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Procedure price report

Drainage of a deep skin and soft tissue abscess

CPT 20005the billing code this page is about

Cutting open and draining a pocket of infection that lies beneath the tough tissue layer covering the muscle.

Hospitals typically charge $497 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 120 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $595. Most fall between $313 and $1,193 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
120
States
37
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 24, 2026

Median: half of hospitals filed less, half more — and it is a price some hospital actually filed. Average of the middle 60%: the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain average, the lowest or the highest price: the extremes in hospital price files are chargemaster artefacts, not prices anyone pays.

What hospitals charge, from cheapest to most expensive

Cash price percentiles, outpatient, across 120 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$300$316$497$995$2,172

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($300 vs $2,172).

How the prices are spread

$273 – $358: 31 hospitals$273$358 – $470: 14 hospitals$470 – $617: 19 hospitals$470$617 – $810: 10 hospitals$810 – $1,063: 16 hospitals$810$1,063 – $1,396: 4 hospitals$1,396 – $1,832: 4 hospitals$1,396$1,832 – $2,406: 5 hospitals$2,406 – $3,159: 1 hospitals$2,406$3,159 – $4,147: 6 hospitals$3,159median $497price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (110 of 120 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$273$35831
$358$47014
$470$61719
$617$81010
$810$1,06316
$1,063$1,3964
$1,396$1,8324
$1,832$2,4065
$2,406$3,1591
$3,159$4,1476

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $497.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMNIllinois: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNYMassachusetts: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIAIndiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figurePANew Jersey: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNJConnecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCAUtah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVAMaryland: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSCOklahoma: median $316 across 11 hospitalsOK$316Louisiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTXFlorida: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $497. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Oklahoma OK11$316−36%$316 – $316
Illinois IL8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
California CA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Iowa IA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New York NY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Texas TX4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Pennsylvania PA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price

Hospitals like yours

The same distribution cut by the kind of hospital. Hospital type and ownership come from CMS; a hospital counts as part of a system when its price file is shared with at least one other hospital under the same brand. The national median is $497.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care72$497$316 – $1,232
Children’s5fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access42$496$315 – $995
Ownership
For-profit14fewer than 20 hospitals
Government25$526$411 – $908
Non-profit80$529$316 – $1,232
System affiliation
Part of a system85$497$312 – $1,220
Independent35$585$315 – $969

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$764
Median cash price$497
Cash as a share of list, median hospital70%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 30%. The share is the median of each hospital’s own cash ÷ list ratio, over hospitals that filed both — not the ratio of the two medians above.

How complete is this

120 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (3%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 151 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted120
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here18
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded2
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded11
Hospitals that filed this code151

Sections not shown for this setting

  • Against Medicare: Medicare has no separately payable national outpatient (OPPS) rate for this code, so there is nothing honest to compare against.
  • Since our last snapshot: there is no earlier snapshot at least 90 days older than this one yet.

We last checked these hospitals’ price files for changes between September 5, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 23, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as All Outpatient.

Method

Source
The machine-readable price files every U.S. hospital is required by CMS to publish, parsed per hospital. Nothing is surveyed, sampled or modelled.
What counts
One cash (self-pay) price per hospital for this code and setting. A hospital’s own filing can rule its number out — a placeholder, a “not applicable” note, a list price standing in for cash — and our plausibility checks can flag a price far below what every other hospital files. Both kinds are disclosed above and excluded from the statistics; on the compare tool a flagged price is still shown.
Statistics
Percentiles are discrete: each is a price some hospital filed. The average is the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain mean, the minimum or the maximum. A state needs 10 hospitals and a segment 20 to show a figure; otherwise the row shows its count and no number. Medicare is the national unadjusted OPPS rate where one exists.
Names
Procedure names on these pages are our own plain-language titles, not the AMA’s copyrighted CPT descriptors. The code is the identity.

The full rules — sources, statistics, thresholds, limitations — are on the methodology page.

Download this page’s figures: JSON · CSV. Aggregates only — the per-hospital prices are on the compare tool.

Cite: HospitalRates.com, “Drainage of a deep skin and soft tissue abscess (CPT 20005) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-20005-drainage-of-a-deep-skin-and-soft-tissue-abscess