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Procedure price report · Other diagnostic cardiovascular procedures

Chest scope exam with biopsy of the sac around the heart

CPT 32604the billing code this page is about

A camera is inserted through a small chest incision to view the sac surrounding the heart and take one or more tissue samples for testing.

Hospitals typically charge $2,280 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 267 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $4,506. Most fall between $778 and $12,320 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
267
States
40
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 267 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
$543$810$2,280$11,378$12,516

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 23× what the cheapest tenth charges ($543 vs $12,516).

How the prices are spread

$473 – $667: 23 hospitals$473$667 – $940: 53 hospitals$940 – $1,324: 23 hospitals$940$1,324 – $1,866: 11 hospitals$1,866 – $2,630: 13 hospitals$1,866$2,630 – $3,706: 2 hospitals$3,706 – $5,223: 24 hospitals$3,706$5,223 – $7,360: 14 hospitals$7,360 – $10,372: 17 hospitals$7,360$10,372 – $14,616: 61 hospitals$10,372median $2,280price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (241 of 267 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$473$66723
$667$94053
$940$1,32423
$1,324$1,86611
$1,866$2,63013
$2,630$3,7062
$3,706$5,22324
$5,223$7,36014
$7,360$10,37217
$10,372$14,61661

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$10,860
Median cash price$2,280
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.21×

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 $2,280.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 4 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: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $810 across 10 hospitalsIL$810Wisconsin: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: median $473 across 24 hospitalsMI$473New York: median $12,320 across 25 hospitalsNY$12,320Massachusetts: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 3 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 $1,170 across 15 hospitalsIA$1,170Indiana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figurePANew Jersey: median $6,311 across 24 hospitalsNJ$6,311Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $12,516 across 36 hospitalsCA$12,516Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWVVirginia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNCSouth Carolina: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $778 across 12 hospitalsOK$778Louisiana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceGAHawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $4,713 across 19 hospitalsTX$4,713Florida: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $2,280. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA36$12,516+449%$7,587 – $12,516
New York NY25$12,320+440%$1,405 – $13,269
New Jersey NJ24$6,311+177%$4,627 – $11,534
Texas TX19$4,713+107%$4,713 – $9,531
Iowa IA15$1,170−49%$1,170 – $1,170
Illinois IL10$810−64%$676 – $948
Oklahoma OK12$778−66%$778 – $778
Michigan MI24$473−79%$473 – $10,539
Pennsylvania PA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not 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 $2,280.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care234$4,362$778 – $12,320
Children’s6fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access26$1,172$810 – $4,713
Ownership
For-profit27$4,362$810 – $10,625
Government29$1,516$791 – $12,320
Non-profit210$2,280$778 – $12,261
System affiliation
Part of a system225$4,000$778 – $12,320
Independent42$1,330$841 – $9,284

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,807
Median cash price$2,280
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

157 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,170 and the average of the middle 60% is $2,672; most fall between $778 and $7,587.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 157 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
$553$810$1,170$7,587$12,516

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 23× what the cheapest tenth charges ($553 vs $12,516).

Of the 177 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 157 gave a usable cash price; 18 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 2 a list price only.

How complete is this

267 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (7%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 298 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted267
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here28
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 — excluded2
Hospitals that filed this code298

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 5, 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 Other diagnostic cardiovascular procedures family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Thoracoscopy Dx Pericardial Sac W/Biopsy Spx.

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 scope exam with biopsy of the sac around the heart (CPT 32604) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-32604-chest-scope-exam-with-biopsy-of-the-sac-around-the-heart