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Procedure price report · Other OR therapeutic procedures on joints

Fusion of a knuckle joint

CPT 26850the billing code this page is about

Surgery that permanently joins the bones of the knuckle joint where a finger meets the hand, with or without pins, screws, or wires to hold the bones together.

Hospitals typically charge $3,255 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 521 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $4,030. Most fall between $1,294 and $9,101 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
521
States
45
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 521 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
$832$1,514$3,255$8,289$12,106

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 15× what the cheapest tenth charges ($832 vs $12,106).

How the prices are spread

$668 – $934: 34 hospitals$668$934 – $1,308: 45 hospitals$1,308 – $1,831: 87 hospitals$1,308$1,831 – $2,563: 41 hospitals$2,563 – $3,587: 43 hospitals$2,563$3,587 – $5,021: 39 hospitals$5,021 – $7,029: 48 hospitals$5,021$7,029 – $9,839: 86 hospitals$9,839 – $13,773: 26 hospitals$9,839$13,773 – $19,279: 24 hospitals$13,773median $3,255price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (473 of 521 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$668$93434
$934$1,30845
$1,308$1,83187
$1,831$2,56341
$2,563$3,58743
$3,587$5,02139
$5,021$7,02948
$7,029$9,83986
$9,839$13,77326
$13,773$19,27924

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$7,413
Median cash price$3,255
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.44×

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 $3,255.

Alaska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: median $11,220 across 15 hospitalsID$11,220Montana: 7 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 $3,499 across 19 hospitalsMN$3,499Illinois: median $1,734 across 15 hospitalsIL$1,734Wisconsin: median $6,317 across 17 hospitalsWI$6,317Michigan: median $1,518 across 32 hospitalsMI$1,518New York: median $8,454 across 31 hospitalsNY$8,454Massachusetts: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: median $1,590 across 16 hospitalsOR$1,590Nevada: 5 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 $1,734 across 23 hospitalsIA$1,734Indiana: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $1,856 across 17 hospitalsOH$1,856Pennsylvania: median $5,050 across 21 hospitalsPA$5,050New Jersey: median $7,807 across 30 hospitalsNJ$7,807Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $4,957 across 47 hospitalsCA$4,957Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: median $3,460 across 15 hospitalsCO$3,460Nebraska: median $1,907 across 15 hospitalsNE$1,907Missouri: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $1,539 across 13 hospitalsOK$1,539Louisiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $4,803 across 26 hospitalsTX$4,803Florida: median $7,544 across 10 hospitalsFL$7,544
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $3,255. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Idaho ID15$11,220+245%$2,984 – $14,738
New York NY31$8,454+160%$1,147 – $8,613
New Jersey NJ30$7,807+140%$4,881 – $9,388
Florida FL10$7,544+132%$1,856 – $11,792
Wisconsin WI17$6,317+94%$3,733 – $6,415
Pennsylvania PA21$5,050+55%$471 – $12,077
California CA47$4,957+52%$3,255 – $9,632
Texas TX26$4,803+48%$4,229 – $6,911
Minnesota MN19$3,499+7%$1,409 – $3,894
Colorado CO15$3,460+6%$1,426 – $19,279
Nebraska NE15$1,907−41%$1,017 – $2,580
Ohio OH17$1,856−43%$1,173 – $15,995
Iowa IA23$1,734−47%$1,405 – $1,734
Illinois IL15$1,734−47%$774 – $2,973
Oregon OR16$1,590−51%$1,355 – $2,485
Oklahoma OK13$1,539−53%$1,539 – $9,211
Michigan MI32$1,518−53%$1,221 – $9,978
Indiana IN9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not 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 $3,255.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care401$4,229$1,355 – $9,632
Children’s12fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access108$1,777$1,050 – $4,404
Ownership
For-profit64$6,246$1,539 – $13,955
Government84$1,659$1,127 – $8,241
Non-profit373$3,256$1,355 – $9,223
System affiliation
Part of a system404$3,733$1,405 – $9,632
Independent117$2,017$1,127 – $7,090

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$3,106
Median cash price$3,255
Cash as a share of list, median hospital64%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 36%. 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

257 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,903 and the average of the middle 60% is $2,966; most fall between $1,060 and $8,429.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 257 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
$774$1,197$1,903$5,887$10,468

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 14× what the cheapest tenth charges ($774 vs $10,468).

Of the 285 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 257 gave a usable cash price; 19 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 9 a list price only.

How complete is this

521 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (13%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 574 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted521
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 — excluded2
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded11
Hospitals that filed this code574

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 OR therapeutic procedures on joints family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Arthrodesis Metacarpophalangeal Jt W/WO Int Fixj.

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, “Fusion of a knuckle joint (CPT 26850) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-26850-fusion-of-a-knuckle-joint