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Procedure price report · Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, biopsy

Esophagus scope exam with ultrasound

CPT 43231the billing code this page is about

A flexible scope with an ultrasound probe is passed through the mouth to view the esophageal wall and nearby structures with sound waves.

Hospitals typically charge $1,988 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 684 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,951. Most fall between $594 and $3,740 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
684
States
49
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 684 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
$302$723$1,988$3,408$5,409

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 18× what the cheapest tenth charges ($302 vs $5,409).

How the prices are spread

$208 – $294: 35 hospitals$208$294 – $417: 42 hospitals$417 – $590: 28 hospitals$417$590 – $835: 57 hospitals$835 – $1,181: 52 hospitals$835$1,181 – $1,672: 67 hospitals$1,672 – $2,367: 97 hospitals$1,672$2,367 – $3,351: 101 hospitals$3,351 – $4,743: 91 hospitals$3,351$4,743 – $6,714: 63 hospitals$4,743median $1,988price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (633 of 684 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$208$29435
$294$41742
$417$59028
$590$83557
$835$1,18152
$1,181$1,67267
$1,672$2,36797
$2,367$3,351101
$3,351$4,74391
$4,743$6,71463

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$1,960
Median cash price$1,988
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.01×

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 $1,988.

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 3 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 $1,990 across 21 hospitalsMN$1,990Illinois: median $1,903 across 28 hospitalsIL$1,903Wisconsin: median $1,937 across 27 hospitalsWI$1,937Michigan: median $373 across 31 hospitalsMI$373New York: median $2,245 across 32 hospitalsNY$2,245Massachusetts: median $5,323 across 17 hospitalsMA$5,323Oregon: median $436 across 13 hospitalsOR$436Nevada: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $723 across 18 hospitalsIA$723Indiana: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $3,070 across 49 hospitalsOH$3,070Pennsylvania: median $2,700 across 37 hospitalsPA$2,700New Jersey: median $2,531 across 37 hospitalsNJ$2,531Connecticut: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $3,484 across 58 hospitalsCA$3,484Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $2,430 across 11 hospitalsCO$2,430Nebraska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $694 across 14 hospitalsTN$694North Carolina: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: median $1,455 across 19 hospitalsSC$1,455Oklahoma: median $208 across 15 hospitalsOK$208Louisiana: median $763 across 21 hospitalsLA$763Mississippi: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $1,425 across 26 hospitalsGA$1,425Hawaii: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $915 across 40 hospitalsTX$915Florida: median $2,723 across 31 hospitalsFL$2,723
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,988. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Massachusetts MA17$5,323+168%$3,401 – $5,890
California CA58$3,484+75%$2,020 – $6,714
Ohio OH49$3,070+54%$1,737 – $4,343
Florida FL31$2,723+37%$2,417 – $3,785
Pennsylvania PA37$2,700+36%$1,961 – $3,414
New Jersey NJ37$2,531+27%$2,201 – $5,419
Colorado CO11$2,430+22%$366 – $2,871
New York NY32$2,245+13%$548 – $2,278
Minnesota MN21$1,9900%$715 – $3,708
Wisconsin WI27$1,937−3%$1,487 – $2,265
Illinois IL28$1,903−4%$353 – $3,372
South Carolina SC19$1,455−27%$873 – $1,985
Georgia GA26$1,425−28%$1,371 – $2,742
Texas TX40$915−54%$651 – $1,838
Louisiana LA21$763−62%$579 – $1,054
Iowa IA18$723−64%$510 – $723
Tennessee TN14$694−65%$214 – $1,093
Oregon OR13$436−78%$280 – $2,096
Michigan MI31$373−81%$197 – $1,801
Oklahoma OK15$208−90%$208 – $2,862
Connecticut CT9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not 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 $1,988.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care582$2,049$657 – $3,785
Children’s11fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access87$1,487$353 – $3,708
Ownership
For-profit62$1,487$656 – $3,200
Government91$2,049$875 – $3,322
Non-profit527$2,004$548 – $3,896
System affiliation
Part of a system599$2,087$657 – $3,785
Independent85$1,306$339 – $3,200

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$3,520
Median cash price$1,988
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

480 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,737 and the average of the middle 60% is $2,047; most fall between $618 and $3,936.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 480 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
$280$723$1,737$3,500$6,343

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 23× what the cheapest tenth charges ($280 vs $6,343).

Of the 524 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 480 gave a usable cash price; 17 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

684 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (17%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 742 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted684
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 — excluded2
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded15
Hospitals that filed this code742

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 Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, biopsy family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Esophagoscopy Flexible Transoral Ultrasound Exam.

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 ultrasound (CPT 43231) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-43231-esophagus-scope-exam-with-ultrasound