HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

Procedure price report

Drainage catheter

HCPCS C1729the billing code this page is about

Covers the cost of one catheter placed to drain fluid, such as from an abscess, the kidney or a body cavity; billed separately from the procedure that places it.

Hospitals typically charge $41 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 240 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $81. Most fall between $18 and $388 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
240
States
40
Filings dated
Dec 2023 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 23, 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 240 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
$11$23$41$268$879

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 82× what the cheapest tenth charges ($11 vs $879).

How the prices are spread

$7 – $13: 15 hospitals$7$13 – $24: 42 hospitals$24 – $42: 66 hospitals$24$42 – $76: 12 hospitals$76 – $135: 26 hospitals$76$135 – $241: 9 hospitals$241 – $430: 15 hospitals$241$430 – $767: 18 hospitals$767 – $1,369: 11 hospitals$767$1,369 – $2,445: 5 hospitals$1,369median $41price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (219 of 240 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$7$1315
$13$2442
$24$4266
$42$7612
$76$13526
$135$2419
$241$43015
$430$76718
$767$1,36911
$1,369$2,4455

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $41.

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: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWIMichigan: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNYMassachusetts: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceIAIndiana: median $27 across 21 hospitalsIN$27Ohio: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figurePANew Jersey: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNJConnecticut: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCAUtah: median $16 across 24 hospitalsUT$16Colorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceKSArkansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceARTennessee: median $479 across 11 hospitalsTN$479North Carolina: median $81 across 11 hospitalsNC$81South Carolina: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOKLouisiana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $41 across 33 hospitalsTX$41Florida: median $38 across 18 hospitalsFL$38
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $41. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Tennessee TN11$479+1056%$28 – $768
North Carolina NC11$81+96%$62 – $286
Texas TX33$410%$41 – $41
Florida FL18$38−9%$7 – $38
Indiana IN21$27−36%$20 – $42
Utah UT24$16−61%$14 – $18
California CA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Illinois IL9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Ohio OH9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Jersey NJ7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Pennsylvania PA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oklahoma OK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New York NY1not 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 $41.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care204$41$18 – $468
Children’s6fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access28$40$14 – $283
Ownership
For-profit42$174$41 – $903
Government27$40$7 – $562
Non-profit169$41$18 – $216
System affiliation
Part of a system200$41$18 – $463
Independent40$45$10 – $234

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$69
Median cash price$41
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

167 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $41 and the average of the middle 60% is $40; most fall between $14 and $123.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 167 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
$10$18$41$87$283

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 29× what the cheapest tenth charges ($10 vs $283).

Of the 189 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 167 gave a usable cash price; 7 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 15 a list price only.

How complete is this

240 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (6%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 271 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted240
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here14
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 — excluded17
Hospitals that filed this code271

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 23, 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 CATHETER DRAINAGE SKATER NEPHROSTOMY 14FR 35CM.

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, “Drainage catheter (CPT C1729) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-c1729-drainage-catheter