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Procedure price report · Traction, splints, and other wound care

Cutting a window into a cast

CPT 29730the billing code this page is about

Covers cutting an opening in an existing cast so the skin or a wound underneath can be reached or checked.

Hospitals typically charge $188 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 908 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $195. Most fall between $96 and $351 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
908
States
49
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 908 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
$69$109$188$296$597

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($69 vs $597).

How the prices are spread

$56 – $74: 69 hospitals$56$74 – $98: 80 hospitals$98 – $129: 85 hospitals$98$129 – $171: 106 hospitals$171 – $227: 182 hospitals$171$227 – $300: 120 hospitals$300 – $397: 69 hospitals$300$397 – $525: 50 hospitals$525 – $694: 30 hospitals$525$694 – $918: 38 hospitals$694median $188price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (829 of 908 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$56$7469
$74$9880
$98$12985
$129$171106
$171$227182
$227$300120
$300$39769
$397$52550
$525$69430
$694$91838

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$166
Median cash price$188
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.13×

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 $188.

Alaska: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $249 across 45 hospitalsWA$249Idaho: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: median $180 across 10 hospitalsND$180Minnesota: median $105 across 16 hospitalsMN$105Illinois: median $137 across 32 hospitalsIL$137Wisconsin: median $218 across 48 hospitalsWI$218Michigan: median $106 across 33 hospitalsMI$106New York: median $187 across 43 hospitalsNY$187Massachusetts: median $243 across 21 hospitalsMA$243Oregon: median $169 across 26 hospitalsOR$169Nevada: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $151 across 34 hospitalsIA$151Indiana: median $72 across 28 hospitalsIN$72Ohio: median $201 across 19 hospitalsOH$201Pennsylvania: median $166 across 26 hospitalsPA$166New Jersey: median $459 across 34 hospitalsNJ$459Connecticut: median $271 across 11 hospitalsCT$271Rhode Island: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $365 across 95 hospitalsCA$365Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $152 across 13 hospitalsCO$152Nebraska: median $104 across 16 hospitalsNE$104Missouri: median $114 across 21 hospitalsMO$114Kentucky: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $204 across 20 hospitalsVA$204Maryland: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $97 across 14 hospitalsKS$97Arkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: median $192 across 20 hospitalsNC$192South Carolina: median $257 across 14 hospitalsSC$257Oklahoma: median $74 across 13 hospitalsOK$74Louisiana: median $114 across 15 hospitalsLA$114Mississippi: median $95 across 15 hospitalsMS$95Alabama: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $185 across 16 hospitalsGA$185Hawaii: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $217 across 56 hospitalsTX$217Florida: median $298 across 33 hospitalsFL$298
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $188. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Jersey NJ34$459+145%$175 – $5,110
California CA95$365+95%$236 – $918
Florida FL33$298+59%$89 – $601
Connecticut CT11$271+45%$239 – $350
South Carolina SC14$257+37%$207 – $257
Washington WA45$249+33%$130 – $354
Massachusetts MA21$243+30%$169 – $456
Wisconsin WI48$218+16%$176 – $244
Texas TX56$217+16%$194 – $351
Virginia VA20$204+9%$67 – $237
Ohio OH19$201+7%$121 – $472
North Carolina NC20$192+2%$80 – $192
New York NY43$1870%$130 – $374
Georgia GA16$185−1%$185 – $190
North Dakota ND10$180−4%$162 – $298
Oregon OR26$169−10%$120 – $213
Pennsylvania PA26$166−12%$29 – $323
Colorado CO13$152−19%$99 – $226
Iowa IA34$151−19%$73 – $152
Illinois IL32$137−27%$78 – $330
Missouri MO21$114−39%$96 – $246
Louisiana LA15$114−39%$60 – $134
Michigan MI33$106−43%$67 – $223
Minnesota MN16$105−44%$80 – $284
Nebraska NE16$104−45%$97 – $138
Kansas KS14$97−48%$78 – $174
Mississippi MS15$95−49%$50 – $193
Oklahoma OK13$74−60%$74 – $77
Indiana IN28$72−62%$65 – $260
Alaska AK9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not 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 $188.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care661$195$101 – $374
Children’s46$251$134 – $708
Critical access199$141$85 – $244
Ownership
For-profit86$213$104 – $567
Government160$145$80 – $205
Non-profit660$203$97 – $351
System affiliation
Part of a system743$199$97 – $368
Independent165$140$91 – $246

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$346
Median cash price$188
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

645 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $213 and the average of the middle 60% is $219; most fall between $108 and $374.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 645 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
$74$127$213$327$583

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($74 vs $583).

Of the 699 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 645 gave a usable cash price; 26 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 28 a list price only.

How complete is this

908 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (23%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 994 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted908
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here49
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 — excluded36
Hospitals that filed this code994

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 Traction, splints, and other wound care family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as PR Windowing of Cast.

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, “Cutting a window into a cast (CPT 29730) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-29730-cutting-a-window-into-a-cast