# Flushing an implanted drug port in Atlanta, GA

Billing code `96523`. Prices for this code at 26 hospitals within 35 miles of Atlanta, taken from the machine-readable standard charge files each hospital is required to publish under the CMS Hospital Price Transparency Rule (45 CFR 180.50).

Source page: https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/atlanta/flushing-an-implanted-drug-port

HC IRRIGATION OF IMPLANTED VENOUS ACCESS DEVICE CHARGE

## Before quoting any figure below

- **Hospital charges only.** The surgeon, anaesthetist, radiologist and pathologist bill separately and appear in no hospital price file, by construction. Every figure below is part of a total, never the total.
- **A negotiated rate is not a bill.** It is what a hospital and an insurer agreed. What a patient owes depends on their deductible, coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximum.
- **Each hospital's figure is a median across its own plans.** The spread inside one hospital is often wider than the gap between two of them.
- **"not mentioned" is not $0.** It means this hospital's file does not label a row that way. Silence is not a statement that the charge does not exist.
- **A hospital absent from the table says nothing about its prices.** It may publish this code under a revenue or drug code this site cannot map to a procedure.

A procedure code is billed twice -- once by the hospital for its own costs, once by the doctor for their work -- and hospitals publish different sides of that split under the same code. Of the hospitals here, 11 publish a facility charge; 1 publish both, mixed together; 14 do not label which half the figure is.

## Typical price

|  | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cheapest tenth | $61 |
| Typical | $107 |
| Dearest tenth | $243 |

The cheapest and dearest tenth are the hospitals a tenth of the way in from each end, not the single cheapest and dearest. Every hospital, including both extremes, is in the table below.

That is a 4-fold difference for the same billing code, between hospitals within 35 miles of each other -- a gap between hospitals, not between treatments.

## Every hospital publishing this code

| Hospital | Where | CMS rating | Typical | Facility charge | Physician fee | Self-pay | Lowest | Highest | Plans on file |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Regional Medical Center | RIVERDALE (19.7 mi) | 1/5 | $59 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $58 | $29 | $123 | 37 |
| Grady Memorial Hospital | ATLANTA (6.1 mi) | 2/5 | see split | $104 | $23 | $491 | $23 | $393 | 76 |
| Emory Decatur Hospital | DECATUR (4.8 mi) | 2/5 | $61 | $61 | not mentioned | $286 | $59 | $125 | 7 |
| Emory University Hospital | ATLANTA (3.6 mi) | 4/5 | $61 | $61 | not mentioned | $286 | $59 | $125 | 7 |
| Emory Hillandale Hospital | LITHONIA (16.0 mi) | 1/5 | $61 | $61 | not mentioned | $286 | $59 | $125 | 7 |
| Emory Johns Creek Hospital | JOHNS CREEK (17.9 mi) | 4/5 | $62 | $62 | not mentioned | $286 | $60 | $127 | 7 |
| Emory University Hospital Midtown | ATLANTA (4.7 mi) | 2/5 | $62 | $62 | not mentioned | $286 | $60 | $127 | 7 |
| Saint Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta | ATLANTA (3.2 mi) | 3/5 | $62 | $62 | not mentioned | $286 | $60 | $127 | 7 |
| WellStar Douglas Medical Center | DOUGLASVILLE (24.5 mi) | 3/5 | $89 | $89 | not mentioned | $329 | $59 | $226 | 10 |
| WellStar North Fulton Medical Center | ROSWELL (13.5 mi) | 2/5 | $89 | $89 | not mentioned | $329 | $60 | $228 | 10 |
| WellStar Paulding Medical Center | HIRAM (23.5 mi) | 4/5 | $89 | $89 | not mentioned | $329 | $60 | $225 | 10 |
| WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center | MARIETTA (12.1 mi) | 4/5 | $89 | $89 | not mentioned | $329 | $60 | $225 | 10 |
| WellStar Cobb Medical Center | AUSTELL (15.4 mi) | 3/5 | $89 | $89 | not mentioned | $329 | $60 | $234 | 10 |
| Tanner Medical Center Villa Rica | VILLA RICA (33.1 mi) | 3/5 | $107 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $126 | $20 | $195 | 68 |
| Northside Hospital | ATLANTA (3.2 mi) | 3/5 | $139 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $166 | $20 | $281 | 396 |
| Northside Hospital Cherokee | CANTON (25.4 mi) | 4/5 | $140 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $166 | $20 | $281 | 399 |
| Northside Hospital Forsyth | CUMMING (29.4 mi) | 4/5 | $140 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $166 | $20 | $281 | 393 |
| Northside Hospital Duluth | DULUTH (15.5 mi) | 4/5 | $144 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $166 | $20 | $281 | 414 |
| Northside Hospital Gwinnett | LAWRENCEVILLE (25.8 mi) | 3/5 | $144 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $166 | $20 | $281 | 414 |
| Piedmont Rockdale Hospital | CONYERS (22.2 mi) | 3/5 | $238 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $102 | $41 | $339 | 16 |
| Piedmont Eastside Medical Center | SNELLVILLE (19.7 mi) | 2/5 | $238 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $102 | $66 | $339 | 15 |
| Piedmont Hospital | ATLANTA (3.0 mi) | 4/5 | $243 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $102 | $39 | $339 | 16 |
| Piedmont Henry Hospital | STOCKBRIDGE (21.0 mi) | 2/5 | $243 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $102 | $29 | $339 | 16 |
| Piedmont Fayette Hospital | FAYETTEVILLE (25.0 mi) | 3/5 | $243 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $102 | $31 | $339 | 16 |
| Athur M Blank Hospital | ATLANTA (2.3 mi) | not rated | $259 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $378 | $32 | $378 | 28 |
| Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite | ATLANTA (3.2 mi) | not rated | $259 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $378 | $32 | $378 | 28 |

## Self-pay

Self-pay is what the hospital charges someone paying themselves rather than through insurance. Paying self-pay usually does not count toward a deductible, so it can cost less for one service and more across a year. Every other figure here is what an insurer pays, not what a patient would.

At 6 of the 26 hospitals here that publish a self-pay price it is LOWER than what that same hospital typically accepts from an insurer; at the other 20 it is higher.

1 of these 26 hospitals have not published an updated price file in over a year, or do not say when they last did. Hospitals are required to update at least annually, so those figures may not reflect what they charge now: Tanner Medical Center Villa Rica.

## Others in anesthesia & other medical services

- [IV infusion therapy, up to 1 hour](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/iv-infusion-therapy-up-to-1-hour) -- 107 hospitals, typically $260
- [IV chemotherapy, up to 1 hour](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/iv-chemotherapy-up-to-1-hour) -- 87 hospitals, typically $480
- [Chemotherapy injection under the skin or into muscle](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/chemotherapy-injection-under-the-skin-or-into-muscle) -- 83 hospitals, typically $132
- [Hormone therapy injection under the skin or into muscle](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/hormone-therapy-injection-under-the-skin-or-into-muscle) -- 78 hospitals, typically $120
- [Extended IV chemotherapy](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/extended-iv-chemotherapy) -- 68 hospitals, typically $538
- [Genetic counselling](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/genetic-counselling) -- 2 hospitals, typically $121

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Every procedure with a published price in GA: https://clearcharge.org/price/ga
Prices that look wrong: info@clearcharge.org

Compiled by Clearcharge (clearcharge.org) from each hospital's machine-readable standard-charge file. When quoting a figure, cite the source page above. The hospital files behind these figures state data through dates from 2024-07-01 to 2026-07-01; per-hospital staleness is flagged above.