How much does Medicare pay for CPT 32555?

Medicare allowed an average of $104.45 per service and paid $82.16 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $893.60, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 32555?

Aspiration of fluid from chest cavity using imaging guidance. It was billed 157,128 times to 122,888 Medicare beneficiaries by 4,404 providers in 2024.

Does 32555 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $274.28 in an office setting and $100.72 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 32555 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 62,327 services from 1,995 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Interventional Radiology, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 32555

Aspiration of fluid from chest cavity using imaging guidance

$104.45Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 157,128 services

Providers submitted

$893.60

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$104.45

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$82.16

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $893.60 for this code and Medicare allowed $104.45 — 8.6× 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 $82.16 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $274.28
Hospital / facility: $100.72

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. 3,378 services were billed in an office setting and 153,750 in a facility.

Services: 157,128
Beneficiaries: 122,888
Providers billing it: 4,404
Total allowed: $16,412,020

What Medicare pays for CPT 32555

Across 157,128 services billed by 4,404 providers to 122,888 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $104.45 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 32555

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	62,327	50,343	$107.28	1,995
Physician Assistant	38,936	29,040	$92.82	757
Interventional Radiology	23,303	18,837	$111.26	676
Nurse Practitioner	13,785	10,053	$91.89	281
Pulmonary Disease	12,339	9,670	$116.59	471
Internal Medicine	2,961	2,267	$121.13	95
Critical Care (Intensivists)	1,761	1,326	$137.45	65
Hospitalist	499	419	$114.36	22
Thoracic Surgery	188	143	$168.95	9
Vascular Surgery	143	93	$104.16	3
General Surgery	121	87	$103.45	5
Sleep Medicine	106	86	$107.86	4
Cardiac Surgery	99	72	$112.88	2
Interventional Cardiology	98	88	$103.86	3
Pediatric Medicine	77	69	$123.26	1

32555 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
California	19,054	$113.28	$83.18	479
Florida	15,422	$105.11	$79.42	371
Texas	10,433	$101.33	$79.37	322
Pennsylvania	9,042	$100.58	$77.12	216
Illinois	6,332	$109.13	$82.19	189
New York	5,761	$113.35	$83.54	182
Arizona	5,557	$100.80	$79.50	115
North Carolina	5,134	$96.10	$77.54	152
Maryland	5,122	$123.32	$91.91	80
Virginia	4,777	$98.29	$77.44	135
New Jersey	4,565	$107.86	$79.61	131
Ohio	4,519	$96.58	$75.94	150
Michigan	4,133	$101.58	$77.61	144
Missouri	3,538	$99.30	$79.24	97
Washington	3,503	$104.59	$78.98	88
Indiana	3,367	$94.60	$76.79	101
Georgia	3,079	$98.17	$77.19	91
Tennessee	3,056	$112.58	$92.77	96
South Carolina	2,772	$95.13	$76.33	84
Minnesota	2,678	$101.32	$80.45	85
Massachusetts	2,619	$109.63	$81.42	86
Wisconsin	2,612	$93.01	$74.70	96
Oklahoma	2,317	$94.76	$77.27	52
Arkansas	2,211	$126.03	$107.07	66
Kentucky	2,072	$97.51	$77.32	66
Alabama	1,856	$97.45	$80.55	59
Connecticut	1,784	$109.09	$81.14	51
Nevada	1,435	$101.17	$80.22	50
Mississippi	1,368	$97.83	$79.32	40
Louisiana	1,346	$97.36	$77.49	45
Colorado	1,273	$101.39	$78.56	56
Nebraska	1,137	$107.09	$88.04	34
Utah	1,117	$88.50	$70.49	34
Kansas	1,091	$105.92	$88.22	36
Idaho	1,074	$87.27	$70.69	27
South Dakota	1,043	$94.84	$75.29	18
West Virginia	1,024	$101.48	$78.92	33
Iowa	972	$95.48	$79.10	38
North Dakota	886	$100.95	$78.50	17
Delaware	842	$96.06	$74.14	18
Oregon	787	$119.60	$94.20	30
New Hampshire	725	$103.57	$79.86	26
Montana	686	$103.60	$81.91	21
District of Columbia	617	$107.68	$79.54	16
Rhode Island	497	$100.79	$75.98	20
New Mexico	368	$104.54	$78.42	16
Hawaii	365	$102.44	$80.27	10
Alaska	364	$126.59	$73.90	10
Wyoming	335	$104.53	$83.41	11
Vermont	194	$98.85	$72.77	4
Maine	140	$96.17	$76.15	6
Guam	113	$107.92	$81.76	3
Puerto Rico	14	$110.35	$86.30	1

Related codes

32557Drainage of fluid from chest cavity$139.36
32554Aspiration of fluid from chest cavity$87.63
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.