HRHospitalRates.comCompare prices

Procedure price report · Other OR therapeutic procedures on joints

Knee arthroscopy to shave damaged cartilage

CPT 29877the billing code this page is about

Keyhole knee surgery in which rough or damaged joint-surface cartilage is trimmed and smoothed.

Hospitals typically charge $3,028 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 936 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $3,247. Most fall between $1,294 and $7,099 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
936
States
50
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 936 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
$889$1,454$3,028$5,804$11,629

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($889 vs $11,629).

How the prices are spread

$618 – $862: 43 hospitals$618$862 – $1,203: 80 hospitals$1,203 – $1,678: 119 hospitals$1,203$1,678 – $2,340: 111 hospitals$2,340 – $3,265: 97 hospitals$2,340$3,265 – $4,555: 119 hospitals$4,555 – $6,354: 105 hospitals$4,555$6,354 – $8,864: 61 hospitals$8,864 – $12,365: 71 hospitals$8,864$12,365 – $17,249: 38 hospitals$12,365median $3,028price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (844 of 936 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$618$86243
$862$1,20380
$1,203$1,678119
$1,678$2,340111
$2,340$3,26597
$3,265$4,555119
$4,555$6,354105
$6,354$8,86461
$8,864$12,36571
$12,365$17,24938

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$3,343
Median cash price$3,028
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 $3,028.

Alaska: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: median $1,256 across 10 hospitalsVT$1,256New Hampshire: median $911 across 12 hospitalsNH$911Washington: median $2,070 across 22 hospitalsWA$2,070Idaho: median $4,326 across 18 hospitalsID$4,326Montana: median $1,311 across 11 hospitalsMT$1,311North Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $2,611 across 36 hospitalsMN$2,611Illinois: median $2,625 across 35 hospitalsIL$2,625Wisconsin: median $3,266 across 41 hospitalsWI$3,266Michigan: median $1,837 across 42 hospitalsMI$1,837New York: median $3,840 across 56 hospitalsNY$3,840Massachusetts: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: median $1,626 across 26 hospitalsOR$1,626Nevada: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 7 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 $1,526 across 48 hospitalsIA$1,526Indiana: median $1,486 across 22 hospitalsIN$1,486Ohio: median $7,350 across 31 hospitalsOH$7,350Pennsylvania: median $3,139 across 31 hospitalsPA$3,139New Jersey: median $4,131 across 34 hospitalsNJ$4,131Connecticut: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $5,148 across 58 hospitalsCA$5,148Utah: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $1,367 across 15 hospitalsCO$1,367Nebraska: median $1,751 across 22 hospitalsNE$1,751Missouri: median $3,783 across 31 hospitalsMO$3,783Kentucky: median $1,358 across 11 hospitalsKY$1,358West Virginia: median $1,703 across 21 hospitalsWV$1,703Virginia: median $5,906 across 15 hospitalsVA$5,906Maryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $3,208 across 13 hospitalsAZ$3,208New Mexico: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $1,674 across 27 hospitalsKS$1,674Arkansas: median $2,768 across 15 hospitalsAR$2,768Tennessee: median $2,469 across 15 hospitalsTN$2,469North Carolina: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: median $10,768 across 11 hospitalsSC$10,768Oklahoma: median $1,304 across 20 hospitalsOK$1,304Louisiana: median $4,586 across 15 hospitalsLA$4,586Mississippi: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: median $3,326 across 18 hospitalsAL$3,326Georgia: median $8,718 across 15 hospitalsGA$8,718Hawaii: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $4,712 across 41 hospitalsTX$4,712Florida: median $7,077 across 17 hospitalsFL$7,077
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $3,028. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
South Carolina SC11$10,768+256%$3,614 – $14,500
Georgia GA15$8,718+188%$3,265 – $11,629
Ohio OH31$7,350+143%$1,834 – $19,096
Florida FL17$7,077+134%$2,374 – $10,907
Virginia VA15$5,906+95%$1,857 – $14,256
California CA58$5,148+70%$1,848 – $10,018
Texas TX41$4,712+56%$2,794 – $9,514
Louisiana LA15$4,586+51%$2,544 – $8,200
Idaho ID18$4,326+43%$1,255 – $8,372
New Jersey NJ34$4,131+36%$3,591 – $5,741
New York NY56$3,840+27%$1,057 – $4,595
Missouri MO31$3,783+25%$978 – $8,630
Alabama AL18$3,326+10%$1,751 – $9,969
Wisconsin WI41$3,266+8%$3,021 – $4,013
Arizona AZ13$3,208+6%$971 – $10,485
Pennsylvania PA31$3,139+4%$423 – $6,114
Arkansas AR15$2,768−9%$1,167 – $5,804
Illinois IL35$2,625−13%$1,180 – $9,776
Minnesota MN36$2,611−14%$1,526 – $4,567
Tennessee TN15$2,469−18%$812 – $5,814
Washington WA22$2,070−32%$1,223 – $4,906
Michigan MI42$1,837−39%$1,134 – $4,499
Nebraska NE22$1,751−42%$618 – $2,857
West Virginia WV21$1,703−44%$682 – $5,329
Kansas KS27$1,674−45%$889 – $4,462
Oregon OR26$1,626−46%$1,158 – $2,066
Iowa IA48$1,526−50%$1,327 – $2,015
Indiana IN22$1,486−51%$1,064 – $17,659
Colorado CO15$1,367−55%$1,070 – $7,138
Kentucky KY11$1,358−55%$736 – $1,685
Montana MT11$1,311−57%$378 – $2,741
Oklahoma OK20$1,304−57%$1,304 – $6,775
Vermont VT10$1,256−59%$388 – $2,203
New Hampshire NH12$911−70%$523 – $1,604
Massachusetts MA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI1not 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 $3,028.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care623$3,840$1,512 – $9,783
Children’s20$2,824$1,526 – $5,976
Critical access291$1,814$1,044 – $3,636
Ownership
For-profit106$5,532$2,304 – $12,053
Government181$2,015$1,221 – $4,594
Non-profit647$3,082$1,242 – $6,763
System affiliation
Part of a system688$3,266$1,358 – $8,319
Independent248$2,244$1,159 – $5,408

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$3,879
Median cash price$3,028
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

422 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,991 and the average of the middle 60% is $2,559; most fall between $1,086 and $5,148.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 422 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
$736$1,248$1,991$4,712$8,718

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 12× what the cheapest tenth charges ($736 vs $8,718).

Of the 476 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 422 gave a usable cash price; 22 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 32 a list price only.

How complete is this

936 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (24%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,041 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted936
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here62
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded8
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded34
Hospitals that filed this code1,041

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 Arthrs Knee Debridement/Shaving Artclr Crtlg.

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, “Knee arthroscopy to shave damaged cartilage (CPT 29877) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-29877-knee-arthroscopy-to-shave-damaged-cartilage