CPT code 32551: Chest tube, open thoracostomy2026 Medicare rate & RVUs in New Mexico

In New Mexico, Medicare pays $144.51 for 32551 in a facility. There’s no office rate.

Check a contract rate as a % of Medicare · 32551 nationwide

Medicare allowed amount for participating (non-QP) physicians, before deductible, coinsurance and claim adjustments. Not a patient’s bill or a hospital charge.

What 32551 covers

This service places a chest tube into the pleural space through an open approach and connects it to a drainage system. It is commonly performed for pneumothorax, hemothorax, or a pleural collection requiring continued drainage. Emergency physicians, trauma or thoracic surgeons, pulmonologists, and critical care clinicians may perform it, most often in a hospital or emergency setting.

Report 32551 for the open tube placement, not for a percutaneous pleural catheter or a one-time fluid aspiration. Documentation should identify the indication, side, approach, tube placement, and connection to drainage. CMS assigns a 0-day global period, so same-day preoperative and postoperative care is included. For bilateral procedures, modifier 50 is paid at 150%. In a session with multiple procedures, the highest-valued procedure is paid in full and the others at 50%. CMS does not pay an assistant at surgery for this service and does not permit co-surgeon or team-surgery reporting.

This summary was written with AI assistance from CMS physician fee schedule data and checked against the CMS billing rules shown here. Rates on this page come directly from CMS files.

How New Mexico compares for 32551

Across 109 of 109 payment localities, the facility rate for 32551 runs from $129.16 in Wisconsin to $185.81 in Alaska. New Mexico pays $144.51. The RVUs are the same everywhere; the geographic indexes change the dollars.

Every other payment area

32551 rates by state

Office rate range in each state. Select a state to see its payment localities.

See 32551 in every payment locality

How the 32551 rate is calculated

Each of 32551’s three RVUs is multiplied by a geographic index (GPCI) for the payment locality, added up, and multiplied by the conversion factor. Drag the indexes or enter a ZIP to see what moves the rate.

Payment rules and modifiers for 32551

The CMS indicators that decide how 32551 is paid alongside other services.

What modifiers do to the payment

When to use modifier 50

Codes related to 32551

Related codes aren’t interchangeable: bill the code that matches the service performed.

How 32551 has changed in New Mexico

Price 32551 for an earlier date of service

Where the New Mexico rate applies

New Mexico is a Medicare payment area, not a city. Our Census mapping connects it to 528 cities and communities in New Mexico. Some span more than one payment area; confirm with the service ZIP.

• Abeytas
• Abiquiu
• Acomita Lake
• Adelino
• Agua Fria
• Alamillo
• Alamo
• Alamogordo

Browse all communities in New Mexico

Where these rates come from

FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indexes and the conversion factor. Services without a published rate are labeled, never given a made-up amount. Amounts are Medicare allowed amounts before claim adjustments: not a patient’s bill or a commercial rate.

CMS RVU26D · effective Oct 1, 2026 through the day before Jan 1, 2027

Open CMS sourceHow we calculate rates