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Procedure price report · Cancer chemotherapy

Chemotherapy into the chest cavity with fluid drainage

CPT 96440the billing code this page is about

Covers placing a needle into the space around the lung to drain fluid and then instill a chemotherapy drug.

Hospitals typically charge $508 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 527 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $601. Most fall between $307 and $1,305 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
527
States
44
Filings dated
Nov 2024 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 25, 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
$197$359$508$1,132$1,546

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($197 vs $1,546).

How the prices are spread

$139 – $187: 24 hospitals$139$187 – $251: 37 hospitals$251 – $338: 31 hospitals$251$338 – $455: 125 hospitals$455 – $613: 60 hospitals$455$613 – $825: 66 hospitals$825 – $1,111: 24 hospitals$825$1,111 – $1,495: 69 hospitals$1,495 – $2,013: 28 hospitals$1,495$2,013 – $2,709: 11 hospitals$2,013median $508price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (475 of 527 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$139$18724
$187$25137
$251$33831
$338$455125
$455$61360
$613$82566
$825$1,11124
$1,111$1,49569
$1,495$2,01328
$2,013$2,70911

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$337
Median cash price$508
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.51×

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 $508.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: 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: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIDMontana: 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: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $729 across 23 hospitalsIL$729Wisconsin: median $738 across 32 hospitalsWI$738Michigan: median $454 across 23 hospitalsMI$454New York: median $393 across 25 hospitalsNY$393Massachusetts: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: median $745 across 11 hospitalsOR$745Nevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $1,546 across 15 hospitalsIA$1,546Indiana: median $416 across 22 hospitalsIN$416Ohio: median $907 across 26 hospitalsOH$907Pennsylvania: median $373 across 24 hospitalsPA$373New Jersey: median $391 across 23 hospitalsNJ$391Connecticut: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $1,175 across 68 hospitalsCA$1,175Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 1 hospital 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: median $413 across 15 hospitalsTN$413North Carolina: median $557 across 14 hospitalsNC$557South Carolina: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $221 across 19 hospitalsOK$221Louisiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $437 across 15 hospitalsGA$437Hawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $394 across 35 hospitalsTX$394Florida: median $428 across 46 hospitalsFL$428
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $508. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Iowa IA15$1,546+204%$1,546 – $1,546
California CA68$1,175+131%$778 – $2,152
Ohio OH26$907+78%$345 – $1,488
Oregon OR11$745+46%$432 – $745
Wisconsin WI32$738+45%$511 – $2,763
Illinois IL23$729+43%$573 – $760
North Carolina NC14$557+9%$266 – $1,168
Michigan MI23$454−11%$289 – $738
Georgia GA15$437−14%$223 – $437
Florida FL46$428−16%$317 – $1,860
Indiana IN22$416−18%$232 – $562
Tennessee TN15$413−19%$175 – $695
Texas TX35$394−23%$197 – $1,113
New York NY25$393−23%$333 – $417
New Jersey NJ23$391−23%$363 – $1,359
Pennsylvania PA24$373−27%$75 – $390
Oklahoma OK19$221−56%$221 – $359
West Virginia WV9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO2not 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 RI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA1not 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 $508.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care453$464$289 – $1,381
Children’s7fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access64$542$359 – $760
Ownership
For-profit53$522$352 – $1,113
Government64$461$307 – $1,302
Non-profit407$508$289 – $1,359
System affiliation
Part of a system471$511$317 – $1,353
Independent56$417$241 – $953

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,089
Median cash price$508
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

357 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $612 and the average of the middle 60% is $712; most fall between $289 and $1,417.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 357 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
$210$359$612$1,332$1,764

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($210 vs $1,764).

Of the 387 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 357 gave a usable cash price; 10 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 20 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 557 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 here9
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded21
Hospitals that filed this code557

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 25, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 25, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Cancer chemotherapy family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as PR Chemother,Intracavitary,Pleural.

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, “Chemotherapy into the chest cavity with fluid drainage (CPT 96440) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-96440-chemotherapy-into-the-chest-cavity-with-fluid-drainage