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Procedure price report · Other therapeutic procedures, hemic and lymphatic system

Complete neck lymph node removal

CPT 38720the billing code this page is about

Open operation that removes the full set of lymph nodes and surrounding tissue from one side of the neck.

Hospitals typically charge $4,602 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 346 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $4,848. Most fall between $2,352 and $8,302 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
346
States
43
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 23, 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 346 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
$1,635$2,790$4,602$7,757$11,368

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($1,635 vs $11,368).

How the prices are spread

$1,350 – $1,734: 29 hospitals$1,350$1,734 – $2,227: 19 hospitals$2,227 – $2,860: 34 hospitals$2,227$2,860 – $3,673: 49 hospitals$3,673 – $4,718: 30 hospitals$3,673$4,718 – $6,059: 48 hospitals$6,059 – $7,782: 40 hospitals$6,059$7,782 – $9,995: 27 hospitals$9,995 – $12,837: 29 hospitals$9,995$12,837 – $16,487: 9 hospitals$12,837median $4,602price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (314 of 346 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$1,350$1,73429
$1,734$2,22719
$2,227$2,86034
$2,860$3,67349
$3,673$4,71830
$4,718$6,05948
$6,059$7,78240
$7,782$9,99527
$9,995$12,83729
$12,837$16,4879

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$6,784
Median cash price$4,602
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.68×

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 $4,602.

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: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $2,555 across 15 hospitalsIL$2,555Wisconsin: median $5,691 across 22 hospitalsWI$5,691Michigan: median $3,129 across 27 hospitalsMI$3,129New York: median $7,717 across 27 hospitalsNY$7,717Massachusetts: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMAOregon: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 3 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 $3,317 across 19 hospitalsIA$3,317Indiana: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $4,334 across 19 hospitalsPA$4,334New Jersey: median $7,127 across 30 hospitalsNJ$7,127Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $11,368 across 30 hospitalsCA$11,368Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 4 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: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 4 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: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $2,826 across 12 hospitalsOK$2,826Louisiana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMSAlabama: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $7,757 across 19 hospitalsTX$7,757Florida: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $4,602. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA30$11,368+147%$6,940 – $11,368
Texas TX19$7,757+69%$5,639 – $7,757
New York NY27$7,717+68%$2,390 – $7,882
New Jersey NJ30$7,127+55%$4,881 – $8,301
Wisconsin WI22$5,691+24%$4,602 – $5,691
Pennsylvania PA19$4,334−6%$831 – $11,110
Iowa IA19$3,317−28%$3,280 – $3,772
Michigan MI27$3,129−32%$2,014 – $5,691
Oklahoma OK12$2,826−39%$2,826 – $2,826
Illinois IL15$2,555−44%$1,635 – $6,175
Ohio OH9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not 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 $4,602.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care283$4,982$2,390 – $8,978
Children’s9fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access53$3,772$2,014 – $5,691
Ownership
For-profit33$4,700$1,635 – $9,579
Government57$3,819$2,217 – $8,148
Non-profit255$4,627$2,390 – $8,301
System affiliation
Part of a system276$5,061$2,709 – $8,302
Independent70$3,075$2,013 – $8,148

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$4,811
Median cash price$4,602
Cash as a share of list, median hospital62%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 38%. 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

192 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $3,317 and the average of the middle 60% is $4,141; most fall between $2,014 and $7,853.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 192 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
$1,523$2,383$3,317$6,940$11,368

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 7.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($1,523 vs $11,368).

Of the 213 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 192 gave a usable cash price; 17 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 4 a list price only.

How complete is this

346 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 — counted346
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here36
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded1
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 23, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 23, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Other therapeutic procedures, hemic and lymphatic system family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Cervical Lymphadenectomy.

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, “Complete neck lymph node removal (CPT 38720) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-38720-complete-neck-lymph-node-removal