HOPD for every maintenance visit could pay 5–10× more than a comparable patient at a freestanding office. Always ask whether a clinic is a hospital outpatient department before scheduling.
How does the cost of allergy shots compare to allergy medication over 5 years?
The direct comparison depends on medication regimen and drug pricing. A common over-the-counter maintenance regimen — generic cetirizine ($20/month) plus fluticasone nasal spray ($25/month) — costs approximately $45/month or $2,700 over 5 years at retail. Brand-name OTC antihistamine plus prescription nasal steroid can reach $100–$200/month or $6,000–$12,000 over 5 years. SCIT direct OOP at a commercial PPO totals approximately $7,000–$10,000 over 5 years, which at first glance appears more expensive — but Cox, Murphey, and Hankin (2020) show that SCIT completers incur substantially lower downstream healthcare costs (asthma hospitalizations, ENT procedures, acute care visits) that offset the treatment cost differential by the 6-year mark. Hankin et al. 2010 documented 33% lower 18-month total healthcare costs in Florida Medicaid pediatric SCIT patients versus matched controls.
What is the Tkacz 2021 study and what does it say about allergy shot costs?
Tkacz JP et al. (Curr Med Res Opin 2021;37[6]:957-965; DOI 10.1080/03007995.2021.1903848) analyzed IBM MarketScan commercial insurance claims for 103,207 AIT patients from January 2014 through March 2017. The maintenance-cohort patients — those who completed at least several injections — had a mean 12-month total healthcare cost of $10,431 with a standard deviation of $16,606. This is TOTAL healthcare cost for these patients, not the SCIT line items alone; it includes comorbidity costs such as asthma, rhinitis, ENT visits, and pharmacy. The standard deviation exceeding the mean signals an extremely wide distribution: Kaiser and Medicaid patients contribute near-zero SCIT costs while HOPD patients can contribute $24,000+ in a single testing day. Additionally, 23.9% of patients in the study never returned after the index AIT consult — a significant non-completion rate that incurs testing costs with no therapeutic benefit.
How does the 3-year allergy shot cost differ from the 5-year cost?
A 3-year SCIT course includes approximately 39 visits in Year 1 and 28–40 maintenance visits across Years 2–3, totaling roughly 67–79 total visits. A 5-year course adds another 28–40 visits in Years 4–5. The marginal cost of extending from a 3-year to 5-year course is therefore approximately 28–40 additional visits at maintenance rates, which is substantially cheaper per additional year than Year 1 (no new skin testing, no build-up vial intensification). At commercial PPO $30 copay, extending from 3 to 5 years adds approximately $840–$1,200 in additional copays. At cash retail, extending adds approximately $2,000–$3,500. The clinical benefit of the 5-year course — more durable disease modification and longer post-treatment remission per Cox 2011 PP3 — typically justifies this incremental cost for patients who complete the build-up phase.
Do sublingual allergy tablets cost less than allergy shots over 5 years?
Compounded sublingual immunotherapy is not covered by most commercial insurance plans in the United States as of 2026 — coverage exists only for FDA-approved sublingual allergen tablets (Odactra, Grastek, Oralair, Ragwitek) for specific single allergens. For patients considering cash-pay or out-of-pocket-equivalent costs, the comparison is relevant. FDA-approved sublingual tablets run approximately $2,400–$4,200 per year at retail for a single allergen, putting a 5-year cost at $12,000–$21,000 for one allergen. Compounded sublingual immunotherapy at commercial clinics varies widely. The benchmark on this page's 5-year comparison table reflects Medicare and commercial SCIT OOP costs, which include the insurer's negotiated rates — so the direct patient OOP comparison depends heavily on payer type and cannot be generalized without specifying the insurance scenario.
How much of allergy shot cost is tax deductible?
Allergy shots are qualified medical expenses under IRS Publication 502 and are deductible on Schedule A if total medical expenses exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income. HSA and FSA funds can also be used pre-tax for allergy-shot costs, effectively reducing the after-tax cost by your marginal tax rate. The IRS medical mileage rate for 2025 is $0.21 per mile (Notice 2025-5) for calculating the deductible cost of driving to allergy-shot appointments. At 26 build-up visits × 24 miles round trip × $0.21 = $130.80 in deductible mileage in Year 1 alone. Keep all receipts including CPT-coded EOBs and the physician's letter establishing the treatment as medically necessary.
Board-certified allergist and Curex Chief Medical Officer. Expertise in SCIT cost-effectiveness analysis and long-term immunotherapy planning across all insurance types.
Related Articles
Allergy Shot Cost – Per-Visit CPT Line-Item Decoder 2026
Medicare-allowed $11.97 (CPT 95117); commercial $15–$18; cash $25–$55. Decode your allergy-shot EOB: 95117 vs 95115, vial prep, HOPD fees explained.
Read moreAllergy Shots: The Complete Patient Guide to SCIT | Curex
Allergy shots (SCIT) are the only FDA-recognized disease-modifying allergy treatment. Learn who qualifies, how they work, and what alternatives exist.
Read moreHow Much Are Allergy Shots – Complete Cost Guide 2026
Medicare $11.97/visit (CPT 95117, CY 2025 PFS); commercial $15–18; cash $40–200+; HOPD up to $24,400. Full build-up, maintenance & 5-year cost breakdown.
Read moreAllergy Shot Price – Chargemaster, Medicare & Cash Rates 2026
Medicare-allowed $11.97/visit (CPT 95117, CY 2025 PFS); commercial $15–18; cash $40–150; HOPD up to $24,400. Hospital price-transparency rules explained.
Read moreAllergy Shots vs Drops: Evidence-Based Comparison | Curex
Allergy shots (SCIT) vs sublingual drops (SLIT): comparable efficacy per Nelson 2015, but SLIT has zero fatalities vs 1 per 2.5M shots. Full comparison.
Read moreSkip the surprise bills. Pay one flat rate.
Curex's flat $129/month covers your end-to-end immunotherapy — board-certified allergist design, serum compounded to USP <797> sterile standards, and weekly at-home dosing. No copays, no facility fees, no HOPD surprises. HSA/FSA eligible.
$129/mo flat · No facility fees · HSA/FSA eligible · Cancel anytime
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, financial, or insurance advice. Cost figures are estimates based on public CMS/MGMA data and commercial payer ranges; actual prices vary by plan, region, and provider. Always verify coverage with your insurer and consult a qualified healthcare provider. Content reviewed by board-certified allergists at Curex.