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Procedure price report · Other OR therapeutic procedures on musculoskeletal system

Removing a drug delivery implant from inside a joint

CPT 20705the billing code this page is about

Removal of a medication-carrying device previously placed in a joint space; reported per device removed alongside another surgery.

Hospitals typically charge $320 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 256 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $469. Most fall between $197 and $1,357 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
256
States
38
Filings dated
Nov 2024 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 24, 2026

Median: half of hospitals filed less, half more — and it is a price some hospital actually filed. Average of the middle 60%: the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain average, the lowest or the highest price: the extremes in hospital price files are chargemaster artefacts, not prices anyone pays.

What hospitals charge, from cheapest to most expensive

Cash price percentiles, outpatient, across 256 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$132$204$320$863$2,161

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 16× what the cheapest tenth charges ($132 vs $2,161).

How the prices are spread

$106 – $158: 24 hospitals$106$158 – $236: 55 hospitals$236 – $353: 43 hospitals$236$353 – $527: 21 hospitals$527 – $787: 33 hospitals$527$787 – $1,176: 8 hospitals$1,176 – $1,757: 33 hospitals$1,176$1,757 – $2,624: 3 hospitals$2,624 – $3,920: 1 hospitals$2,624$3,920 – $5,855: 11 hospitals$3,920median $320price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (232 of 256 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$106$15824
$158$23655
$236$35343
$353$52721
$527$78733
$787$1,1768
$1,176$1,75733
$1,757$2,6243
$2,624$3,9201
$3,920$5,85511

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $320.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMTNorth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNDMinnesota: median $625 across 15 hospitalsMN$625Illinois: median $246 across 14 hospitalsIL$246Wisconsin: median $247 across 14 hospitalsWI$247Michigan: median $195 across 13 hospitalsMI$195New York: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNYMassachusetts: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMAOregon: median $275 across 11 hospitalsOR$275Nevada: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $298 across 13 hospitalsIA$298Indiana: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $411 across 10 hospitalsOH$411Pennsylvania: median $90 across 15 hospitalsPA$90New Jersey: median $5,741 across 19 hospitalsNJ$5,741Connecticut: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $1,400 across 37 hospitalsCA$1,400Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVAMaryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceARTennessee: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSCOklahoma: median $204 across 10 hospitalsOK$204Louisiana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceLAMississippi: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTXFlorida: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $320. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Jersey NJ19$5,741+1694%$4,627 – $12,734
California CA37$1,400+338%$770 – $1,400
Minnesota MN15$625+95%$257 – $625
Ohio OH10$411+28%$75 – $559
Iowa IA13$298−7%$298 – $298
Oregon OR11$275−14%$226 – $374
Wisconsin WI14$247−23%$247 – $1,357
Illinois IL14$246−23%$209 – $608
Oklahoma OK10$204−36%$204 – $204
Michigan MI13$195−39%$159 – $211
Pennsylvania PA15$90−72%$76 – $146
West Virginia WV8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New York NY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Texas TX2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price

Hospitals like yours

The same distribution cut by the kind of hospital. Hospital type and ownership come from CMS; a hospital counts as part of a system when its price file is shared with at least one other hospital under the same brand. The national median is $320.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care198$336$191 – $1,400
Children’s4fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access53$298$207 – $844
Ownership
For-profit21$239$209 – $1,281
Government29$320$211 – $523
Non-profit205$357$183 – $1,400
System affiliation
Part of a system213$340$198 – $1,357
Independent43$320$190 – $1,072

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$477
Median cash price$320
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. The share is the median of each hospital’s own cash ÷ list ratio, over hospitals that filed both — not the ratio of the two medians above.

The same procedure, inpatient

156 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $298 and the average of the middle 60% is $382; most fall between $198 and $943.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 156 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$143$204$298$770$1,400

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($143 vs $1,400).

Of the 172 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 156 gave a usable cash price; 11 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 5 a list price only.

How complete is this

256 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (6%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 301 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted256
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here19
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded25
Hospitals that filed this code301

Sections not shown for this setting

  • Against Medicare: Medicare has no separately payable national outpatient (OPPS) rate for this code, so there is nothing honest to compare against.
  • Since our last snapshot: there is no earlier snapshot at least 90 days older than this one yet.

We last checked these hospitals’ price files for changes between September 4, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 24, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Other OR therapeutic procedures on musculoskeletal system family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Removal Intra-Articular Drug Delivery Device.

Method

Source
The machine-readable price files every U.S. hospital is required by CMS to publish, parsed per hospital. Nothing is surveyed, sampled or modelled.
What counts
One cash (self-pay) price per hospital for this code and setting. A hospital’s own filing can rule its number out — a placeholder, a “not applicable” note, a list price standing in for cash — and our plausibility checks can flag a price far below what every other hospital files. Both kinds are disclosed above and excluded from the statistics; on the compare tool a flagged price is still shown.
Statistics
Percentiles are discrete: each is a price some hospital filed. The average is the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain mean, the minimum or the maximum. A state needs 10 hospitals and a segment 20 to show a figure; otherwise the row shows its count and no number. Medicare is the national unadjusted OPPS rate where one exists.
Names
Procedure names on these pages are our own plain-language titles, not the AMA’s copyrighted CPT descriptors. The code is the identity.

The full rules — sources, statistics, thresholds, limitations — are on the methodology page.

Download this page’s figures: JSON · CSV. Aggregates only — the per-hospital prices are on the compare tool.

Cite: HospitalRates.com, “Removing a drug delivery implant from inside a joint (CPT 20705) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-20705-removing-a-drug-delivery-implant-from-inside-a-joint