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Procedure price report · Other diagnostic radiology and related techniques

Dye injection into a salivary duct for X-ray imaging

CPT 42550the billing code this page is about

Covers the injection of contrast dye into a salivary gland duct so the duct can be pictured on X-ray; the imaging itself is billed separately.

Hospitals typically charge $288 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 999 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $312. Most fall between $135 and $580 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
999
States
50
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – 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 999 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
$100$154$288$507$1,220

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($100 vs $1,220).

How the prices are spread

$69 – $95: 39 hospitals$69$95 – $131: 97 hospitals$131 – $180: 142 hospitals$131$180 – $248: 99 hospitals$248 – $343: 136 hospitals$248$343 – $473: 157 hospitals$473 – $652: 115 hospitals$473$652 – $899: 42 hospitals$899 – $1,241: 24 hospitals$899$1,241 – $1,712: 50 hospitals$1,241median $288price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (901 of 999 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$69$9539
$95$13197
$131$180142
$180$24899
$248$343136
$343$473157
$473$652115
$652$89942
$899$1,24124
$1,241$1,71250

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $288.

Alaska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 6 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 $274 across 24 hospitalsWA$274Idaho: median $520 across 10 hospitalsID$520Montana: 3 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 $420 across 17 hospitalsMN$420Illinois: median $334 across 51 hospitalsIL$334Wisconsin: median $462 across 38 hospitalsWI$462Michigan: median $394 across 48 hospitalsMI$394New York: median $261 across 25 hospitalsNY$261Massachusetts: median $254 across 21 hospitalsMA$254Oregon: median $274 across 17 hospitalsOR$274Nevada: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $376 across 21 hospitalsIA$376Indiana: median $201 across 41 hospitalsIN$201Ohio: median $325 across 63 hospitalsOH$325Pennsylvania: median $514 across 55 hospitalsPA$514New Jersey: median $4,627 across 16 hospitalsNJ$4,627Connecticut: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $431 across 75 hospitalsCA$431Utah: median $170 across 22 hospitalsUT$170Colorado: median $232 across 26 hospitalsCO$232Nebraska: median $196 across 10 hospitalsNE$196Missouri: median $189 across 22 hospitalsMO$189Kentucky: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $399 across 18 hospitalsVA$399Maryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $170 across 24 hospitalsAZ$170New Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $388 across 11 hospitalsKS$388Arkansas: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $146 across 22 hospitalsTN$146North Carolina: median $309 across 27 hospitalsNC$309South Carolina: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $130 across 25 hospitalsOK$130Louisiana: median $143 across 16 hospitalsLA$143Mississippi: median $135 across 14 hospitalsMS$135Alabama: median $205 across 11 hospitalsAL$205Georgia: median $420 across 18 hospitalsGA$420Hawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $250 across 88 hospitalsTX$250Florida: median $284 across 32 hospitalsFL$284
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $288. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Jersey NJ16$4,627+1505%$3,786 – $5,741
Idaho ID10$520+80%$161 – $1,524
Pennsylvania PA55$514+78%$53 – $722
Wisconsin WI38$462+60%$283 – $532
California CA75$431+50%$174 – $1,451
Georgia GA18$420+46%$287 – $612
Minnesota MN17$420+46%$83 – $463
Virginia VA18$399+38%$373 – $483
Michigan MI48$394+37%$171 – $656
Kansas KS11$388+35%$190 – $405
Iowa IA21$376+30%$209 – $478
Illinois IL51$334+16%$174 – $590
Ohio OH63$325+13%$242 – $2,016
North Carolina NC27$309+7%$112 – $507
Florida FL32$284−1%$161 – $325
Oregon OR17$274−5%$121 – $344
Washington WA24$274−5%$181 – $380
New York NY25$261−9%$141 – $514
Massachusetts MA21$254−12%$204 – $681
Texas TX88$250−13%$107 – $419
Colorado CO26$232−19%$170 – $368
Alabama AL11$205−29%$158 – $468
Indiana IN41$201−30%$128 – $322
Nebraska NE10$196−32%$153 – $297
Missouri MO22$189−34%$96 – $282
Arizona AZ24$170−41%$132 – $916
Utah UT22$170−41%$170 – $200
Tennessee TN22$146−49%$110 – $165
Louisiana LA16$143−51%$50 – $624
Mississippi MS14$135−53%$104 – $466
Oklahoma OK25$130−55%$102 – $292
South Carolina SC8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not 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 $288.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care841$288$135 – $577
Children’s26$555$175 – $1,352
Critical access126$263$146 – $532
Ownership
For-profit81$334$146 – $624
Government120$205$107 – $507
Non-profit792$297$143 – $590
System affiliation
Part of a system869$292$141 – $570
Independent130$263$116 – $604

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$513
Median cash price$288
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

791 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $310 and the average of the middle 60% is $324; most fall between $146 and $562.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 791 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
$102$165$310$507$1,113

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($102 vs $1,113).

Of the 858 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 791 gave a usable cash price; 21 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 46 a list price only.

How complete is this

999 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (25%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,134 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted999
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here45
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded90
Hospitals that filed this code1,134

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 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 diagnostic radiology and related techniques family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Injection Procedure Sialography.

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, “Dye injection into a salivary duct for X-ray imaging (CPT 42550) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-42550-dye-injection-into-a-salivary-duct-for-x-ray-imaging