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Procedure price report · Diagnostic spinal tap

Diagnostic spinal tap with imaging guidance

CPT 62328the billing code this page is about

A needle is placed in the lower back to collect spinal fluid for testing, with X-ray or CT used to guide the needle.

Hospitals typically charge $1,170 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 2,318 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,256. Most fall between $665 and $2,133 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
2,318
States
50
Filings dated
Dec 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 2,318 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
$399$776$1,170$1,885$3,066

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.7× what the cheapest tenth charges ($399 vs $3,066).

How the prices are spread

$231 – $305: 42 hospitals$231$305 – $401: 81 hospitals$401 – $529: 103 hospitals$401$529 – $697: 154 hospitals$697 – $919: 293 hospitals$697$919 – $1,212: 406 hospitals$1,212 – $1,598: 361 hospitals$1,212$1,598 – $2,106: 297 hospitals$2,106 – $2,776: 162 hospitals$2,106$2,776 – $3,659: 189 hospitals$2,776median $1,170price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (2,088 of 2,318 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$231$30542
$305$40181
$401$529103
$529$697154
$697$919293
$919$1,212406
$1,212$1,598361
$1,598$2,106297
$2,106$2,776162
$2,776$3,659189

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$721
Median cash price$1,170
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.62×

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 $1,170.

