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Cost of abscess incision and drainage in Massachusetts

The average cash price for abscess incision and drainage care in Massachusetts is $433 at a surgery center versus $725 at an outpatient hospital. While a surgery center may offer fewer complimentary services, and may not have the full range of support services that outpatient hospital provides, it may still be worth the (40%) you'd save when comparing the cost of abscess incision and drainage performed at an outpatient hospital. Read More

Average cash price in Massachusetts

A common abscess incision and drainage at surgery center facility in Massachusetts includes

  Units Avg Cash price

Provider

Provider fee to drain blood or other fluid from skin, or drain a tailbone cyst, or drain built up blood/fluid

Complicated Standard
1 $267

Facility

Surgery center fee to drain blood or other fluid from skin, or drain a tailbone cyst, or drain built up blood/fluid

Standard Standard
1 $166
Total average cash price   $433.11

A common abscess incision and drainage at outpatient hospital facility in Massachusetts includes

  Units Avg Cash price

Provider

Provider fee to drain blood or other fluid from skin, or drain a tailbone cyst, or drain built up blood/fluid

Complicated Standard
1 $267

Facility

Outpatient Hospital fee to drain blood or other fluid from skin, or drain a tailbone cyst, or drain built up blood/fluid

level 2 Standard
1 $458
Total average cash price   $725.29

An abscess is a cluster of bodily fluids, typically resulting from a bacterial infection. Abscesses can form anywhere on or in the body. For example, skin abscesses develop under the top layer of skin and create a visible bulge. Internal abscesses can develop anywhere in the body, including within an organ or in the spaces between organs.

Before an abscess is drained, a trained medical professional must evaluate it. Depending on the size and location of the abscess, you may be placed on a round of antibiotics to improve your condition before an incision and drainage are considered.

Small skin abscesses will typically drain on their own. Deep abscesses extending into the skin more than 0.4 cm will likely need to be drained by a medical professional.

Symptoms of infection that haven’t responded to antibiotics may require an abscess to be drained regardless of size. Your doctor may also choose to drain your abscess if it is causing you pain.

Abscess incision and drainage are considered minor surgery. In most cases, you will remain awake and receive only a local anesthetic to numb the area around the abscess before the procedure. The incision and drainage can take place in your doctor’s office. Check online for a quote regarding how much abscess drainage usually costs in your area.

For internal abscesses, your doctor might need the help of a CT scan to reach the abscess and place a drain. If the incision and drainage fail to remove the collected fluids, then you may have to be placed under general anesthesia to have surgical drainage in the operating room.

An abscess incision and drainage procedure should not hurt. The doctor will inject a local anesthetic, which may cause a burning sensation. This quickly goes away, and the area around the abscess becomes numb to the touch.

There might be some pain after the procedure, but it shouldn’t be any more painful than the abscess felt before the surgery.

After you have an abscess drained, the doctor might prescribe oral antibiotics to help heal your infection. The incision site may drain pus for a couple of days after the procedure. For very deep abscesses, the doctor might pack the abscess site with gauze that needs to be removed after a few days.

You might not need antibiotics after abscess drainage. Your doctor will examine the fluid drained from the abscess and your past medical history to determine if antibiotics are necessary. If you have a history of antibiotic-resistant infections or many past abscesses, you will likely need to take a course of antibiotics after your drainage procedure. For help with prescription insurance costs, consider a customized health insurance plan.

If the drainage was done successfully, an abscess should not come back. However, if the cause of the abscess wasn’t completely eliminated with antibiotics and drainage, it could recur in the same spot. If you don’t take your antibiotics as prescribed, it increases your risk of developing a future antibiotic-resistant abscess.

About the abscess incision and drainage Average Cash Prices

This procedure is most commonly performed at either a surgery center or an outpatient hospital.

Surgery centers, also known as ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), are independent, licensed medical facilities that are governed by distinct regulatory requirements compared with a hospital. Procedures performed at an ASCs are often less expensive than when they are performed at an outpatient hospital, but they typically offer fewer complimentary services, and may not have the full-range of support services that a hospital provides.

Outpatient facilities are outpatient departments or clinics that may be within or next to a hospital, but is owned and run by the affiliated hospital. These facilities can perform surgical treatments and procedures that do not require an overnight stay. Procedures performed at an outpatient hospital are often more expensive than when they are performed in an ambulatory surgery center, but outpatient hospitals may offer more complimentary and support services for patients because they are connected to the hospital system.

* Savings estimate based on a study of more than 1 billion claims comparing self-pay (or cash pay) prices of a frequency-weighted market basket of procedures to insurer-negotiated rates for the same. Claims were collected between July 2017 and July 2019. R.Lawrence Van Horn, Arthur Laffer, Robert L.Metcalf. 2019. The Transformative Potential for Price Transparency in Healthcare: Benefits for Consumers and Providers. Health Management Policy and Innovation, Volume 4, Issue 3.

Sidecar Health offers and administers a variety of plans including ACA compliant and excepted benefit plans. Coverage and plan options may vary or may not be available in all states.

Your actual costs may be higher or lower than these cost estimates. Check with your provider and health plan details to confirm the costs that you may be charged for a service or procedure.You are responsible for costs that are not covered and for getting any pre-authorizations or referrals required by your health plan. Neither payments nor benefits are guaranteed. Provider data, including price data, provided in part by Turquoise Health.

The site is not a substitute for medical or healthcare advice and does not serve as a recommendation for a particular provider or type of medical or healthcare.