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Procedure price report · Other OR therapeutic procedures on bone

Solid bone block from a second incision in spine surgery

CPT 20938the billing code this page is about

Add-on charge for harvesting a solid two- or three-layer piece of the patient's own bone through a separate incision and placing it during a spine operation.

Hospitals typically charge $463 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 262 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $619. Most fall between $261 and $2,381 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
262
States
41
Filings dated
Jun 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 262 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
$190$333$463$1,030$6,839

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 36× what the cheapest tenth charges ($190 vs $6,839).

How the prices are spread

$133 – $216: 21 hospitals$133$216 – $350: 38 hospitals$350 – $566: 82 hospitals$350$566 – $918: 32 hospitals$918 – $1,487: 19 hospitals$918$1,487 – $2,410: 5 hospitals$2,410 – $3,905: 12 hospitals$2,410$3,905 – $6,328: 13 hospitals$6,328 – $10,255: 7 hospitals$6,328$10,255 – $16,617: 8 hospitals$10,255median $463price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (237 of 262 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$133$21621
$216$35038
$350$56682
$566$91832
$918$1,48719
$1,487$2,4105
$2,410$3,90512
$3,905$6,32813
$6,328$10,2557
$10,255$16,6178

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $463.

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: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $361 across 12 hospitalsIL$361Wisconsin: median $851 across 14 hospitalsWI$851Michigan: median $254 across 12 hospitalsMI$254New York: median $495 across 10 hospitalsNY$495Massachusetts: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMAOregon: median $333 across 10 hospitalsOR$333Nevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 5 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 $442 across 19 hospitalsIA$442Indiana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceINOhio: median $785 across 11 hospitalsOH$785Pennsylvania: median $123 across 16 hospitalsPA$123New Jersey: median $5,855 across 21 hospitalsNJ$5,855Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $459 across 28 hospitalsCA$459Utah: 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: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSCOklahoma: median $253 across 10 hospitalsOK$253Louisiana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMSAlabama: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTXFlorida: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $463. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Jersey NJ21$5,855+1164%$4,627 – $17,384
Wisconsin WI14$851+84%$851 – $3,519
Ohio OH11$785+70%$457 – $785
New York NY10$495+7%$152 – $555
California CA28$459−1%$459 – $510
Iowa IA19$442−4%$442 – $1,060
Illinois IL12$361−22%$146 – $531
Oregon OR10$333−28%$333 – $583
Michigan MI12$254−45%$254 – $997
Oklahoma OK10$253−45%$253 – $253
Pennsylvania PA16$123−73%$113 – $382
Texas TX8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not 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 $463.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care212$459$254 – $2,771
Children’s10fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access39$531$350 – $997
Ownership
For-profit29$1,352$253 – $8,870
Government39$508$346 – $1,632
Non-profit193$459$253 – $1,060
System affiliation
Part of a system201$459$253 – $2,653
Independent61$555$346 – $1,352

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$729
Median cash price$463
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

143 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $442 and the average of the middle 60% is $409; most fall between $253 and $595.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 143 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
$190$267$442$538$1,060

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($190 vs $1,060).

Of the 171 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 143 gave a usable cash price; 13 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 15 a list price only.

How complete is this

262 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (7%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 312 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted262
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here32
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded17
Hospitals that filed this code312

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 bone family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Autograft Spine Surgery Bicort/Tricort Sep Inc.

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, “Solid bone block from a second incision in spine surgery (CPT 20938) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-20938-solid-bone-block-from-a-second-incision-in-spine-surgery