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Procedure price report · Ancillary Services

Group self-care education, two to four patients

CPT 98961the billing code this page is about

Instruction by a non-physician health professional teaching a group of two to four patients how to manage a health condition at home; billed per 30 minutes per patient.

Hospitals typically charge $45 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 539 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $45. Most fall between $22 and $77 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
539
States
50
Filings dated
Jan 2024 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 25, 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 539 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
$13$25$45$66$135

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 10× what the cheapest tenth charges ($13 vs $135).

How the prices are spread

$12 – $16: 43 hospitals$12$16 – $21: 30 hospitals$21 – $27: 45 hospitals$21$27 – $35: 50 hospitals$35 – $45: 77 hospitals$35$45 – $58: 94 hospitals$58 – $76: 64 hospitals$58$76 – $98: 14 hospitals$98 – $127: 26 hospitals$98$127 – $165: 51 hospitals$127median $45price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (494 of 539 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$12$1643
$16$2130
$21$2745
$27$3550
$35$4577
$45$5894
$58$7664
$76$9814
$98$12726
$127$16551

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $45.

Alaska: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $33 across 11 hospitalsWA$33Idaho: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $41 across 18 hospitalsIL$41Wisconsin: median $52 across 22 hospitalsWI$52Michigan: median $19 across 27 hospitalsMI$19New York: median $54 across 31 hospitalsNY$54Massachusetts: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: median $39 across 19 hospitalsOR$39Nevada: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $36 across 15 hospitalsIA$36Indiana: median $19 across 30 hospitalsIN$19Ohio: median $62 across 42 hospitalsOH$62Pennsylvania: median $66 across 17 hospitalsPA$66New Jersey: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNJConnecticut: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $43 across 64 hospitalsCA$43Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $74 across 10 hospitalsVA$74Maryland: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $12 across 17 hospitalsTN$12North Carolina: 9 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 $22 across 15 hospitalsOK$22Louisiana: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $152 across 25 hospitalsGA$152Hawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $52 across 46 hospitalsTX$52Florida: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $45. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Georgia GA25$152+240%$28 – $165
Virginia VA10$74+65%$12 – $74
Pennsylvania PA17$66+48%$9 – $117
Ohio OH42$62+38%$41 – $135
New York NY31$54+20%$50 – $118
Texas TX46$52+16%$52 – $55
Wisconsin WI22$52+15%$42 – $57
California CA64$43−5%$40 – $71
Illinois IL18$41−8%$19 – $77
Oregon OR19$39−13%$27 – $147
Iowa IA15$36−19%$28 – $60
Washington WA11$33−27%$27 – $33
Oklahoma OK15$22−50%$22 – $47
Michigan MI27$19−57%$13 – $32
Indiana IN30$19−58%$6 – $30
Tennessee TN17$12−72%$12 – $35
North Carolina NC9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Jersey NJ6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY1not 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 $45.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care416$47$22 – $71
Children’s28$114$33 – $375
Critical access94$38$23 – $84
Ownership
For-profit44$52$19 – $127
Government77$42$22 – $71
Non-profit417$45$22 – $77
System affiliation
Part of a system445$48$22 – $74
Independent94$39$21 – $86

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$77
Median cash price$45
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

394 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $49 and the average of the middle 60% is $47; most fall between $22 and $87.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 394 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
$16$27$49$66$135

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 8.7× what the cheapest tenth charges ($16 vs $135).

Of the 419 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 394 gave a usable cash price; 11 carried a plausibility flag, 1 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 13 a list price only.

How complete is this

539 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (14%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 604 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted539
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here27
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 — excluded37
Hospitals that filed this code604

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 25, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 25, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Ancillary Services family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Education&Training Pt Self-Mgmt Nqhp 2-4 Pts.

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, “Group self-care education, two to four patients (CPT 98961) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-98961-group-self-care-education-two-to-four-patients