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Procedure price report · Other non-OR therapeutic procedures on respiratory system

Clot-dissolving medicine into chest drain, first day

CPT 32561the billing code this page is about

A clot-dissolving medicine is instilled through an existing chest tube or catheter to break up thick fluid or clots around the lung; this code covers the first day of treatment.

Hospitals typically charge $874 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,250 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $944. Most fall between $492 and $1,574 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,250
States
50
Filings dated
Jun 2024 – 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 1,250 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
$195$550$874$1,451$2,203

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($195 vs $2,203).

How the prices are spread

$135 – $187: 61 hospitals$135$187 – $259: 33 hospitals$259 – $357: 35 hospitals$259$357 – $494: 69 hospitals$494 – $682: 155 hospitals$494$682 – $943: 263 hospitals$943 – $1,304: 197 hospitals$943$1,304 – $1,802: 178 hospitals$1,802 – $2,490: 98 hospitals$1,802$2,490 – $3,441: 45 hospitals$2,490median $874price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,134 of 1,250 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$135$18761
$187$25933
$259$35735
$357$49469
$494$682155
$682$943263
$943$1,304197
$1,304$1,802178
$1,802$2,49098
$2,490$3,44145

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$641
Median cash price$874
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.36×

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 $874.

Alaska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $1,241 across 40 hospitalsWA$1,241Idaho: median $1,672 across 10 hospitalsID$1,672Montana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $760 across 33 hospitalsMN$760Illinois: median $1,126 across 59 hospitalsIL$1,126Wisconsin: median $639 across 46 hospitalsWI$639Michigan: median $803 across 36 hospitalsMI$803New York: median $732 across 50 hospitalsNY$732Massachusetts: median $1,726 across 27 hospitalsMA$1,726Oregon: median $1,015 across 29 hospitalsOR$1,015Nevada: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $707 across 22 hospitalsIA$707Indiana: median $591 across 36 hospitalsIN$591Ohio: median $1,226 across 77 hospitalsOH$1,226Pennsylvania: median $745 across 71 hospitalsPA$745New Jersey: median $2,101 across 41 hospitalsNJ$2,101Connecticut: median $1,189 across 16 hospitalsCT$1,189Rhode Island: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,451 across 110 hospitalsCA$1,451Utah: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $791 across 31 hospitalsCO$791Nebraska: median $318 across 15 hospitalsNE$318Missouri: median $754 across 30 hospitalsMO$754Kentucky: median $521 across 13 hospitalsKY$521West Virginia: median $722 across 14 hospitalsWV$722Virginia: median $896 across 29 hospitalsVA$896Maryland: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $770 across 19 hospitalsAZ$770New Mexico: median $433 across 10 hospitalsNM$433Kansas: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: median $470 across 13 hospitalsAR$470Tennessee: median $583 across 14 hospitalsTN$583North Carolina: median $826 across 36 hospitalsNC$826South Carolina: median $1,563 across 27 hospitalsSC$1,563Oklahoma: median $156 across 17 hospitalsOK$156Louisiana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: median $550 across 13 hospitalsMS$550Alabama: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $985 across 45 hospitalsGA$985Hawaii: median $910 across 10 hospitalsHI$910Texas: median $1,036 across 78 hospitalsTX$1,036Florida: median $831 across 53 hospitalsFL$831
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $874. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Jersey NJ41$2,101+140%$684 – $4,627
Massachusetts MA27$1,726+98%$776 – $2,404
Idaho ID10$1,672+91%$1,125 – $1,672
South Carolina SC27$1,563+79%$840 – $1,563
California CA110$1,451+66%$757 – $3,456
Washington WA40$1,241+42%$449 – $1,882
Ohio OH77$1,226+40%$673 – $1,849
Connecticut CT16$1,189+36%$823 – $2,068
Illinois IL59$1,126+29%$375 – $1,681
Texas TX78$1,036+19%$226 – $1,225
Oregon OR29$1,015+16%$173 – $1,760
Georgia GA45$985+13%$733 – $1,484
Hawaii HI10$910+4%$111 – $1,381
Virginia VA29$896+2%$572 – $1,029
Florida FL53$831−5%$621 – $1,914
North Carolina NC36$826−5%$495 – $967
Michigan MI36$803−8%$517 – $1,087
Colorado CO31$791−9%$679 – $1,369
Arizona AZ19$770−12%$658 – $2,203
Minnesota MN33$760−13%$450 – $1,542
Missouri MO30$754−14%$531 – $901
Pennsylvania PA71$745−15%$641 – $1,291
New York NY50$732−16%$141 – $1,338
West Virginia WV14$722−17%$74 – $808
Iowa IA22$707−19%$234 – $1,459
Wisconsin WI46$639−27%$517 – $905
Indiana IN36$591−32%$463 – $1,105
Tennessee TN14$583−33%$118 – $784
Mississippi MS13$550−37%$465 – $703
Kentucky KY13$521−40%$114 – $638
Arkansas AR13$470−46%$222 – $961
New Mexico NM10$433−51%$284 – $685
Nebraska NE15$318−64%$169 – $959
Oklahoma OK17$156−82%$156 – $935
Alabama AL9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME2not 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 $874.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,107$886$498 – $1,580
Children’s27$1,289$801 – $1,948
Critical access110$703$160 – $1,542
Ownership
For-profit94$905$517 – $1,400
Government145$732$330 – $1,307
Non-profit1,005$901$494 – $1,672
System affiliation
Part of a system1,108$886$500 – $1,586
Independent142$770$219 – $1,501

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,752
Median cash price$874
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

1,004 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $905 and the average of the middle 60% is $987; most fall between $494 and $1,672.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,004 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
$213$546$905$1,484$2,204

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($213 vs $2,204).

Of the 1,051 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,004 gave a usable cash price; 20 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 27 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,250 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (32%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,322 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,250
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here40
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 — excluded31
Hospitals that filed this code1,322

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 24, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

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

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Instlj via Ch Tube/Cath Agent Fbrnlysis 1st Day.

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, “Clot-dissolving medicine into chest drain, first day (CPT 32561) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-32561-clot-dissolving-medicine-into-chest-drain-first-day