How much does Medicare pay for CPT 32557?

Medicare allowed an average of $139.36 per service and paid $110.43 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1248.89, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 32557?

Drainage of fluid from chest cavity with insertion of indwelling tube using imaging guidance. It was billed 8,226 times to 7,644 Medicare beneficiaries by 488 providers in 2024.

Does 32557 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $758.41 in an office setting and $137.32 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 32557 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 3,665 services from 235 clinicians. Next are Interventional Radiology, Pulmonary Disease, Physician Assistant.

CPT 32557

Drainage of fluid from chest cavity with insertion of indwelling tube using imaging guidance

$139.36Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 8,226 services

Providers submitted

$1248.89

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$139.36

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$110.43

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1248.89 for this code and Medicare allowed $139.36 — 9.0× 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 $110.43 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $758.41
Hospital / facility: $137.32

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. 27 services were billed in an office setting and 8,199 in a facility.

Services: 8,226
Beneficiaries: 7,644
Providers billing it: 488
Total allowed: $1,146,375

What Medicare pays for CPT 32557

Across 8,226 services billed by 488 providers to 7,644 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $139.36 per service. 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 32557

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	3,665	3,459	$138.68	235
Interventional Radiology	2,146	2,026	$140.18	128
Pulmonary Disease	799	673	$162.95	41
Physician Assistant	773	733	$122.51	44
Nurse Practitioner	427	397	$124.68	19
Internal Medicine	199	185	$144.66	12
Critical Care (Intensivists)	119	77	$137.37	4
Undefined Physician type	54	51	$145.21	2
Cardiac Surgery	18	17	$160.36	1
Vascular Surgery	14	14	$118.85	1
Interventional Cardiology	12	12	$133.86	1

32557 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
New York	752	$175.00	$122.46	36
Florida	675	$138.93	$103.88	42
California	639	$143.66	$105.28	41
Pennsylvania	568	$144.60	$110.08	33
New Jersey	387	$144.98	$107.20	25
Arizona	371	$135.17	$106.39	20
Illinois	310	$145.81	$109.38	20
Indiana	279	$132.05	$107.02	12
Texas	253	$132.77	$104.44	16
Maryland	245	$142.10	$108.17	16
Missouri	211	$126.09	$102.00	10
Oklahoma	207	$120.98	$98.80	12
Virginia	203	$131.11	$102.65	11
Arkansas	198	$118.91	$98.73	13
Massachusetts	182	$140.99	$105.32	11
Ohio	172	$134.76	$106.64	12
North Carolina	169	$129.93	$105.60	10
Kentucky	148	$131.14	$105.20	9
Mississippi	143	$123.51	$102.00	8
South Carolina	141	$130.80	$106.55	9
Georgia	141	$124.72	$98.46	9
South Dakota	139	$122.85	$97.59	9
Nebraska	126	$128.51	$106.11	7
Iowa	122	$122.29	$101.00	8
Washington	118	$135.62	$107.73	8
North Dakota	117	$142.04	$109.73	5
Minnesota	116	$137.44	$106.08	7
West Virginia	113	$123.71	$96.29	7
Tennessee	111	$126.62	$105.94	7
Louisiana	93	$148.99	$108.26	5
Oregon	82	$132.37	$104.20	6
Idaho	81	$136.22	$108.94	6
Michigan	77	$142.07	$111.65	5
New Hampshire	76	$138.73	$113.67	4
District of Columbia	67	$140.13	$98.55	3
Wisconsin	63	$133.36	$107.19	5
Alabama	54	$133.87	$110.58	3
Colorado	52	$136.53	$109.45	4
Vermont	47	$135.36	$95.70	2
Nevada	44	$136.58	$107.44	3
Utah	37	$129.38	$109.68	3
Delaware	28	$142.92	$113.75	1
Kansas	26	$131.87	$103.00	2
Montana	16	$147.09	$117.37	1
Connecticut	16	$135.18	$99.56	1
Wyoming	11	$127.61	$98.41	1

Related codes

32555Aspiration of fluid from chest cavity$104.45
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.