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Procedure price report · Other non-OR therapeutic procedures on musculoskeletal system

Unlisted bone or muscle procedure of the head

CPT 21499the billing code this page is about

Used when a surgical procedure on the bones or soft tissues of the head has no specific billing code of its own.

Hospitals typically charge $920 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 321 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,096. Most fall between $275 and $3,229 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
321
States
40
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – 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 321 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
$187$299$920$2,500$7,140

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 38× what the cheapest tenth charges ($187 vs $7,140).

How the prices are spread

$155 – $233: 27 hospitals$155$233 – $352: 64 hospitals$352 – $531: 30 hospitals$352$531 – $800: 16 hospitals$800 – $1,207: 18 hospitals$800$1,207 – $1,819: 47 hospitals$1,819 – $2,743: 31 hospitals$1,819$2,743 – $4,136: 17 hospitals$4,136 – $6,237: 11 hospitals$4,136$6,237 – $9,404: 28 hospitals$6,237median $920price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (289 of 321 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$155$23327
$233$35264
$352$53130
$531$80016
$800$1,20718
$1,207$1,81947
$1,819$2,74331
$2,743$4,13617
$4,136$6,23711
$6,237$9,40428

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$242
Median cash price$920
Cash as a multiple of Medicare3.8×

The Medicare figure is the national unadjusted OPPS rate for this code — what Medicare itself pays a hospital before local wage adjustment. It is a benchmark, not a price anyone is charged.

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $920.

Alaska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $459 across 14 hospitalsMN$459Illinois: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMINew York: median $275 across 19 hospitalsNY$275Massachusetts: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIAIndiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $1,343 across 12 hospitalsOH$1,343Pennsylvania: median $475 across 12 hospitalsPA$475New Jersey: median $4,881 across 31 hospitalsNJ$4,881Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $1,224 across 49 hospitalsCA$1,224Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: median $110 across 10 hospitalsWV$110Virginia: median $2,677 across 21 hospitalsVA$2,677Maryland: 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: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $124 across 11 hospitalsTN$124North Carolina: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: median $1,955 across 15 hospitalsSC$1,955Oklahoma: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOKLouisiana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $187 across 23 hospitalsTX$187Florida: median $920 across 11 hospitalsFL$920
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $920. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Jersey NJ31$4,881+431%$257 – $6,864
Virginia VA21$2,677+191%$373 – $2,677
South Carolina SC15$1,955+112%$211 – $1,955
Ohio OH12$1,343+46%$328 – $1,894
California CA49$1,224+33%$381 – $1,658
Florida FL11$9200%$731 – $8,415
Pennsylvania PA12$475−48%$361 – $2,082
Minnesota MN14$459−50%$336 – $1,848
New York NY19$275−70%$275 – $450
Texas TX23$187−80%$155 – $825
Tennessee TN11$124−86%$113 – $296
West Virginia WV10$110−88%$110 – $879
Wisconsin WI9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Iowa IA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Illinois IL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Michigan MI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oklahoma OK4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY1not 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 $920.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care296$1,105$281 – $3,309
Children’s3fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access22$298$110 – $883
Ownership
For-profit23$404$211 – $3,090
Government47$731$275 – $3,800
Non-profit251$1,224$281 – $2,902
System affiliation
Part of a system277$883$275 – $3,499
Independent44$920$319 – $2,384

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$2,009
Median cash price$920
Cash as a share of list, median hospital56%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 44%. 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

204 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $990 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,045; most fall between $310 and $1,955.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 204 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
$187$336$990$1,926$3,256

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 17× what the cheapest tenth charges ($187 vs $3,256).

Of the 216 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 204 gave a usable cash price; 7 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

321 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (8%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 352 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted321
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here8
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded21
Hospitals that filed this code352

Sections not shown for this setting

  • 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 23, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

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

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as PR Exc Styloid Process and Stylohyoid Muscle C/T 21360.

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, “Unlisted bone or muscle procedure of the head (CPT 21499) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-21499-unlisted-bone-or-muscle-procedure-of-the-head