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Procedure price report · Other therapeutic procedures on eyelids, conjunctiva, cornea

Probing a blocked tear duct with tube placement

CPT 68815the billing code this page is about

Passing a probe through the tear duct between the eye and nose to open a blockage, including insertion of a tube or stent to hold the passage open.

Hospitals typically charge $2,388 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 527 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $2,444. Most fall between $905 and $4,613 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
527
States
49
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 527 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
$520$1,031$2,388$4,111$6,653

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($520 vs $6,653).

How the prices are spread

$378 – $515: 26 hospitals$378$515 – $701: 26 hospitals$701 – $955: 46 hospitals$701$955 – $1,301: 37 hospitals$1,301 – $1,773: 47 hospitals$1,301$1,773 – $2,415: 62 hospitals$2,415 – $3,290: 92 hospitals$2,415$3,290 – $4,481: 44 hospitals$4,481 – $6,104: 49 hospitals$4,481$6,104 – $8,316: 46 hospitals$6,104median $2,388price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (475 of 527 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$378$51526
$515$70126
$701$95546
$955$1,30137
$1,301$1,77347
$1,773$2,41562
$2,415$3,29092
$3,290$4,48144
$4,481$6,10449
$6,104$8,31646

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$2,429
Median cash price$2,388
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.98×

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 $2,388.

Alaska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 1 hospital 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: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $1,681 across 15 hospitalsMN$1,681Illinois: median $958 across 21 hospitalsIL$958Wisconsin: median $2,369 across 28 hospitalsWI$2,369Michigan: median $2,357 across 32 hospitalsMI$2,357New York: median $2,968 across 45 hospitalsNY$2,968Massachusetts: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: median $718 across 15 hospitalsOR$718Nevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $955 across 16 hospitalsIA$955Indiana: median $2,065 across 11 hospitalsIN$2,065Ohio: median $807 across 10 hospitalsOH$807Pennsylvania: median $3,623 across 15 hospitalsPA$3,623New Jersey: median $3,114 across 33 hospitalsNJ$3,114Connecticut: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $2,591 across 52 hospitalsCA$2,591Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $2,421 across 10 hospitalsMO$2,421Kentucky: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: median $2,278 across 20 hospitalsWV$2,278Virginia: median $1,724 across 12 hospitalsVA$1,724Maryland: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $360 across 13 hospitalsOK$360Louisiana: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $2,903 across 17 hospitalsGA$2,903Hawaii: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $2,388 across 25 hospitalsTX$2,388Florida: median $3,205 across 11 hospitalsFL$3,205
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $2,388. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Pennsylvania PA15$3,623+52%$2,733 – $5,024
Florida FL11$3,205+34%$2,342 – $4,040
New Jersey NJ33$3,114+30%$2,585 – $5,741
New York NY45$2,968+24%$2,761 – $4,595
Georgia GA17$2,903+22%$2,903 – $3,562
California CA52$2,591+8%$1,056 – $6,653
Missouri MO10$2,421+1%$587 – $4,613
Texas TX25$2,3880%$1,212 – $3,403
Wisconsin WI28$2,369−1%$2,212 – $2,562
Michigan MI32$2,357−1%$1,670 – $7,544
West Virginia WV20$2,278−5%$1,014 – $2,997
Indiana IN11$2,065−14%$467 – $3,973
Virginia VA12$1,724−28%$1,186 – $1,724
Minnesota MN15$1,681−30%$520 – $1,681
Illinois IL21$958−60%$467 – $4,784
Iowa IA16$955−60%$955 – $1,711
Ohio OH10$807−66%$521 – $3,036
Oregon OR15$718−70%$668 – $4,471
Oklahoma OK13$360−85%$360 – $2,686
Idaho ID9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY1not 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 $2,388.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care440$2,672$955 – $4,845
Children’s12fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access74$2,187$805 – $2,562
Ownership
For-profit49$2,249$480 – $4,574
Government68$2,082$797 – $2,997
Non-profit409$2,550$955 – $4,845
System affiliation
Part of a system448$2,562$955 – $4,784
Independent79$1,502$565 – $3,710

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$3,515
Median cash price$2,388
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

293 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $2,151 and the average of the middle 60% is $2,100; most fall between $668 and $4,772.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 293 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
$394$842$2,151$3,623$6,653

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 17× what the cheapest tenth charges ($394 vs $6,653).

Of the 323 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 293 gave a usable cash price; 22 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 8 a list price only.

How complete is this

527 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (13%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 572 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted527
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here33
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded2
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded2
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded8
Hospitals that filed this code572

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 therapeutic procedures on eyelids, conjunctiva, cornea family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Probe Nasolacrimal Duct W/WO Irrg Insj Tube/Stnt.

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, “Probing a blocked tear duct with tube placement (CPT 68815) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-68815-probing-a-blocked-tear-duct-with-tube-placement