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Procedure price report · Incision of pleura, thoracentesis, chest drainage

Chest drainage opening with skin flap for pus in the chest

CPT 32036the billing code this page is about

Open surgery creating a drainage window into the chest using a skin flap to keep it open, to drain infection between the lung and chest wall.

Hospitals typically charge $1,433 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 174 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,660. Most fall between $1,030 and $3,198 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
174
States
38
Filings dated
Jun 2024 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 23, 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 174 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
$799$1,151$1,433$2,357$4,350

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($799 vs $4,350).

How the prices are spread

$569 – $712: 4 hospitals$569$712 – $890: 11 hospitals$890 – $1,114: 15 hospitals$890$1,114 – $1,393: 39 hospitals$1,393 – $1,743: 26 hospitals$1,393$1,743 – $2,180: 23 hospitals$2,180 – $2,727: 8 hospitals$2,180$2,727 – $3,412: 14 hospitals$3,412 – $4,268: 8 hospitals$3,412$4,268 – $5,339: 10 hospitals$4,268median $1,433price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (158 of 174 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$569$7124
$712$89011
$890$1,11415
$1,114$1,39339
$1,393$1,74326
$1,743$2,18023
$2,180$2,7278
$2,727$3,41214
$3,412$4,2688
$4,268$5,33910

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $1,433.

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 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: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $1,183 across 10 hospitalsIL$1,183Wisconsin: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: median $1,367 across 23 hospitalsMI$1,367New York: median $1,493 across 11 hospitalsNY$1,493Massachusetts: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMAOregon: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $1,899 across 16 hospitalsIA$1,899Indiana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $2,922 across 13 hospitalsOH$2,922Pennsylvania: median $569 across 15 hospitalsPA$569New Jersey: median $5,110 across 12 hospitalsNJ$5,110Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCAUtah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVAMaryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKSArkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSCOklahoma: median $1,290 across 10 hospitalsOK$1,290Louisiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMSAlabama: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceALGeorgia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceGAHawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTXFlorida: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,433. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Jersey NJ12$5,110+257%$4,350 – $5,855
Ohio OH13$2,922+104%$1,358 – $3,198
Iowa IA16$1,899+33%$1,899 – $1,899
New York NY11$1,493+4%$942 – $2,325
Michigan MI23$1,367−5%$1,151 – $1,535
Oklahoma OK10$1,290−10%$1,290 – $1,290
Illinois IL10$1,183−17%$1,030 – $1,899
Pennsylvania PA15$569−60%$481 – $4,206
Indiana IN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Texas TX4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
California CA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY1not 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 $1,433.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care150$1,463$1,030 – $3,198
Children’s4fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access19fewer than 20 hospitals
Ownership
For-profit14fewer than 20 hospitals
Government19fewer than 20 hospitals
Non-profit140$1,433$1,085 – $3,198
System affiliation
Part of a system141$1,429$1,030 – $3,198
Independent33$1,642$942 – $3,225

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$2,374
Median cash price$1,433
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. 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

120 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,463 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,489; most fall between $1,030 and $1,952.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, 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
$775$1,030$1,463$1,899$3,184

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 4.1× what the cheapest tenth charges ($775 vs $3,184).

Of the 132 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 120 gave a usable cash price; 11 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 1 a list price only.

How complete is this

174 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (4%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 199 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted174
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here21
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 — excluded3
Hospitals that filed this code199

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 4, 2026 and September 23, 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 Incision of pleura, thoracentesis, chest drainage family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Thoracostomy Open Flap Drainage Empyema.

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, “Chest drainage opening with skin flap for pus in the chest (CPT 32036) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-32036-chest-drainage-opening-with-skin-flap-for-pus-in-the-chest