HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

Procedure price report · Other OR therapeutic procedures on nose, mouth and pharynx

Simple drainage of an abscess of the parotid gland

CPT 42300the billing code this page is about

Cutting into a parotid salivary gland in front of the ear to drain a pocket of pus, done as a straightforward procedure.

Hospitals typically charge $1,711 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 610 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,633. Most fall between $401 and $3,063 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
610
States
47
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 610 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
$258$523$1,711$2,677$3,789

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 15× what the cheapest tenth charges ($258 vs $3,789).

How the prices are spread

$201 – $276: 45 hospitals$201$276 – $379: 37 hospitals$379 – $521: 42 hospitals$379$521 – $715: 39 hospitals$715 – $982: 36 hospitals$715$982 – $1,348: 24 hospitals$1,348 – $1,850: 101 hospitals$1,348$1,850 – $2,540: 89 hospitals$2,540 – $3,488: 91 hospitals$2,540$3,488 – $4,788: 53 hospitals$3,488median $1,711price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (557 of 610 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$201$27645
$276$37937
$379$52142
$521$71539
$715$98236
$982$1,34824
$1,348$1,850101
$1,850$2,54089
$2,540$3,48891
$3,488$4,78853

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$1,585
Median cash price$1,711
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.08×

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 $1,711.

Alaska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $2,975 across 15 hospitalsWA$2,975Idaho: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $568 across 12 hospitalsMN$568Illinois: median $525 across 24 hospitalsIL$525Wisconsin: median $1,582 across 20 hospitalsWI$1,582Michigan: median $2,133 across 23 hospitalsMI$2,133New York: median $1,753 across 39 hospitalsNY$1,753Massachusetts: median $2,309 across 17 hospitalsMA$2,309Oregon: median $597 across 17 hospitalsOR$597Nevada: 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: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $525 across 21 hospitalsIA$525Indiana: median $367 across 19 hospitalsIN$367Ohio: median $515 across 12 hospitalsOH$515Pennsylvania: median $1,833 across 33 hospitalsPA$1,833New Jersey: median $2,007 across 29 hospitalsNJ$2,007Connecticut: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $3,063 across 65 hospitalsCA$3,063Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: median $1,375 across 10 hospitalsCO$1,375Nebraska: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $2,040 across 12 hospitalsVA$2,040Maryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $2,354 across 15 hospitalsNC$2,354South Carolina: median $2,666 across 12 hospitalsSC$2,666Oklahoma: median $258 across 17 hospitalsOK$258Louisiana: median $1,350 across 10 hospitalsLA$1,350Mississippi: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $1,848 across 57 hospitalsTX$1,848Florida: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,711. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA65$3,063+79%$1,159 – $4,788
Washington WA15$2,975+74%$272 – $3,391
South Carolina SC12$2,666+56%$2,373 – $3,670
North Carolina NC15$2,354+38%$351 – $2,354
Massachusetts MA17$2,309+35%$1,350 – $5,277
Michigan MI23$2,133+25%$287 – $2,677
Virginia VA12$2,040+19%$2,040 – $2,665
New Jersey NJ29$2,007+17%$1,619 – $5,339
Texas TX57$1,848+8%$1,551 – $3,114
Pennsylvania PA33$1,833+7%$114 – $3,190
New York NY39$1,753+2%$652 – $3,331
Wisconsin WI20$1,582−8%$877 – $2,372
Colorado CO10$1,375−20%$401 – $2,312
Louisiana LA10$1,350−21%$608 – $2,554
Oregon OR17$597−65%$391 – $1,435
Minnesota MN12$568−67%$382 – $800
Iowa IA21$525−69%$325 – $1,171
Illinois IL24$525−69%$270 – $2,074
Ohio OH12$515−70%$446 – $1,623
Indiana IN19$367−79%$208 – $579
Oklahoma OK17$258−85%$258 – $957
Florida FL9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT2not 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 $1,711.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care505$1,753$515 – $3,114
Children’s11fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access93$618$272 – $2,652
Ownership
For-profit46$1,477$287 – $3,114
Government87$1,240$317 – $2,354
Non-profit476$1,744$496 – $3,114
System affiliation
Part of a system509$1,753$477 – $3,114
Independent101$766$286 – $2,521

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$2,588
Median cash price$1,711
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

437 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,833 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,793; most fall between $393 and $3,114.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 437 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
$242$525$1,833$3,030$4,054

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 17× what the cheapest tenth charges ($242 vs $4,054).

Of the 460 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 437 gave a usable cash price; 19 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

610 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (15%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 654 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted610
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here38
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 — excluded5
Hospitals that filed this code654

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 nose, mouth and pharynx family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Drainage Abscess Parotid Simple.

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, “Simple drainage of an abscess of the parotid gland (CPT 42300) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-42300-simple-drainage-of-an-abscess-of-the-parotid-gland