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Procedure price report · Other OR therapeutic procedures on respiratory system

Direct laryngoscopy with foreign body removal, microscope

CPT 31531the billing code this page is about

A scope is passed into the throat to view the voice box directly and remove a foreign object, using an operating microscope or telescope for magnification.

Hospitals typically charge $1,936 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 367 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $2,298. Most fall between $403 and $5,127 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
367
States
46
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – 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 367 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
$347$524$1,936$4,425$7,655

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 22× what the cheapest tenth charges ($347 vs $7,655).

How the prices are spread

$243 – $351: 27 hospitals$243$351 – $506: 45 hospitals$506 – $729: 26 hospitals$506$729 – $1,051: 46 hospitals$1,051 – $1,516: 8 hospitals$1,051$1,516 – $2,185: 22 hospitals$2,185 – $3,150: 17 hospitals$2,185$3,150 – $4,541: 67 hospitals$4,541 – $6,547: 44 hospitals$4,541$6,547 – $9,438: 29 hospitals$6,547median $1,936price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (331 of 367 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$243$35127
$351$50645
$506$72926
$729$1,05146
$1,051$1,5168
$1,516$2,18522
$2,185$3,15017
$3,150$4,54167
$4,541$6,54744
$6,547$9,43829

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$3,809
Median cash price$1,936
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.51×

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 $1,936.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $403 across 15 hospitalsIL$403Wisconsin: median $979 across 22 hospitalsWI$979Michigan: median $909 across 27 hospitalsMI$909New York: median $3,809 across 30 hospitalsNY$3,809Massachusetts: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals 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: median $524 across 15 hospitalsIA$524Indiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $931 across 11 hospitalsOH$931Pennsylvania: median $2,357 across 13 hospitalsPA$2,357New Jersey: median $4,342 across 24 hospitalsNJ$4,342Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $7,655 across 36 hospitalsCA$7,655Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: median $5,825 across 11 hospitalsSC$5,825Oklahoma: median $347 across 14 hospitalsOK$347Louisiana: median $2,092 across 11 hospitalsLA$2,092Mississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceGAHawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $3,550 across 24 hospitalsTX$3,550Florida: median $4,796 across 16 hospitalsFL$4,796
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,936. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA36$7,655+295%$4,004 – $7,655
South Carolina SC11$5,825+201%$4,981 – $5,825
Florida FL16$4,796+148%$3,701 – $10,916
New Jersey NJ24$4,342+124%$4,029 – $5,419
New York NY30$3,809+97%$605 – $4,363
Texas TX24$3,550+83%$3,088 – $3,550
Pennsylvania PA13$2,357+22%$72 – $6,947
Louisiana LA11$2,092+8%$1,461 – $3,255
Wisconsin WI22$979−49%$979 – $1,936
Ohio OH11$931−52%$524 – $931
Michigan MI27$909−53%$382 – $3,894
Iowa IA15$524−73%$524 – $524
Illinois IL15$403−79%$363 – $675
Oklahoma OK14$347−82%$347 – $6,161
Tennessee TN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA1not 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 $1,936.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care309$3,088$403 – $5,419
Children’s12fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access46$979$403 – $1,936
Ownership
For-profit38$2,975$403 – $6,409
Government48$1,487$375 – $4,575
Non-profit281$1,936$425 – $5,110
System affiliation
Part of a system311$2,377$468 – $5,339
Independent56$694$358 – $3,887

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,506
Median cash price$1,936
Cash as a share of list, median hospital60%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 40%. 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

229 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $979 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,778; most fall between $375 and $5,725.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 229 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
$265$393$979$4,004$7,655

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 29× what the cheapest tenth charges ($265 vs $7,655).

Of the 249 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 229 gave a usable cash price; 16 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 4 a list price only.

How complete is this

367 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (9%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 421 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted367
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here41
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded12
Hospitals that filed this code421

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 September 4, 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.

Related procedures

Part of the Other OR therapeutic procedures on respiratory system family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Laryngoscopy Foreign Body Rmvl Micro/Telescope.

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, “Direct laryngoscopy with foreign body removal, microscope (CPT 31531) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-31531-direct-laryngoscopy-with-foreign-body-removal-microscope