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Procedure price report · Ancillary Services

Refill and service of a portable drug pump

CPT 96521the billing code this page is about

Covers refilling a portable external drug pump and checking that it works properly, billed once per refill visit.

Hospitals typically charge $366 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,646 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $384. Most fall between $223 and $642 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,646
States
50
Filings dated
Jan 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 1,646 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
$165$247$366$578$890

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($165 vs $890).

How the prices are spread

$122 – $151: 46 hospitals$122$151 – $187: 105 hospitals$187 – $232: 136 hospitals$187$232 – $287: 189 hospitals$287 – $354: 218 hospitals$287$354 – $438: 239 hospitals$438 – $542: 184 hospitals$438$542 – $670: 139 hospitals$670 – $829: 125 hospitals$670$829 – $1,026: 102 hospitals$829median $366price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,483 of 1,646 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$122$15146
$151$187105
$187$232136
$232$287189
$287$354218
$354$438239
$438$542184
$542$670139
$670$829125
$829$1,026102

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$217
Median cash price$366
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.68×

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 $366.

Alaska: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: median $237 across 13 hospitalsNH$237Washington: median $469 across 40 hospitalsWA$469Idaho: median $400 across 14 hospitalsID$400Montana: median $353 across 13 hospitalsMT$353North Dakota: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $261 across 57 hospitalsMN$261Illinois: median $431 across 61 hospitalsIL$431Wisconsin: median $442 across 59 hospitalsWI$442Michigan: median $404 across 62 hospitalsMI$404New York: median $317 across 65 hospitalsNY$317Massachusetts: median $652 across 22 hospitalsMA$652Oregon: median $515 across 34 hospitalsOR$515Nevada: median $462 across 10 hospitalsNV$462Wyoming: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: median $615 across 13 hospitalsSD$615Iowa: median $318 across 41 hospitalsIA$318Indiana: median $356 across 51 hospitalsIN$356Ohio: median $472 across 94 hospitalsOH$472Pennsylvania: median $348 across 43 hospitalsPA$348New Jersey: median $260 across 31 hospitalsNJ$260Connecticut: median $390 across 15 hospitalsCT$390Rhode Island: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $468 across 120 hospitalsCA$468Utah: median $321 across 27 hospitalsUT$321Colorado: median $364 across 45 hospitalsCO$364Nebraska: median $370 across 36 hospitalsNE$370Missouri: median $318 across 25 hospitalsMO$318Kentucky: median $316 across 33 hospitalsKY$316West Virginia: median $328 across 15 hospitalsWV$328Virginia: median $441 across 27 hospitalsVA$441Maryland: median $308 across 17 hospitalsMD$308Delaware: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $238 across 24 hospitalsAZ$238New Mexico: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $261 across 23 hospitalsKS$261Arkansas: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $161 across 46 hospitalsTN$161North Carolina: median $294 across 54 hospitalsNC$294South Carolina: median $341 across 30 hospitalsSC$341Oklahoma: median $210 across 23 hospitalsOK$210Louisiana: median $214 across 28 hospitalsLA$214Mississippi: median $200 across 20 hospitalsMS$200Alabama: median $216 across 18 hospitalsAL$216Georgia: median $447 across 61 hospitalsGA$447Hawaii: median $319 across 12 hospitalsHI$319Texas: median $387 across 103 hospitalsTX$387Florida: median $371 across 66 hospitalsFL$371
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $366. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Massachusetts MA22$652+78%$357 – $974
South Dakota SD13$615+68%$485 – $615
Oregon OR34$515+41%$407 – $859
Ohio OH94$472+29%$250 – $943
Washington WA40$469+28%$413 – $683
California CA120$468+28%$257 – $991
Nevada NV10$462+26%$257 – $680
Georgia GA61$447+22%$259 – $847
Wisconsin WI59$442+21%$358 – $670
Virginia VA27$441+21%$161 – $502
Illinois IL61$431+18%$210 – $693
Michigan MI62$404+10%$288 – $720
Idaho ID14$400+9%$368 – $734
Connecticut CT15$390+7%$238 – $755
Texas TX103$387+6%$262 – $618
Florida FL66$371+2%$271 – $1,001
Nebraska NE36$370+1%$227 – $451
Colorado CO45$364−1%$258 – $771
Indiana IN51$356−3%$225 – $568
Montana MT13$353−4%$216 – $423
Pennsylvania PA43$348−5%$172 – $731
South Carolina SC30$341−7%$300 – $513
West Virginia WV15$328−10%$230 – $582
Utah UT27$321−12%$296 – $400
Hawaii HI12$319−13%$289 – $562
Missouri MO25$318−13%$226 – $394
Iowa IA41$318−13%$250 – $437
New York NY65$317−13%$217 – $517
Kentucky KY33$316−14%$204 – $1,173
Maryland MD17$308−16%$187 – $404
North Carolina NC54$294−20%$168 – $343
Kansas KS23$261−28%$200 – $527
Minnesota MN57$261−29%$215 – $364
New Jersey NJ31$260−29%$230 – $672
Arizona AZ24$238−35%$129 – $1,138
New Hampshire NH13$237−35%$173 – $649
Alabama AL18$216−41%$174 – $372
Louisiana LA28$214−42%$156 – $366
Oklahoma OK23$210−43%$106 – $368
Mississippi MS20$200−45%$151 – $327
Tennessee TN46$161−56%$108 – $215
Alaska AK8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI4not 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 $366.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care1,304$364$221 – $675
Children’s30$469$214 – $753
Critical access305$371$230 – $593
Ownership
For-profit154$395$247 – $782
Government254$316$198 – $503
Non-profit1,231$371$224 – $649
System affiliation
Part of a system1,393$370$224 – $652
Independent253$353$214 – $615

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$658
Median cash price$366
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

1,192 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $376 and the average of the middle 60% is $398; most fall between $218 and $668.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 1,192 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
$161$248$376$614$943

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($161 vs $943).

Of the 1,263 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 1,192 gave a usable cash price; 18 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 53 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,646 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (42%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,730 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,646
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here28
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded3
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded53
Hospitals that filed this code1,730

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 Ancillary Services family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as HC Refill Portable Pump Cadd 96521.

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, “Refill and service of a portable drug pump (CPT 96521) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-96521-refill-and-service-of-a-portable-drug-pump