Swallowing Therapy Session
This is swallowing therapy: a session with a speech-language pathologist aimed at the muscles and reflexes used to eat and drink safely, rather than at speech. It is ordered when food or liquid is going down badly — or going the wrong way — after a stroke, with a neurological condition, or after treatment for head and neck cancer.
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What it is
Swallowing looks like one action and is actually a fast sequence of them: the mouth manages the food, the tongue moves it back, the airway closes, and the throat squeezes it down. A stroke, a brain injury, Parkinson's disease, or surgery and radiation to the mouth and throat can break any link in that chain. When the airway does not close in time, food and liquid get into the lungs, which is the risk that makes this more than a comfort issue.
The therapy is delivered by the same profession that treats speech, because the structures are the same ones. Sessions combine exercises for the muscles of the lips, tongue, and throat with practised techniques — a particular head position, a deliberate effortful swallow, swallowing twice, alternating solids and sips — and with guidance on which textures and thicknesses a person can manage at the moment. For infants and children the same code covers work on oral function for feeding, which is a different job again: getting a mouth to suck, chew, and accept food.
Why it is done
- To retrain swallowing after a stroke, which is one of the commonest causes of a sudden swallowing problem
- To maintain or adapt swallowing in progressive neurological disease, where the goal shifts toward safety and nutrition rather than recovery
- To rebuild function after surgery or radiation for cancer of the mouth, throat, or voice box
- To reduce the risk of food and drink entering the airway, and the chest infections that follow
- To work on feeding and oral skills in infants and young children who cannot manage textures or take enough by mouth
What to expect
A session is usually short and practical. Some of it is exercise without food. Some of it is eating and drinking with the therapist watching closely, trying a technique and seeing whether it changes anything. Recommendations about food texture and drink thickness are often revisited as things change. An instrumental test — a swallow study done with x-ray or with a small camera passed through the nose — may be done separately to see what is happening out of sight; that is a different procedure with its own charge. Family or care staff are frequently taught the same techniques, since most meals happen without a therapist present.
Questions worth asking
- Is the swallow study that shows what is happening in the throat billed separately from these therapy sessions, and by a different department?
- In a hospital or skilled nursing facility, is this therapy inside the daily rate or billed as its own line?
- Thickening products and specialised feeding equipment are often recommended. Are those a pharmacy or supply cost paid separately?
- If both swallowing therapy and speech therapy are given, are two different codes billed on the same day, and does that count as two visits?
- Who is providing the therapy — a hospital outpatient department, a rehab facility, or a home health agency — and how does the price differ?
What Swallowing Therapy Session costs by state
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Texas — 122 hospitals, median $268.12
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Florida — 81 hospitals, median $507.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in California — 65 hospitals, median $321.36
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Ohio — 63 hospitals, median $288.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Illinois — 51 hospitals, median $216.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Virginia — 41 hospitals, median $259.20
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Tennessee — 37 hospitals, median $84.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Wisconsin — 33 hospitals, median $270.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Pennsylvania — 32 hospitals, median $296.80
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Iowa — 30 hospitals, median $217.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Michigan — 27 hospitals, median $268.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Indiana — 26 hospitals, median $216.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Georgia — 25 hospitals, median $202.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Washington — 25 hospitals, median $203.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in New York — 23 hospitals, median $94.71
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Kentucky — 22 hospitals, median $219.60
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in New Jersey — 21 hospitals, median $107.20
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Arizona — 20 hospitals, median $70.69
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Missouri — 20 hospitals, median $289.90
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Minnesota — 19 hospitals, median $255.14
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Colorado — 17 hospitals, median $498.85
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Oklahoma — 17 hospitals, median $254.80
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in West Virginia — 17 hospitals, median $168.80
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in North Carolina — 15 hospitals, median $172.63
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Nebraska — 13 hospitals, median $180.84
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Oregon — 12 hospitals, median $340.50
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Kansas — 11 hospitals, median $452.49
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Mississippi — 11 hospitals, median $110.76
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in South Carolina — 11 hospitals, median $194.50
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Arkansas — 8 hospitals, median $199.55
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Maine — 7 hospitals, median $341.45
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in South Dakota — 7 hospitals, median $279.20
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Louisiana — 6 hospitals, median $88.66
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Alaska — 5 hospitals, median $391.56
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Nevada — 4 hospitals, median $81.95
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in North Dakota — 4 hospitals, median $278.40
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in New Mexico — 3 hospitals, median $175.98
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Hawaii — 2 hospitals, median $117.12
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Maryland — 2 hospitals, median $138.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Montana — 2 hospitals, median $115.20
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in Wyoming — 2 hospitals, median $101.22
- Swallowing Therapy Session cost in New Hampshire — 1 hospitals, median $367.00
Swallowing Therapy Session prices at hospitals
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston — $28.00
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Banner Ironwood Medical Center, San Tan Valley — $31.02
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Banner Estrella Medical Center, Phoenix — $36.30
- Swallowing Therapy Session at 26-1214372 NEA Baptist, Jonesboro — $40.28
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Claiborne Medical Center, Tazewell — $46.76
- Swallowing Therapy Session at SONORA COMMUNITY HOSPITAL, Sonora — $53.38
- Swallowing Therapy Session at 64-0362400 Anderson Regional Main Campus, Meridian — $53.68
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Banner University Medical Center Phoenix, Phoenix — $54.45
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Banner Del Webb Medical Center, Sun City West — $55.11
- Swallowing Therapy Session at LeConte Medical Center, Sevierville — $55.97
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Parkwest Medical Center, Knoxville — $57.90
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Morristown-Hamblen Hospital Association, Morristown — $57.90
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Banner Boswell Medical Center, Sun City — $58.74
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Banner Casa Grande Medical Center, Casa Grande — $59.40
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Reynolds Memorial Hospital, Glen Dale — $61.50
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Ascension Saint Joseph - Chicago (Presence Chicago Hospital Network), Chicago — $61.71
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Cumberland Medical Center, Inc., Crossville — $61.76
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center, Glendale — $62.04
- Swallowing Therapy Session at TWIN CITIES COMMUNITY HOSPITAL, Templeton — $62.86
- Swallowing Therapy Session at Roane County Medical Center, Harriman — $63.69
See every published price for Swallowing Therapy Session: the full national range, the state and hospital breakdowns, and which hospitals charge the least.
Swallowing Therapy Session cost — see all prices →Sources
- MedlinePlus: Swallowing Disorders (opens in a new tab, leaves healthcosts.net)
- MedlinePlus: Stroke Rehabilitation (opens in a new tab, leaves healthcosts.net)
- Wikipedia (opens in a new tab, leaves healthcosts.net)