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Procedure price report · Other non-OR gastrointestinal therapeutic procedures

Placement of a long tube into the intestine

CPT 44500the billing code this page is about

Insertion of a long tube through the nose into the small intestine, guided by X-ray, to drain fluid and gas or relieve a blockage.

Hospitals typically charge $929 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,623 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $967. Most fall between $425 and $1,738 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,623
States
50
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 1,623 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
$185$509$929$1,484$2,617

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 14× what the cheapest tenth charges ($185 vs $2,617).

How the prices are spread

$96 – $138: 21 hospitals$96$138 – $199: 66 hospitals$199 – $286: 53 hospitals$199$286 – $411: 88 hospitals$411 – $591: 156 hospitals$411$591 – $850: 240 hospitals$850 – $1,222: 357 hospitals$850$1,222 – $1,758: 241 hospitals$1,758 – $2,528: 146 hospitals$1,758$2,528 – $3,636: 93 hospitals$2,528median $929price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,461 of 1,623 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$96$13821
$138$19966
$199$28653
$286$41188
$411$591156
$591$850240
$850$1,222357
$1,222$1,758241
$1,758$2,528146
$2,528$3,63693

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$927
Median cash price$929
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.00×

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 $929.

Alaska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $1,281 across 45 hospitalsWA$1,281Idaho: median $2,150 across 13 hospitalsID$2,150Montana: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $828 across 43 hospitalsMN$828Illinois: median $980 across 62 hospitalsIL$980Wisconsin: median $635 across 73 hospitalsWI$635Michigan: median $953 across 55 hospitalsMI$953New York: median $1,109 across 47 hospitalsNY$1,109Massachusetts: median $1,314 across 29 hospitalsMA$1,314Oregon: median $1,942 across 30 hospitalsOR$1,942Nevada: 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: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $519 across 27 hospitalsIA$519Indiana: median $450 across 54 hospitalsIN$450Ohio: median $954 across 94 hospitalsOH$954Pennsylvania: median $1,016 across 82 hospitalsPA$1,016New Jersey: median $2,728 across 45 hospitalsNJ$2,728Connecticut: median $690 across 14 hospitalsCT$690Rhode Island: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,721 across 130 hospitalsCA$1,721Utah: median $996 across 28 hospitalsUT$996Colorado: median $929 across 41 hospitalsCO$929Nebraska: median $452 across 15 hospitalsNE$452Missouri: median $1,047 across 43 hospitalsMO$1,047Kentucky: median $573 across 16 hospitalsKY$573West Virginia: median $1,043 across 10 hospitalsWV$1,043Virginia: median $1,193 across 41 hospitalsVA$1,193Maryland: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $513 across 25 hospitalsAZ$513New Mexico: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $519 across 22 hospitalsKS$519Arkansas: median $235 across 10 hospitalsAR$235Tennessee: median $332 across 22 hospitalsTN$332North Carolina: median $456 across 48 hospitalsNC$456South Carolina: median $844 across 34 hospitalsSC$844Oklahoma: median $996 across 19 hospitalsOK$996Louisiana: median $300 across 16 hospitalsLA$300Mississippi: median $565 across 23 hospitalsMS$565Alabama: median $1,120 across 14 hospitalsAL$1,120Georgia: median $905 across 55 hospitalsGA$905Hawaii: median $992 across 10 hospitalsHI$992Texas: median $865 across 137 hospitalsTX$865Florida: median $881 across 67 hospitalsFL$881
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $929. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Jersey NJ45$2,728+194%$1,038 – $4,881
Idaho ID13$2,150+131%$701 – $2,526
Oregon OR30$1,942+109%$1,102 – $2,425
California CA130$1,721+85%$910 – $3,567
Massachusetts MA29$1,314+41%$477 – $2,910
Washington WA45$1,281+38%$365 – $1,624
Virginia VA41$1,193+28%$657 – $1,489
Alabama AL14$1,120+21%$433 – $2,205
New York NY47$1,109+19%$855 – $2,029
Missouri MO43$1,047+13%$709 – $1,453
West Virginia WV10$1,043+12%$385 – $1,351
Pennsylvania PA82$1,016+9%$483 – $1,788
Utah UT28$996+7%$853 – $1,004
Oklahoma OK19$996+7%$481 – $1,518
Hawaii HI10$992+7%$932 – $1,463
Illinois IL62$980+5%$239 – $1,317
Ohio OH94$954+3%$652 – $2,397
Michigan MI55$953+3%$72 – $1,347
Colorado CO41$9290%$615 – $1,754
Georgia GA55$905−3%$459 – $1,301
Florida FL67$881−5%$446 – $2,667
Texas TX137$865−7%$424 – $1,108
South Carolina SC34$844−9%$648 – $1,035
Minnesota MN43$828−11%$536 – $1,077
Connecticut CT14$690−26%$100 – $1,588
Wisconsin WI73$635−32%$458 – $1,347
Kentucky KY16$573−38%$209 – $3,765
Mississippi MS23$565−39%$364 – $1,126
Iowa IA27$519−44%$134 – $745
Kansas KS22$519−44%$278 – $1,102
Arizona AZ25$513−45%$160 – $3,673
North Carolina NC48$456−51%$171 – $833
Nebraska NE15$452−51%$54 – $1,032
Indiana IN54$450−52%$158 – $1,304
Tennessee TN22$332−64%$329 – $641
Louisiana LA16$300−68%$212 – $503
Arkansas AR10$235−75%$53 – $1,115
Montana MT9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY4not 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 $929.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,363$957$458 – $1,768
Children’s45$855$284 – $1,607
Critical access207$769$134 – $1,376
Ownership
For-profit154$979$459 – $2,300
Government204$689$171 – $1,278
Non-profit1,257$954$458 – $1,768
System affiliation
Part of a system1,398$954$458 – $1,768
Independent225$725$179 – $1,509

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,534
Median cash price$929
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

1,265 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $967 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,018; most fall between $459 and $1,788.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,265 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
$275$559$967$1,560$2,667

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.7× what the cheapest tenth charges ($275 vs $2,667).

Of the 1,407 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,265 gave a usable cash price; 92 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 50 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,623 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (41%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,822 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,623
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here141
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 — excluded57
Hospitals that filed this code1,822

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 Other non-OR gastrointestinal therapeutic procedures family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Introduction Long GI Tube Separate Procedure.

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, “Placement of a long tube into the intestine (CPT 44500) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-44500-placement-of-a-long-tube-into-the-intestine