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Procedure price report · Other therapeutic procedures on muscles and tendons

Surgical release of a tight shoulder joint capsule

CPT 23020the billing code this page is about

Surgery to cut and loosen the scarred or tightened lining of the shoulder joint to restore movement.

Hospitals typically charge $3,033 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 355 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $2,816. Most fall between $1,141 and $5,390 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
355
States
46
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – 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 355 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
$686$1,290$3,033$4,499$6,899

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($686 vs $6,899).

How the prices are spread

$531 – $709: 22 hospitals$531$709 – $948: 15 hospitals$948 – $1,267: 34 hospitals$948$1,267 – $1,693: 39 hospitals$1,693 – $2,263: 29 hospitals$1,693$2,263 – $3,025: 23 hospitals$3,025 – $4,043: 71 hospitals$3,025$4,043 – $5,404: 36 hospitals$5,404 – $7,223: 44 hospitals$5,404$7,223 – $9,654: 10 hospitals$7,223median $3,033price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (323 of 355 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$531$70922
$709$94815
$948$1,26734
$1,267$1,69339
$1,693$2,26329
$2,263$3,02523
$3,025$4,04371
$4,043$5,40436
$5,404$7,22344
$7,223$9,65410

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$3,343
Median cash price$3,033
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.91×

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 $3,033.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $1,290 across 11 hospitalsIL$1,290Wisconsin: median $3,632 across 21 hospitalsWI$3,632Michigan: median $1,241 across 29 hospitalsMI$1,241New York: median $3,840 across 31 hospitalsNY$3,840Massachusetts: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: median $1,290 across 10 hospitalsOR$1,290Nevada: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: median $1,698 across 17 hospitalsIA$1,698Indiana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $2,434 across 14 hospitalsOH$2,434Pennsylvania: median $2,382 across 20 hospitalsPA$2,382New Jersey: median $3,821 across 24 hospitalsNJ$3,821Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $6,899 across 24 hospitalsCA$6,899Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $1,141 across 13 hospitalsOK$1,141Louisiana: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $3,615 across 22 hospitalsTX$3,615Florida: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $3,033. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA24$6,899+128%$5,440 – $6,899
New York NY31$3,840+27%$1,534 – $3,884
New Jersey NJ24$3,821+26%$3,591 – $5,419
Wisconsin WI21$3,632+20%$3,632 – $3,684
Texas TX22$3,615+19%$2,794 – $4,071
Ohio OH14$2,434−20%$1,393 – $3,553
Pennsylvania PA20$2,382−21%$432 – $5,038
Iowa IA17$1,698−44%$1,698 – $1,698
Illinois IL11$1,290−57%$531 – $1,698
Oregon OR10$1,290−57%$1,290 – $2,298
Michigan MI29$1,241−59%$686 – $3,632
Oklahoma OK13$1,141−62%$1,141 – $6,615
Missouri MO8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA1not 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 $3,033.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care268$3,553$1,141 – $5,507
Children’s13fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access74$1,798$1,090 – $3,684
Ownership
For-profit40$3,794$1,141 – $8,410
Government54$2,015$1,272 – $4,300
Non-profit261$2,838$1,141 – $5,202
System affiliation
Part of a system289$3,591$1,141 – $5,507
Independent66$1,788$1,086 – $4,300

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$2,697
Median cash price$3,033
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

190 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,798 and the average of the middle 60% is $2,603; most fall between $1,141 and $5,507.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 190 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
$729$1,196$1,798$4,261$6,899

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($729 vs $6,899).

Of the 201 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 190 gave a usable cash price; 8 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 3 a list price only.

How complete is this

355 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (9%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 389 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted355
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here28
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 — excluded5
Hospitals that filed this code389

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 therapeutic procedures on muscles and tendons family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Capsular Contracture Release.

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, “Surgical release of a tight shoulder joint capsule (CPT 23020) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-23020-surgical-release-of-a-tight-shoulder-joint-capsule