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Drainage Tube Into The Sac Around The Heart

North Carolina rates for HCPCS 33019

Places a thin drainage tube through the skin into the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart, so that fluid collecting there can drain away instead of squeezing the heart and limiting its filling. Imaging is used to guide the tube safely into place. The tube is left in for a period so drainage can continue and be measured.

Rates data updated October 2026.

How much does Drainage Tube Into The Sac Around The Heart cost?

$1,212

Typical total for the visit. In North Carolina, October 2026.

Insurers have agreed to pay about $1,212 for this procedure. That total is two separate charges: $380 to the doctor who performs it, and $832 to the hospital or surgery center where it takes place. Done somewhere without a facility charge, you pay only the first.

These are rates insurers have negotiated with providers, not the amount a patient is billed. What you owe depends on your plan's deductible and coinsurance. Based on rates published by 5 insurance carriers under federal price transparency rules.

What's inside this number

Part of the billTypicalRange
Physician feeThe doctor who performs it$380$302 to $550
Facility feeThe hospital or surgery center$832$490 to $3,311

How much rates vary

Facilitymedian $832 · 10th to 90th $282 to $7,244Professionalmedian $380 · 10th to 90th $229 to $676
$200$500$1K$2K$5K$10K$20Kfacility $832professional $380

Distribution of negotiated rates across all payers (price axis is log-scale). Need provider-level prices or 24+ months of history? Contact us.

Rates by insurance carrier

Insurance Carrier
Aetna
Setting
Facility
Modifier
None
Typical Low
$208.93
Median
$208.93
Typical High
$7,943.28
Aetna
Setting
Professional
Modifier
None
Typical Low
$208.93
Median
$208.93
Typical High
$295.12
BCBS North Carolina
Setting
Professional
Modifier
None
Typical Low
$316.23
Median
$524.81
Typical High
$707.95
Cigna
Setting
Facility
Modifier
None
Typical Low
$478.63
Median
$851.14
Typical High
$29,512.09
Cigna
Setting
Professional
Modifier
None
Typical Low
$281.84
Median
$323.59
Typical High
$676.08
Medcost
Setting
Facility
Modifier
None
Typical Low
$204.17
Median
$208.93
Typical High
$338.84
Medcost
Setting
Professional
Modifier
None
Typical Low
$199.53
Median
$316.23
Typical High
$363.08
United
Setting
Facility
Modifier
None
Typical Low
$338.84
Median
$851.14
Typical High
$5,011.87
United
Setting
Professional
Modifier
None
Typical Low
$223.87
Median
$354.81
Typical High
$575.44
1 more rate with less common billing modifiers

A modifier changes what was billed, for example a reduced or repeated service. Each of these modifiers carries under 10% of the published rates for this code. Modifier combinations, and modifiers with fewer than 30 rates for a carrier, are not listed.

Insurance Carrier
Medcost
Setting
Professional
Modifier
51 · Multiple procedures
Typical Low
$100.00
Median
$158.49
Typical High
$309.03

Where North Carolina sits

The same service costs 12.0 times more in Maine than in Montana. Every bar is a state, most expensive first. Touch or drag across it to read any state, then open that state for its carriers and full range.

Physician feeFacility fee

North Carolina· 32nd of 51

$1,212

$380 physician + $832 facility

ME $7,396MT $618

Median negotiated rate in each state, from every insurer that publishes one. States where no insurer publishes a rate for this service are not shown.