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Procedure price report · Other therapeutic ear procedures

Inner ear drug injection through the ear canal

CPT 69801the billing code this page is about

A small opening is made into the inner ear balance organ through the ear canal so medication affecting balance function can be delivered.

Hospitals typically charge $1,339 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 589 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,438. Most fall between $449 and $3,058 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
589
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 589 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
$230$522$1,339$2,574$4,329

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 19× what the cheapest tenth charges ($230 vs $4,329).

How the prices are spread

$182 – $255: 40 hospitals$182$255 – $358: 32 hospitals$358 – $503: 30 hospitals$358$503 – $707: 66 hospitals$707 – $993: 38 hospitals$707$993 – $1,395: 61 hospitals$1,395 – $1,959: 97 hospitals$1,395$1,959 – $2,751: 57 hospitals$2,751 – $3,864: 54 hospitals$2,751$3,864 – $5,428: 56 hospitals$3,864median $1,339price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (531 of 589 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$182$25540
$255$35832
$358$50330
$503$70766
$707$99338
$993$1,39561
$1,395$1,95997
$1,959$2,75157
$2,751$3,86454
$3,864$5,42856

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$1,585
Median cash price$1,339
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.84×

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 $1,339.

Alaska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 7 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 $1,629 across 13 hospitalsWA$1,629Idaho: median $3,330 across 10 hospitalsID$3,330Montana: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $1,088 across 20 hospitalsMN$1,088Illinois: median $834 across 26 hospitalsIL$834Wisconsin: median $1,188 across 42 hospitalsWI$1,188Michigan: median $251 across 31 hospitalsMI$251New York: median $1,753 across 40 hospitalsNY$1,753Massachusetts: median $4,259 across 10 hospitalsMA$4,259Oregon: median $412 across 13 hospitalsOR$412Nevada: 2 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 $522 across 19 hospitalsIA$522Indiana: median $772 across 21 hospitalsIN$772Ohio: median $2,757 across 29 hospitalsOH$2,757Pennsylvania: median $1,789 across 29 hospitalsPA$1,789New Jersey: median $2,007 across 28 hospitalsNJ$2,007Connecticut: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $4,329 across 39 hospitalsCA$4,329Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: median $703 across 14 hospitalsMO$703Kentucky: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: median $1,552 across 10 hospitalsWV$1,552Virginia: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $206 across 13 hospitalsOK$206Louisiana: median $3,003 across 15 hospitalsLA$3,003Mississippi: median $1,558 across 10 hospitalsMS$1,558Alabama: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $3,004 across 10 hospitalsGA$3,004Hawaii: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $2,186 across 24 hospitalsTX$2,186Florida: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $1,339. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA39$4,329+223%$970 – $4,329
Massachusetts MA10$4,259+218%$1,805 – $7,386
Idaho ID10$3,330+149%$298 – $4,054
Georgia GA10$3,004+124%$3,004 – $3,004
Louisiana LA15$3,003+124%$634 – $4,712
Ohio OH29$2,757+106%$589 – $3,648
Texas TX24$2,186+63%$1,437 – $2,574
New Jersey NJ28$2,007+50%$1,640 – $5,741
Pennsylvania PA29$1,789+34%$80 – $2,504
New York NY40$1,753+31%$360 – $2,088
Washington WA13$1,629+22%$412 – $2,270
Mississippi MS10$1,558+16%$894 – $1,762
West Virginia WV10$1,552+16%$347 – $1,784
Wisconsin WI42$1,188−11%$346 – $2,039
Minnesota MN20$1,088−19%$279 – $1,429
Illinois IL26$834−38%$522 – $1,847
Indiana IN21$772−42%$610 – $1,164
Missouri MO14$703−47%$312 – $1,774
Iowa IA19$522−61%$522 – $1,520
Oregon OR13$412−69%$360 – $651
Michigan MI31$251−81%$229 – $2,133
Oklahoma OK13$206−85%$206 – $1,718
South Carolina SC8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not 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 $1,339.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care461$1,612$487 – $3,423
Children’s9fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access119$1,070$300 – $1,835
Ownership
For-profit45$1,963$610 – $4,054
Government101$1,433$398 – $2,454
Non-profit443$1,226$412 – $3,190
System affiliation
Part of a system468$1,520$496 – $3,423
Independent121$1,051$303 – $2,238

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,828
Median cash price$1,339
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. 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

369 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,188 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,398; most fall between $388 and $3,004.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 369 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
$217$487$1,188$2,574$4,054

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 19× what the cheapest tenth charges ($217 vs $4,054).

Of the 403 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 369 gave a usable cash price; 24 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 10 a list price only.

How complete is this

589 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (15%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 647 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted589
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here46
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 — excluded11
Hospitals that filed this code647

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 ear procedures family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as PR Labyrinthotomy.

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, “Inner ear drug injection through the ear canal (CPT 69801) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-69801-inner-ear-drug-injection-through-the-ear-canal