Alaska: median $1,878 across 11 hospitalsAK$1,878Maine: median $1,082 across 13 hospitalsME$1,082Vermont: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $825 across 14 hospitalsNH$825Washington: median $1,224 across 57 hospitalsWA$1,224Idaho: median $1,886 across 15 hospitalsID$1,886Montana: median $399 across 21 hospitalsMT$399North Dakota: median $1,132 across 10 hospitalsND$1,132Minnesota: median $983 across 63 hospitalsMN$983Illinois: median $1,400 across 91 hospitalsIL$1,400Wisconsin: median $1,130 across 88 hospitalsWI$1,130Michigan: median $1,001 across 75 hospitalsMI$1,001New York: median $1,231 across 82 hospitalsNY$1,231Massachusetts: median $1,627 across 38 hospitalsMA$1,627Oregon: median $1,347 across 43 hospitalsOR$1,347Nevada: median $767 across 13 hospitalsNV$767Wyoming: median $760 across 12 hospitalsWY$760South Dakota: median $1,757 across 11 hospitalsSD$1,757Iowa: median $1,217 across 38 hospitalsIA$1,217Indiana: median $1,433 across 75 hospitalsIN$1,433Ohio: median $1,778 across 122 hospitalsOH$1,778Pennsylvania: median $1,360 across 98 hospitalsPA$1,360New Jersey: median $924 across 53 hospitalsNJ$924Connecticut: median $1,419 across 19 hospitalsCT$1,419Rhode Island: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,668 across 170 hospitalsCA$1,668Utah: median $1,272 across 30 hospitalsUT$1,272Colorado: median $1,083 across 53 hospitalsCO$1,083Nebraska: median $874 across 37 hospitalsNE$874Missouri: median $1,094 across 52 hospitalsMO$1,094Kentucky: median $925 across 32 hospitalsKY$925West Virginia: median $1,065 across 26 hospitalsWV$1,065Virginia: median $1,504 across 50 hospitalsVA$1,504Maryland: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $882 across 43 hospitalsAZ$882New Mexico: median $1,703 across 19 hospitalsNM$1,703Kansas: median $764 across 41 hospitalsKS$764Arkansas: median $501 across 24 hospitalsAR$501Tennessee: median $479 across 48 hospitalsTN$479North Carolina: median $1,140 across 65 hospitalsNC$1,140South Carolina: median $1,573 across 43 hospitalsSC$1,573Oklahoma: median $934 across 36 hospitalsOK$934Louisiana: median $657 across 41 hospitalsLA$657Mississippi: median $504 across 36 hospitalsMS$504Alabama: median $968 across 30 hospitalsAL$968Georgia: median $1,433 across 69 hospitalsGA$1,433Hawaii: median $1,478 across 11 hospitalsHI$1,478Texas: median $1,298 across 176 hospitalsTX$1,298Florida: median $1,401 across 99 hospitalsFL$1,401
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,170. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Idaho ID15$1,886+61%$1,103 – $1,886
Alaska AK11$1,878+60%$1,257 – $2,369
Ohio OH122$1,778+52%$1,310 – $3,106
South Dakota SD11$1,757+50%$692 – $1,757
New Mexico NM19$1,703+46%$1,097 – $2,268
California CA170$1,668+43%$841 – $3,186
Massachusetts MA38$1,627+39%$595 – $2,406
South Carolina SC43$1,573+34%$869 – $1,700
Virginia VA50$1,504+29%$927 – $1,938
Hawaii HI11$1,478+26%$313 – $1,576
Georgia GA69$1,433+23%$896 – $2,049
Indiana IN75$1,433+22%$635 – $1,807
Connecticut CT19$1,419+21%$1,383 – $2,984
Florida FL99$1,401+20%$948 – $3,196
Illinois IL91$1,400+20%$471 – $2,293
Pennsylvania PA98$1,360+16%$823 – $2,203
Oregon OR43$1,347+15%$255 – $1,886
Texas TX176$1,298+11%$833 – $2,777
Utah UT30$1,272+9%$1,070 – $1,496
New York NY82$1,231+5%$820 – $3,054
Washington WA57$1,224+5%$820 – $2,028
Iowa IA38$1,217+4%$510 – $1,388
North Carolina NC65$1,140−3%$685 – $1,351
North Dakota ND10$1,132−3%$642 – $1,586
Wisconsin WI88$1,130−3%$776 – $1,682
Missouri MO52$1,094−7%$670 – $2,035
Colorado CO53$1,083−7%$609 – $2,051
Maine ME13$1,082−8%$355 – $1,809
West Virginia WV26$1,065−9%$698 – $1,446
Michigan MI75$1,001−14%$534 – $1,342
Minnesota MN63$983−16%$748 – $1,343
Alabama AL30$968−17%$584 – $2,577
Oklahoma OK36$934−20%$735 – $1,589
Kentucky KY32$925−21%$610 – $1,872
New Jersey NJ53$924−21%$767 – $4,627
Arizona AZ43$882−25%$562 – $3,568
Nebraska NE37$874−25%$522 – $1,450
New Hampshire NH14$825−30%$109 – $1,111
Nevada NV13$767−34%$377 – $2,003
Kansas KS41$764−35%$520 – $1,245
Wyoming WY12$760−35%$488 – $1,134
Louisiana LA41$657−44%$333 – $1,185
Mississippi MS36$504−57%$391 – $1,247
Arkansas AR24$501−57%$461 – $1,054
Tennessee TN48$479−59%$310 – $883
Montana MT21$399−66%$158 – $1,201
Rhode Island RI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT3not 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 $1,170.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,886$1,210$715 – $2,270
Children’s51$1,480$868 – $2,724
Critical access372$955$399 – $1,640
Ownership
For-profit258$1,272$703 – $2,777
Government334$967$475 – $1,576
Non-profit1,717$1,235$705 – $2,200
System affiliation
Part of a system1,942$1,231$705 – $2,263
Independent376$1,009$489 – $1,690

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$2,196
Median cash price$1,170
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

1,743 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,298 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,358; most fall between $756 and $2,259.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,743 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
$465$846$1,298$1,995$3,106

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.7× what the cheapest tenth charges ($465 vs $3,106).

Of the 1,872 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,743 gave a usable cash price; 46 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 82 a list price only.

How complete is this

2,318 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (59%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 2,494 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted2,318
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here80
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded8
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded87
Hospitals that filed this code2,494

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 Diagnostic spinal tap family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Diagnostic Lumbar Spinal Puncture W/Fluor or CT.

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, “Diagnostic spinal tap with imaging guidance (CPT 62328) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-62328-diagnostic-spinal-tap-with-imaging-guidance