How much does Medicare pay for CPT 32554?

Medicare allowed an average of $87.63 per service and paid $69.04 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $880.50, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 32554?

Aspiration of fluid from chest cavity. It was billed 1,899 times to 1,423 Medicare beneficiaries by 74 providers in 2024.

Does 32554 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $226.95 in an office setting and $81.59 in a facility. The office rate is generally higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that single payment; in a hospital those are billed separately by the facility.

Which specialty bills 32554 most?

Pulmonary Disease, with 676 services from 33 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Thoracic Surgery, Critical Care (Intensivists).

CPT 32554

Aspiration of fluid from chest cavity

$87.63Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,899 services

Providers submitted

$880.50

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$87.63

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$69.04

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $880.50 for this code and Medicare allowed $87.63 — 10.0× less. That gap is normal and means nothing on its own: Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of what is billed, so the submitted figure describes a hospital chargemaster, not a price anyone paid. Of the allowed amount Medicare paid $69.04 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $226.95
Hospital / facility: $81.59

The office rate is higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that payment. In a hospital the facility bills those separately, so the clinician's share is smaller — the total cost to Medicare is usually higher, not lower. 79 services were billed in an office setting and 1,820 in a facility.

Services: 1,899
Beneficiaries: 1,423
Providers billing it: 74
Total allowed: $166,409

What Medicare pays for CPT 32554

Across 1,899 services billed by 74 providers to 1,423 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $87.63 per service. That is 1.3 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. The allowed amount is the figure that matters: it is what Medicare and the patient together owe, set by the fee schedule and adjusted for local practice costs. What a provider chose to submit has no bearing on it.

Who bills 32554

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pulmonary Disease	676	544	$84.34	33
Physician Assistant	269	217	$72.69	10
Thoracic Surgery	233	75	$132.71	2
Critical Care (Intensivists)	219	203	$86.91	13
Internal Medicine	173	118	$83.00	7
Nurse Practitioner	171	126	$72.37	3
Cardiac Surgery	69	60	$83.07	2
Interventional Radiology	29	26	$78.48	1
Diagnostic Radiology	25	24	$76.84	1
Hospitalist	22	19	$96.01	1
Allergy/ Immunology	13	11	$85.89	1

32554 reimbursement by state

Two different numbers. Allowed is what Medicare actually allowed in that state, which includes the local practice-cost adjustment. Standardized strips that geographic adjustment out of the payment, so it is the column to use when comparing states — a difference there reflects how the code was billed, not what it costs to run a practice locally.

State	Services	Allowed	Standardized pmt	Providers
Florida	365	$73.79	$55.17	10
California	212	$83.66	$56.98	9
Massachusetts	193	$121.11	$91.69	3
Texas	156	$87.68	$69.10	8
Tennessee	126	$74.95	$66.72	4
New York	120	$125.99	$96.18	4
Mississippi	95	$71.32	$58.01	3
New Jersey	89	$88.57	$61.31	5
Oklahoma	65	$84.87	$67.98	3
Indiana	63	$77.64	$64.78	4
Maryland	52	$95.31	$68.57	2
Michigan	50	$88.33	$64.90	2
Kentucky	46	$81.63	$66.58	3
Wisconsin	43	$75.01	$60.51	2
Ohio	40	$81.73	$62.01	1
Illinois	40	$92.00	$66.46	2
Arkansas	38	$88.18	$68.82	2
South Carolina	18	$80.27	$57.21	1
Utah	17	$69.09	$51.12	1
District of Columbia	16	$84.61	$48.75	1
Washington	15	$91.03	$67.97	1
Louisiana	14	$82.91	$63.26	1
Pennsylvania	14	$74.38	$57.36	1
Delaware	12	$72.69	$55.49	1

Related codes

32555Aspiration of fluid from chest cavity$104.45
32557Drainage of fluid from chest cavity$139.36
32550Insertion of indwelling tube for drainage of lung fluid$209.41
32551Removal of fluid from between lung and chest cavity$139.83

Billing this code is not the same as earning it

An allowed amount is revenue to a practice, not income to a clinician. It funds staff, premises, equipment and supplies before anyone is paid. What clinicians actually earn is published separately by the Department of Labor, and what industry pays them is published separately again by CMS — this site carries both.

What doctors are paid →·Look up a clinician →·All procedure codes →

Where this comes from. CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, by Provider and Service, 2024. It covers fee-for-service Original Medicare Part B only — not Medicare Advantage, not Medicaid, and not commercial insurance, which typically pays more for the same code.

How it is averaged. CMS publishes one average per provider per code. Every figure here is re-weighted by the number of services, so a clinician who billed the code 4,000 times counts 4,000 times more than one who billed it twice. CMS also suppresses any provider-code pair with fewer than 11 beneficiaries, so low-volume practice is missing from these totals by design.