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Procedure price report · Nonoperative removal of foreign body

Esophagus scope exam with removal of a swallowed object

CPT 43215the billing code this page is about

A flexible scope is passed through the mouth to find and take out a foreign object lodged in the esophagus.

Hospitals typically charge $1,398 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,303 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,521. Most fall between $590 and $3,030 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,303
States
50
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 1,303 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
$340$682$1,398$2,575$4,441

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($340 vs $4,441).

How the prices are spread

$249 – $343: 67 hospitals$249$343 – $473: 84 hospitals$473 – $652: 92 hospitals$473$652 – $899: 113 hospitals$899 – $1,240: 165 hospitals$899$1,240 – $1,710: 163 hospitals$1,710 – $2,357: 188 hospitals$1,710$2,357 – $3,249: 133 hospitals$3,249 – $4,480: 108 hospitals$3,249$4,480 – $6,176: 60 hospitals$4,480median $1,398price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,173 of 1,303 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$249$34367
$343$47384
$473$65292
$652$899113
$899$1,240165
$1,240$1,710163
$1,710$2,357188
$2,357$3,249133
$3,249$4,480108
$4,480$6,17660

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$1,960
Median cash price$1,398
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.71×

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 $1,398.

Alaska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: median $422 across 10 hospitalsME$422Vermont: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $876 across 10 hospitalsNH$876Washington: median $1,377 across 44 hospitalsWA$1,377Idaho: median $1,139 across 15 hospitalsID$1,139Montana: median $645 across 16 hospitalsMT$645North Dakota: median $2,498 across 10 hospitalsND$2,498Minnesota: median $1,303 across 48 hospitalsMN$1,303Illinois: median $1,225 across 43 hospitalsIL$1,225Wisconsin: median $1,479 across 38 hospitalsWI$1,479Michigan: median $643 across 35 hospitalsMI$643New York: median $1,992 across 57 hospitalsNY$1,992Massachusetts: median $2,645 across 32 hospitalsMA$2,645Oregon: median $1,114 across 39 hospitalsOR$1,114Nevada: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 8 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 $939 across 36 hospitalsIA$939Indiana: median $676 across 17 hospitalsIN$676Ohio: median $773 across 67 hospitalsOH$773Pennsylvania: median $2,281 across 71 hospitalsPA$2,281New Jersey: median $2,483 across 39 hospitalsNJ$2,483Connecticut: median $2,303 across 12 hospitalsCT$2,303Rhode Island: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $3,084 across 106 hospitalsCA$3,084Utah: median $579 across 15 hospitalsUT$579Colorado: median $1,269 across 26 hospitalsCO$1,269Nebraska: median $919 across 22 hospitalsNE$919Missouri: median $1,087 across 38 hospitalsMO$1,087Kentucky: median $1,094 across 17 hospitalsKY$1,094West Virginia: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $1,452 across 41 hospitalsVA$1,452Maryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $984 across 26 hospitalsKS$984Arkansas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $1,093 across 17 hospitalsTN$1,093North Carolina: median $2,110 across 24 hospitalsNC$2,110South Carolina: median $1,670 across 23 hospitalsSC$1,670Oklahoma: median $1,772 across 24 hospitalsOK$1,772Louisiana: median $1,054 across 22 hospitalsLA$1,054Mississippi: median $1,085 across 23 hospitalsMS$1,085Alabama: median $1,030 across 10 hospitalsAL$1,030Georgia: median $809 across 37 hospitalsGA$809Hawaii: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $1,275 across 65 hospitalsTX$1,275Florida: median $2,633 across 48 hospitalsFL$2,633
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,398. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA106$3,084+121%$1,087 – $6,490
Massachusetts MA32$2,645+89%$1,714 – $5,890
Florida FL48$2,633+88%$1,040 – $3,785
North Dakota ND10$2,498+79%$249 – $3,199
New Jersey NJ39$2,483+78%$2,073 – $5,419
Connecticut CT12$2,303+65%$1,445 – $6,602
Pennsylvania PA71$2,281+63%$426 – $3,223
North Carolina NC24$2,110+51%$1,420 – $2,198
New York NY57$1,992+43%$496 – $3,578
Oklahoma OK24$1,772+27%$468 – $2,992
South Carolina SC23$1,670+19%$796 – $2,270
Wisconsin WI38$1,479+6%$893 – $2,278
Virginia VA41$1,452+4%$1,210 – $2,353
Washington WA44$1,377−1%$383 – $3,441
Minnesota MN48$1,303−7%$547 – $1,815
Texas TX65$1,275−9%$1,044 – $2,504
Colorado CO26$1,269−9%$994 – $2,224
Illinois IL43$1,225−12%$362 – $3,058
Idaho ID15$1,139−19%$717 – $4,686
Oregon OR39$1,114−20%$362 – $3,489
Kentucky KY17$1,094−22%$362 – $7,617
Tennessee TN17$1,093−22%$173 – $1,162
Missouri MO38$1,087−22%$724 – $1,916
Mississippi MS23$1,085−22%$537 – $1,630
Louisiana LA22$1,054−25%$593 – $1,794
Alabama AL10$1,030−26%$499 – $1,967
Kansas KS26$984−30%$612 – $1,342
Iowa IA36$939−33%$464 – $1,091
Nebraska NE22$919−34%$468 – $1,201
New Hampshire NH10$876−37%$157 – $1,400
Georgia GA37$809−42%$809 – $2,742
Ohio OH67$773−45%$290 – $2,616
Indiana IN17$676−52%$362 – $2,590
Montana MT16$645−54%$271 – $2,264
Michigan MI35$643−54%$317 – $1,479
Utah UT15$579−59%$579 – $579
Maine ME10$422−70%$145 – $1,252
Hawaii HI9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not 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 $1,398.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care973$1,670$682 – $3,276
Children’s28$1,098$443 – $3,290
Critical access297$936$371 – $1,802
Ownership
For-profit107$1,660$626 – $3,134
Government242$1,167$503 – $2,246
Non-profit949$1,479$623 – $3,207
System affiliation
Part of a system1,050$1,505$643 – $3,199
Independent253$1,009$375 – $2,298

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$2,569
Median cash price$1,398
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

945 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,479 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,610; most fall between $623 and $3,196.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 945 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
$340$794$1,479$2,670$4,456

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($340 vs $4,456).

Of the 1,023 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 945 gave a usable cash price; 30 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 48 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,303 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (33%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,409 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,303
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here52
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 — excluded53
Hospitals that filed this code1,409

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 Nonoperative removal of foreign body family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Esophagoscopy Flexible Removal Foreign Body.

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, “Esophagus scope exam with removal of a swallowed object (CPT 43215) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-43215-esophagus-scope-exam-with-removal-of-a-swallowed-object