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Procedure price report · Incision and excision of CNS

Removal of lesion at middle of skull base, inside dura

CPT 61606the billing code this page is about

Removal of a tumor, vascular lesion, or infected tissue from the middle region of the skull base, opening the membrane that covers the brain and repairing it afterward.

Hospitals typically charge $5,741 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 141 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $6,192. Most fall between $4,167 and $9,675 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
141
States
36
Filings dated
Jun 2024 – Aug 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 141 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
$2,305$4,350$5,741$8,421$13,806

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.0× what the cheapest tenth charges ($2,305 vs $13,806).

How the prices are spread

$1,877 – $2,294: 5 hospitals$1,877$2,294 – $2,803: 9 hospitals$2,803 – $3,426: 3 hospitals$2,803$3,426 – $4,186: 7 hospitals$4,186 – $5,116: 28 hospitals$4,186$5,116 – $6,252: 18 hospitals$6,252 – $7,640: 17 hospitals$6,252$7,640 – $9,336: 17 hospitals$9,336 – $11,409: 6 hospitals$9,336$11,409 – $13,943: 18 hospitals$11,409median $5,741price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (128 of 141 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$1,877$2,2945
$2,294$2,8039
$2,803$3,4263
$3,426$4,1867
$4,186$5,11628
$5,116$6,25218
$6,252$7,64017
$7,640$9,33617
$9,336$11,4096
$11,409$13,94318

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $5,741.

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: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 1 hospital 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: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: median $7,272 across 23 hospitalsMI$7,272New York: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNYMassachusetts: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMAOregon: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIAIndiana: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceINOhio: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOHPennsylvania: median $2,122 across 15 hospitalsPA$2,122New Jersey: median $5,110 across 12 hospitalsNJ$5,110Connecticut: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCAUtah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVAMaryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNMKansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNCSouth Carolina: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSCOklahoma: median $4,761 across 10 hospitalsOK$4,761Louisiana: 1 hospital 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: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceGAHawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTXFlorida: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $5,741. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Michigan MI23$7,272+27%$4,167 – $8,283
New Jersey NJ12$5,110−11%$4,350 – $5,855
Oklahoma OK10$4,761−17%$4,761 – $4,761
Pennsylvania PA15$2,122−63%$1,795 – $10,534
Ohio OH7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Illinois IL6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New York NY6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Iowa IA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
California CA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Texas TX3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN1not 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 $5,741.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care118$5,348$3,986 – $9,333
Children’s7fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access15fewer than 20 hospitals
Ownership
For-profit12fewer than 20 hospitals
Government14fewer than 20 hospitals
Non-profit114$5,419$4,167 – $10,691
System affiliation
Part of a system113$5,419$3,986 – $10,534
Independent28$6,131$4,276 – $8,980

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$8,832
Median cash price$5,741
Cash as a share of list, median hospital61%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 39%. 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.

How complete is this

141 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (4%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 155 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted141
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here12
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 — excluded1
Hospitals that filed this code155

Sections not shown for this setting

  • Against Medicare: Medicare has no separately payable national outpatient (OPPS) rate for this code, so there is nothing honest to compare against.
  • 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 Incision and excision of CNS family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Rescj/Exc Les Itprl Fossa Space Apex Idrl W/Rpr.

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 of lesion at middle of skull base, inside dura (CPT 61606) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-61606-removal-of-lesion-at-middle-of-skull-base-inside-dura