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Procedure price report · Lens and cataract procedures

Laser opening of a clouded membrane after cataract surgery

CPT 66821the billing code this page is about

A YAG laser is used to open the cloudy capsule membrane that can form behind an implanted lens after cataract surgery, restoring a clear path for light.

Hospitals typically charge $929 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 898 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $1,006. Most fall between $515 and $1,638 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
898
States
50
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – 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 898 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
$404$598$929$1,518$2,667

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.6× what the cheapest tenth charges ($404 vs $2,667).

How the prices are spread

$279 – $362: 35 hospitals$279$362 – $471: 65 hospitals$471 – $612: 92 hospitals$471$612 – $795: 126 hospitals$795 – $1,033: 120 hospitals$795$1,033 – $1,341: 129 hospitals$1,341 – $1,743: 134 hospitals$1,341$1,743 – $2,264: 48 hospitals$2,264 – $2,942: 44 hospitals$2,264$2,942 – $3,822: 17 hospitals$2,942median $929price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (810 of 898 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$279$36235
$362$47165
$471$61292
$612$795126
$795$1,033120
$1,033$1,341129
$1,341$1,743134
$1,743$2,26448
$2,264$2,94244
$2,942$3,82217

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$562
Median cash price$929
Cash as a multiple of Medicare1.65×

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 $929.

Alaska: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $1,181 across 15 hospitalsWA$1,181Idaho: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $920 across 40 hospitalsMN$920Illinois: median $889 across 38 hospitalsIL$889Wisconsin: median $1,175 across 42 hospitalsWI$1,175Michigan: median $1,103 across 37 hospitalsMI$1,103New York: median $1,255 across 53 hospitalsNY$1,255Massachusetts: median $1,787 across 10 hospitalsMA$1,787Oregon: median $471 across 12 hospitalsOR$471Nevada: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $820 across 24 hospitalsIA$820Indiana: median $1,034 across 13 hospitalsIN$1,034Ohio: median $1,411 across 56 hospitalsOH$1,411Pennsylvania: median $787 across 37 hospitalsPA$787New Jersey: median $712 across 33 hospitalsNJ$712Connecticut: 7 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 $2,001 across 69 hospitalsCA$2,001Utah: median $1,039 across 24 hospitalsUT$1,039Colorado: median $784 across 14 hospitalsCO$784Nebraska: median $864 across 23 hospitalsNE$864Missouri: median $757 across 21 hospitalsMO$757Kentucky: median $748 across 15 hospitalsKY$748West Virginia: median $728 across 26 hospitalsWV$728Virginia: median $997 across 24 hospitalsVA$997Maryland: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $1,119 across 16 hospitalsKS$1,119Arkansas: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $353 across 18 hospitalsTN$353North Carolina: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $503 across 13 hospitalsOK$503Louisiana: median $463 across 22 hospitalsLA$463Mississippi: median $636 across 14 hospitalsMS$636Alabama: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $424 across 27 hospitalsGA$424Hawaii: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $1,373 across 47 hospitalsTX$1,373Florida: median $1,294 across 16 hospitalsFL$1,294
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $929. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA69$2,001+115%$835 – $2,752
Massachusetts MA10$1,787+92%$1,248 – $3,675
Ohio OH56$1,411+52%$650 – $1,641
Texas TX47$1,373+48%$986 – $1,638
Florida FL16$1,294+39%$691 – $1,294
New York NY53$1,255+35%$649 – $4,595
Washington WA15$1,181+27%$471 – $1,181
Wisconsin WI42$1,175+27%$902 – $1,949
Kansas KS16$1,119+20%$755 – $1,208
Michigan MI37$1,103+19%$486 – $1,687
Utah UT24$1,039+12%$984 – $1,093
Indiana IN13$1,034+11%$460 – $2,083
Virginia VA24$997+7%$387 – $1,083
Minnesota MN40$920−1%$836 – $1,470
Illinois IL38$889−4%$460 – $1,691
Nebraska NE23$864−7%$501 – $1,207
Iowa IA24$820−12%$568 – $983
Pennsylvania PA37$787−15%$221 – $1,122
Colorado CO14$784−16%$536 – $1,746
Missouri MO21$757−19%$436 – $2,189
Kentucky KY15$748−20%$460 – $2,203
West Virginia WV26$728−22%$519 – $1,286
New Jersey NJ33$712−23%$607 – $5,110
Mississippi MS14$636−32%$479 – $927
Oklahoma OK13$503−46%$503 – $940
Oregon OR12$471−49%$471 – $1,259
Louisiana LA22$463−50%$264 – $887
Georgia GA27$424−54%$424 – $722
Tennessee TN18$353−62%$252 – $1,028
Idaho ID9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not 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 $929.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care682$928$504 – $1,641
Children’s14fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access202$972$555 – $1,455
Ownership
For-profit77$835$460 – $1,498
Government145$873$544 – $1,323
Non-profit676$984$540 – $1,654
System affiliation
Part of a system741$976$510 – $1,639
Independent157$873$536 – $1,499

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,550
Median cash price$929
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

616 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $984 and the average of the middle 60% is $1,029; most fall between $503 and $1,570.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 616 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
$404$585$984$1,499$2,189

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.4× what the cheapest tenth charges ($404 vs $2,189).

Of the 669 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 616 gave a usable cash price; 27 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 26 a list price only.

How complete is this

898 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 980 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted898
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 — excluded1
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded31
Hospitals that filed this code980

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 Lens and cataract procedures family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Post-Cataract Laser Surgery.

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, “Laser opening of a clouded membrane after cataract surgery (CPT 66821) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-66821-laser-opening-of-a-clouded-membrane-after-cataract-surgery