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Procedure price report · Respiratory intubation and mechanical ventilation

Emergency breathing tube placement into the windpipe

CPT 31500the billing code this page is about

A tube is passed through the mouth or nose into the windpipe as an emergency measure to open the airway and allow breathing support.

Hospitals typically charge $442 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 3,107 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $468. Most fall between $236 and $837 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
3,107
States
50
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 3,107 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
$170$262$442$723$1,163

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($170 vs $1,163).

How the prices are spread

$130 – $168: 145 hospitals$130$168 – $216: 187 hospitals$216 – $279: 373 hospitals$216$279 – $360: 364 hospitals$360 – $464: 405 hospitals$360$464 – $598: 402 hospitals$598 – $771: 379 hospitals$598$771 – $995: 259 hospitals$995 – $1,283: 178 hospitals$995$1,283 – $1,655: 105 hospitals$1,283median $442price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,797 of 3,107 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$130$168145
$168$216187
$216$279373
$279$360364
$360$464405
$464$598402
$598$771379
$771$995259
$995$1,283178
$1,283$1,655105

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$242
Median cash price$442
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.83×

The Medicare figure is the national unadjusted OPPS rate for this code — what Medicare itself pays a hospital before local wage adjustment. It is a benchmark, not a price anyone is charged.

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $442.

Alaska: median $833 across 17 hospitalsAK$833Maine: median $258 across 24 hospitalsME$258Vermont: median $454 across 13 hospitalsVT$454New Hampshire: median $305 across 20 hospitalsNH$305Washington: median $459 across 76 hospitalsWA$459Idaho: median $413 across 24 hospitalsID$413Montana: median $370 across 32 hospitalsMT$370North Dakota: median $380 across 28 hospitalsND$380Minnesota: median $472 across 108 hospitalsMN$472Illinois: median $565 across 130 hospitalsIL$565Wisconsin: median $341 across 91 hospitalsWI$341Michigan: median $326 across 85 hospitalsMI$326New York: median $445 across 102 hospitalsNY$445Massachusetts: median $540 across 42 hospitalsMA$540Oregon: median $413 across 53 hospitalsOR$413Nevada: median $479 across 20 hospitalsNV$479Wyoming: median $403 across 15 hospitalsWY$403South Dakota: median $589 across 39 hospitalsSD$589Iowa: median $354 across 91 hospitalsIA$354Indiana: median $258 across 73 hospitalsIN$258Ohio: median $693 across 143 hospitalsOH$693Pennsylvania: median $610 across 121 hospitalsPA$610New Jersey: median $596 across 58 hospitalsNJ$596Connecticut: median $601 across 20 hospitalsCT$601Rhode Island: median $273 across 10 hospitalsRI$273California: median $924 across 193 hospitalsCA$924Utah: median $403 across 34 hospitalsUT$403Colorado: median $638 across 64 hospitalsCO$638Nebraska: median $362 across 72 hospitalsNE$362Missouri: median $399 across 73 hospitalsMO$399Kentucky: median $687 across 61 hospitalsKY$687West Virginia: median $359 across 41 hospitalsWV$359Virginia: median $653 across 61 hospitalsVA$653Maryland: median $94 across 30 hospitalsMD$94Delaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $908 across 42 hospitalsAZ$908New Mexico: median $439 across 29 hospitalsNM$439Kansas: median $278 across 81 hospitalsKS$278Arkansas: median $448 across 37 hospitalsAR$448Tennessee: median $235 across 71 hospitalsTN$235North Carolina: median $427 across 83 hospitalsNC$427South Carolina: median $559 across 45 hospitalsSC$559Oklahoma: median $298 across 70 hospitalsOK$298Louisiana: median $309 across 53 hospitalsLA$309Mississippi: median $247 across 54 hospitalsMS$247Alabama: median $328 across 40 hospitalsAL$328Georgia: median $442 across 105 hospitalsGA$442Hawaii: median $572 across 19 hospitalsHI$572Texas: median $540 across 194 hospitalsTX$540Florida: median $591 across 113 hospitalsFL$591
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $442. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA193$924+109%$353 – $1,346
Arizona AZ42$908+105%$218 – $3,335
Alaska AK17$833+88%$548 – $1,248
Ohio OH143$693+57%$340 – $935
Kentucky KY61$687+55%$323 – $932
Virginia VA61$653+48%$431 – $899
Colorado CO64$638+44%$312 – $860
Pennsylvania PA121$610+38%$271 – $1,789
Connecticut CT20$601+36%$326 – $735
New Jersey NJ58$596+35%$257 – $4,350
Florida FL113$591+34%$233 – $1,044
South Dakota SD39$589+33%$398 – $769
Hawaii HI19$572+29%$539 – $815
Illinois IL130$565+28%$269 – $879
South Carolina SC45$559+26%$283 – $995
Massachusetts MA42$540+22%$363 – $669
Texas TX194$540+22%$245 – $876
Nevada NV20$479+8%$341 – $775
Minnesota MN108$472+7%$312 – $718
Washington WA76$459+4%$304 – $708
Vermont VT13$454+3%$177 – $981
Arkansas AR37$448+1%$211 – $607
New York NY102$445+1%$242 – $598
Georgia GA105$4420%$248 – $634
New Mexico NM29$439−1%$242 – $938
North Carolina NC83$427−4%$263 – $507
Idaho ID24$413−7%$275 – $649
Oregon OR53$413−7%$257 – $758
Wyoming WY15$403−9%$204 – $575
Utah UT34$403−9%$320 – $563
Missouri MO73$399−10%$234 – $757
North Dakota ND28$380−14%$241 – $467
Montana MT32$370−16%$204 – $567
Nebraska NE72$362−18%$228 – $662
West Virginia WV41$359−19%$273 – $805
Iowa IA91$354−20%$221 – $459
Wisconsin WI91$341−23%$291 – $588
Alabama AL40$328−26%$200 – $1,659
Michigan MI85$326−26%$193 – $717
Louisiana LA53$309−30%$170 – $523
New Hampshire NH20$305−31%$183 – $418
Oklahoma OK70$298−33%$164 – $508
Kansas KS81$278−37%$192 – $459
Rhode Island RI10$273−38%$242 – $664
Maine ME24$258−42%$192 – $649
Indiana IN73$258−42%$131 – $571
Mississippi MS54$247−44%$175 – $621
Tennessee TN71$235−47%$120 – $433
Maryland MD30$94−79%$79 – $111
Delaware DE7not 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 $442.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care2,118$480$243 – $932
Children’s52$629$328 – $1,278
Critical access928$373$221 – $624
Ownership
For-profit319$573$245 – $1,308
Government626$364$209 – $625
Non-profit2,153$450$243 – $863
System affiliation
Part of a system2,493$460$243 – $898
Independent614$370$210 – $687

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$752
Median cash price$442
Cash as a share of list, median hospital64%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 36%. 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.

The same procedure, inpatient

2,379 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $487 and the average of the middle 60% is $513; most fall between $254 and $899.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 2,379 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
$187$291$487$783$1,175

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.3× what the cheapest tenth charges ($187 vs $1,175).

Of the 2,554 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 2,379 gave a usable cash price; 65 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 110 a list price only.

How complete is this

3,107 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (79%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 3,332 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted3,107
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here101
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded123
Hospitals that filed this code3,332

Sections not shown for this setting

  • 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 July 20, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 24, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Respiratory intubation and mechanical ventilation family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Intubation Endotracheal Emergency Procedure.

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, “Emergency breathing tube placement into the windpipe (CPT 31500) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-31500-emergency-breathing-tube-placement-into-the-windpipe