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Procedure price report

Ultrasound guidance for draining fluid around the heart

CPT 76930the billing code this page is about

Real-time ultrasound used to guide needle placement while fluid is drained from the sac around the heart, including the imaging record.

Hospitals typically charge $197 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 198 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $223. Most fall between $79 and $395 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
198
States
33
Filings dated
Jul 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 198 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
$35$107$197$365$547

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 16× what the cheapest tenth charges ($35 vs $547).

How the prices are spread

$27 – $39: 21 hospitals$27$39 – $55: 5 hospitals$55 – $79: 12 hospitals$55$79 – $113: 14 hospitals$113 – $160: 24 hospitals$113$160 – $229: 30 hospitals$229 – $326: 27 hospitals$229$326 – $464: 38 hospitals$464 – $661: 11 hospitals$464$661 – $942: 6 hospitals$661median $197price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (188 of 198 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$27$3921
$39$555
$55$7912
$79$11314
$113$16024
$160$22930
$229$32627
$326$46438
$464$66111
$661$9426

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $197.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWAIdaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $444 across 14 hospitalsIL$444Wisconsin: median $127 across 10 hospitalsWI$127Michigan: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNYMassachusetts: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceORNevada: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIAIndiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceOHPennsylvania: median $158 across 23 hospitalsPA$158New Jersey: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNJConnecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $512 across 11 hospitalsCA$512Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $302 across 10 hospitalsCO$302Nebraska: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVAMaryland: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 4 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: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $35 across 12 hospitalsOK$35Louisiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $269 across 30 hospitalsTX$269Florida: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $197. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA11$512+159%$334 – $977
Illinois IL14$444+125%$27 – $621
Colorado CO10$302+53%$206 – $302
Texas TX30$269+36%$269 – $365
Pennsylvania PA23$158−20%$107 – $449
Wisconsin WI10$127−36%$127 – $155
Oklahoma OK12$35−82%$35 – $171
Nebraska NE8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New York NY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Iowa IA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV1not 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 $197.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care165$200$94 – $365
Children’s4fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access28$127$32 – $444
Ownership
For-profit25$269$27 – $365
Government19fewer than 20 hospitals
Non-profit153$211$94 – $444
System affiliation
Part of a system176$197$73 – $371
Independent22$191$145 – $512

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$449
Median cash price$197
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

158 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $211 and the average of the middle 60% is $229; most fall between $79 and $386.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 158 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
$35$100$211$365$512

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 15× what the cheapest tenth charges ($35 vs $512).

Of the 178 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 158 gave a usable cash price; 15 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 4 a list price only.

How complete is this

198 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (5%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 225 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted198
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here18
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 — excluded8
Hospitals that filed this code225

Sections not shown for this setting

  • Against Medicare: Medicare has no separately payable national outpatient (OPPS) rate for this code, so there is nothing honest to compare against.
  • 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 23, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Other Professional.

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, “Ultrasound guidance for draining fluid around the heart (CPT 76930) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-76930-ultrasound-guidance-for-draining-fluid-around-the-heart