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Procedure price report · Tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy

Removal or destruction of the lingual tonsil

CPT 42870the billing code this page is about

Removal or destruction, by any technique, of the tonsil tissue at the back of the tongue, billed when this is the only procedure performed.

Hospitals typically charge $3,199 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 323 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $3,654. Most fall between $1,003 and $7,659 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
323
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 323 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
$722$1,096$3,199$7,000$9,186

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 13× what the cheapest tenth charges ($722 vs $9,186).

How the prices are spread

$563 – $784: 21 hospitals$563$784 – $1,092: 44 hospitals$1,092 – $1,522: 36 hospitals$1,092$1,522 – $2,121: 21 hospitals$2,121 – $2,955: 13 hospitals$2,121$2,955 – $4,117: 30 hospitals$4,117 – $5,737: 30 hospitals$4,117$5,737 – $7,993: 74 hospitals$7,993 – $11,138: 13 hospitals$7,993$11,138 – $15,519: 11 hospitals$11,138median $3,199price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (293 of 323 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$563$78421
$784$1,09244
$1,092$1,52236
$1,522$2,12121
$2,121$2,95513
$2,955$4,11730
$4,117$5,73730
$5,737$7,99374
$7,993$11,13813
$11,138$15,51911

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$6,048
Median cash price$3,199
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.53×

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 $3,199.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 4 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: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $1,064 across 17 hospitalsIL$1,064Wisconsin: median $3,199 across 20 hospitalsWI$3,199Michigan: median $866 across 16 hospitalsMI$866New York: median $7,000 across 25 hospitalsNY$7,000Massachusetts: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMAOregon: 5 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 $1,444 across 15 hospitalsIA$1,444Indiana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $1,435 across 14 hospitalsOH$1,435Pennsylvania: median $9,186 across 10 hospitalsPA$9,186New Jersey: median $6,548 across 29 hospitalsNJ$6,548Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $7,756 across 26 hospitalsCA$7,756Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 3 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: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 8 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 $952 across 13 hospitalsOK$952Louisiana: median $2,931 across 12 hospitalsLA$2,931Mississippi: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceGAHawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $4,556 across 22 hospitalsTX$4,556Florida: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $3,199. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Pennsylvania PA10$9,186+187%$6,936 – $12,101
California CA26$7,756+142%$1,791 – $7,756
New York NY25$7,000+119%$1,617 – $7,000
New Jersey NJ29$6,548+105%$4,881 – $7,659
Texas TX22$4,556+42%$4,244 – $5,657
Wisconsin WI20$3,1990%$3,199 – $6,503
Louisiana LA12$2,931−8%$2,048 – $5,343
Iowa IA15$1,444−55%$1,444 – $1,444
Ohio OH14$1,435−55%$597 – $2,579
Illinois IL17$1,064−67%$523 – $2,456
Oklahoma OK13$952−70%$952 – $4,694
Michigan MI16$866−73%$720 – $8,140
Idaho ID8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not 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 $3,199.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care269$3,786$1,003 – $7,756
Children’s13fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access40$3,199$1,020 – $6,503
Ownership
For-profit37$3,454$741 – $9,422
Government46$2,441$1,035 – $7,000
Non-profit239$3,199$1,007 – $7,756
System affiliation
Part of a system258$3,803$1,064 – $7,756
Independent65$1,628$930 – $6,383

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$2,234
Median cash price$3,199
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

181 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $1,444 and the average of the middle 60% is $2,112; most fall between $696 and $6,383.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 181 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
$523$866$1,444$4,556$7,756

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 15× what the cheapest tenth charges ($523 vs $7,756).

Of the 197 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 181 gave a usable cash price; 11 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 5 a list price only.

How complete is this

323 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (8%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 370 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted323
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 — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded7
Hospitals that filed this code370

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 Tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Exc/Dstrj Lingual Tonsil Any Method Spx.

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, “Removal or destruction of the lingual tonsil (CPT 42870) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-42870-removal-or-destruction-of-the-lingual-tonsil