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Procedure price report · Incision and excision of CNS

Spinal fluid tap at the top of the neck

CPT 61050the billing code this page is about

Needle puncture between the first and second neck vertebrae or below the skull base to withdraw spinal fluid or measure pressure, with no injection.

Hospitals typically charge $778 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 565 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $718. Most fall between $214 and $1,474 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
565
States
47
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 565 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
$132$278$778$1,252$3,039

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 23× what the cheapest tenth charges ($132 vs $3,039).

How the prices are spread

$95 – $138: 34 hospitals$95$138 – $200: 31 hospitals$200 – $289: 57 hospitals$200$289 – $419: 55 hospitals$419 – $607: 37 hospitals$419$607 – $880: 80 hospitals$880 – $1,274: 104 hospitals$880$1,274 – $1,846: 56 hospitals$1,846 – $2,675: 14 hospitals$1,846$2,675 – $3,875: 43 hospitals$2,675median $778price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (511 of 565 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$95$13834
$138$20031
$200$28957
$289$41955
$419$60737
$607$88080
$880$1,274104
$1,274$1,84656
$1,846$2,67514
$2,675$3,87543

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$314
Median cash price$778
Cash as a multiple of Medicare2.5×

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 $778.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 2 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 $451 across 22 hospitalsWA$451Idaho: median $818 across 10 hospitalsID$818Montana: 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 $211 across 10 hospitalsMN$211Illinois: median $545 across 21 hospitalsIL$545Wisconsin: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: median $481 across 13 hospitalsMI$481New York: median $349 across 30 hospitalsNY$349Massachusetts: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 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 $214 across 15 hospitalsIA$214Indiana: median $210 across 17 hospitalsIN$210Ohio: median $99 across 25 hospitalsOH$99Pennsylvania: median $961 across 34 hospitalsPA$961New Jersey: median $3,837 across 27 hospitalsNJ$3,837Connecticut: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,544 across 65 hospitalsCA$1,544Utah: median $897 across 23 hospitalsUT$897Colorado: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $1,683 across 11 hospitalsVA$1,683Maryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $2,813 across 12 hospitalsAZ$2,813New Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKSArkansas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $132 across 15 hospitalsOK$132Louisiana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $788 across 15 hospitalsGA$788Hawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $927 across 56 hospitalsTX$927Florida: median $884 across 31 hospitalsFL$884
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $778. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Jersey NJ27$3,837+393%$327 – $5,419
Arizona AZ12$2,813+262%$452 – $2,813
Virginia VA11$1,683+116%$826 – $1,683
California CA65$1,544+98%$796 – $3,875
Pennsylvania PA34$961+24%$54 – $1,329
Texas TX56$927+19%$624 – $1,018
Utah UT23$897+15%$897 – $1,055
Florida FL31$884+14%$381 – $1,316
Idaho ID10$818+5%$818 – $1,211
Georgia GA15$788+1%$752 – $3,352
Illinois IL21$545−30%$133 – $809
Michigan MI13$481−38%$422 – $635
Washington WA22$451−42%$303 – $1,792
New York NY30$349−55%$266 – $639
Iowa IA15$214−72%$214 – $265
Minnesota MN10$211−73%$211 – $415
Indiana IN17$210−73%$158 – $670
Oklahoma OK15$132−83%$132 – $783
Ohio OH25$99−87%$66 – $363
Colorado CO9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not 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 $778.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care507$788$223 – $1,547
Children’s14fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access39$324$159 – $897
Ownership
For-profit58$1,018$274 – $1,547
Government68$381$239 – $993
Non-profit434$788$214 – $1,547
System affiliation
Part of a system491$796$220 – $1,547
Independent74$438$188 – $1,142

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,242
Median cash price$778
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

427 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $880 and the average of the middle 60% is $851; most fall between $222 and $1,629.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 427 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
$132$329$880$1,324$2,858

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 22× what the cheapest tenth charges ($132 vs $2,858).

Of the 450 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 427 gave a usable cash price; 8 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 15 a list price only.

How complete is this

565 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (14%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 594 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted565
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here14
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 — excluded14
Hospitals that filed this code594

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 Incision and excision of CNS family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Cisternal/Lateral C1-C2 Puncture W/O Inj Spx.

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, “Spinal fluid tap at the top of the neck (CPT 61050) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-61050-spinal-fluid-tap-at-the-top-of-the-neck