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Procedure price report · Other fracture and dislocation procedure

Non-surgical treatment of a broken breastbone

CPT 21820the billing code this page is about

Management of a sternum fracture without making an incision, such as immobilization and follow-up care of the bone.

Hospitals typically charge $349 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 772 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $373. Most fall between $211 and $670 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
772
States
48
Filings dated
Jan 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 772 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
$151$231$349$571$1,091

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($151 vs $1,091).

How the prices are spread

$118 – $151: 40 hospitals$118$151 – $195: 63 hospitals$195 – $251: 92 hospitals$195$251 – $323: 114 hospitals$323 – $417: 112 hospitals$323$417 – $536: 103 hospitals$536 – $691: 60 hospitals$536$691 – $889: 57 hospitals$889 – $1,145: 36 hospitals$889$1,145 – $1,475: 19 hospitals$1,145median $349price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (696 of 772 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$118$15140
$151$19563
$195$25192
$251$323114
$323$417112
$417$536103
$536$69160
$691$88957
$889$1,14536
$1,145$1,47519

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$252
Median cash price$349
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.38×

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 $349.

Alaska: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $370 across 27 hospitalsWA$370Idaho: median $670 across 10 hospitalsID$670Montana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $362 across 17 hospitalsMN$362Illinois: median $304 across 23 hospitalsIL$304Wisconsin: median $464 across 23 hospitalsWI$464Michigan: median $243 across 30 hospitalsMI$243New York: median $308 across 38 hospitalsNY$308Massachusetts: median $829 across 11 hospitalsMA$829Oregon: median $510 across 15 hospitalsOR$510Nevada: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $356 across 25 hospitalsIA$356Indiana: median $259 across 12 hospitalsIN$259Ohio: median $431 across 42 hospitalsOH$431Pennsylvania: median $238 across 46 hospitalsPA$238New Jersey: median $600 across 26 hospitalsNJ$600Connecticut: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $692 across 77 hospitalsCA$692Utah: median $441 across 23 hospitalsUT$441Colorado: median $668 across 16 hospitalsCO$668Nebraska: median $296 across 15 hospitalsNE$296Missouri: median $265 across 15 hospitalsMO$265Kentucky: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $369 across 10 hospitalsVA$369Maryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: median $179 across 10 hospitalsAZ$179New Mexico: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $301 across 15 hospitalsKS$301Arkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $128 across 10 hospitalsTN$128North Carolina: median $571 across 22 hospitalsNC$571South Carolina: median $391 across 11 hospitalsSC$391Oklahoma: median $141 across 17 hospitalsOK$141Louisiana: median $182 across 20 hospitalsLA$182Mississippi: median $168 across 12 hospitalsMS$168Alabama: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $248 across 11 hospitalsGA$248Hawaii: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $332 across 30 hospitalsTX$332Florida: median $241 across 21 hospitalsFL$241
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $349. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Massachusetts MA11$829+138%$270 – $1,676
California CA77$692+98%$365 – $1,126
Idaho ID10$670+92%$301 – $670
Colorado CO16$668+92%$335 – $1,520
New Jersey NJ26$600+72%$266 – $5,339
North Carolina NC22$571+64%$397 – $571
Oregon OR15$510+46%$361 – $600
Wisconsin WI23$464+33%$194 – $464
Utah UT23$441+26%$363 – $466
Ohio OH42$431+24%$391 – $717
South Carolina SC11$391+12%$305 – $1,241
Washington WA27$370+6%$136 – $671
Virginia VA10$369+6%$369 – $915
Minnesota MN17$362+4%$345 – $560
Iowa IA25$356+2%$228 – $406
Texas TX30$332−5%$300 – $637
New York NY38$308−12%$284 – $608
Illinois IL23$304−13%$221 – $575
Kansas KS15$301−14%$203 – $431
Nebraska NE15$296−15%$143 – $429
Missouri MO15$265−24%$132 – $278
Indiana IN12$259−26%$221 – $747
Georgia GA11$248−29%$145 – $564
Michigan MI30$243−30%$197 – $339
Florida FL21$241−31%$173 – $896
Pennsylvania PA46$238−32%$104 – $759
Louisiana LA20$182−48%$105 – $230
Arizona AZ10$179−49%$179 – $179
Mississippi MS12$168−52%$89 – $302
Oklahoma OK17$141−59%$132 – $266
Tennessee TN10$128−63%$124 – $156
Alaska AK8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not 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 $349.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care607$356$207 – $717
Children’s15fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access150$338$211 – $510
Ownership
For-profit66$315$200 – $905
Government110$303$177 – $561
Non-profit596$360$216 – $692
System affiliation
Part of a system634$361$211 – $692
Independent138$304$197 – $543

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$580
Median cash price$349
Cash as a share of list, median hospital60%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 40%. 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

579 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $391 and the average of the middle 60% is $406; most fall between $211 and $692.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 579 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
$160$230$391$633$1,062

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($160 vs $1,062).

Of the 623 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 579 gave a usable cash price; 24 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 20 a list price only.

How complete is this

772 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (20%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 836 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted772
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here39
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 — excluded24
Hospitals that filed this code836

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 24, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Other fracture and dislocation procedure family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Closed Treatment Sternum Fracture.

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, “Non-surgical treatment of a broken breastbone (CPT 21820) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-21820-non-surgical-treatment-of-a-broken-breastbone