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Procedure price report · Consultation, evaluation, and preventative care

First hospital or observation visit, moderate complexity

CPT 99222the billing code this page is about

The admitting clinician's first visit with a hospital inpatient or observation patient for a moderately complex problem, about 55 minutes of care on that day; billed once per admission.

Hospitals typically charge $243 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,237 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $239. Most fall between $139 and $351 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,237
States
50
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – 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 1,237 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
$96$155$243$317$431

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 4.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($96 vs $431).

How the prices are spread

$62 – $76: 29 hospitals$62$76 – $95: 30 hospitals$95 – $118: 52 hospitals$95$118 – $146: 100 hospitals$146 – $181: 127 hospitals$146$181 – $225: 159 hospitals$225 – $279: 233 hospitals$225$279 – $346: 192 hospitals$346 – $429: 129 hospitals$346$429 – $532: 68 hospitals$429median $243price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,119 of 1,237 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$62$7629
$76$9530
$95$11852
$118$146100
$146$181127
$181$225159
$225$279233
$279$346192
$346$429129
$429$53268

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $243.

Alaska: median $542 across 15 hospitalsAK$542Maine: median $191 across 23 hospitalsME$191Vermont: median $253 across 12 hospitalsVT$253New Hampshire: median $179 across 17 hospitalsNH$179Washington: median $258 across 38 hospitalsWA$258Idaho: median $252 across 12 hospitalsID$252Montana: median $273 across 28 hospitalsMT$273North Dakota: median $306 across 20 hospitalsND$306Minnesota: median $311 across 64 hospitalsMN$311Illinois: median $293 across 53 hospitalsIL$293Wisconsin: median $310 across 46 hospitalsWI$310Michigan: median $177 across 52 hospitalsMI$177New York: median $225 across 53 hospitalsNY$225Massachusetts: median $316 across 17 hospitalsMA$316Oregon: median $314 across 44 hospitalsOR$314Nevada: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: median $248 across 12 hospitalsWY$248South Dakota: median $342 across 31 hospitalsSD$342Iowa: median $248 across 78 hospitalsIA$248Indiana: median $160 across 34 hospitalsIN$160Ohio: median $243 across 32 hospitalsOH$243Pennsylvania: median $98 across 31 hospitalsPA$98New Jersey: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNJConnecticut: median $276 across 15 hospitalsCT$276Rhode Island: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $276 across 45 hospitalsCA$276Utah: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $203 across 24 hospitalsCO$203Nebraska: median $267 across 38 hospitalsNE$267Missouri: median $185 across 31 hospitalsMO$185Kentucky: median $140 across 27 hospitalsKY$140West Virginia: median $154 across 22 hospitalsWV$154Virginia: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $409 across 10 hospitalsAZ$409New Mexico: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $191 across 55 hospitalsKS$191Arkansas: median $185 across 14 hospitalsAR$185Tennessee: median $148 across 15 hospitalsTN$148North Carolina: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $153 across 31 hospitalsOK$153Louisiana: median $171 across 10 hospitalsLA$171Mississippi: median $124 across 18 hospitalsMS$124Alabama: median $151 across 20 hospitalsAL$151Georgia: median $162 across 28 hospitalsGA$162Hawaii: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $242 across 25 hospitalsTX$242Florida: median $158 across 27 hospitalsFL$158
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $243. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Alaska AK15$542+123%$324 – $829
Arizona AZ10$409+68%$146 – $900
South Dakota SD31$342+41%$191 – $462
Massachusetts MA17$316+30%$132 – $429
Oregon OR44$314+29%$236 – $386
Minnesota MN64$311+28%$217 – $449
Wisconsin WI46$310+27%$277 – $431
North Dakota ND20$306+26%$209 – $370
Illinois IL53$293+20%$194 – $447
California CA45$276+13%$142 – $503
Connecticut CT15$276+13%$144 – $320
Montana MT28$273+12%$200 – $400
Nebraska NE38$267+10%$178 – $342
Washington WA38$258+6%$230 – $416
Vermont VT12$253+4%$173 – $385
Idaho ID12$252+4%$196 – $306
Iowa IA78$248+2%$211 – $319
Wyoming WY12$248+2%$209 – $349
Ohio OH32$2430%$136 – $383
Texas TX25$242−1%$112 – $385
New York NY53$225−8%$123 – $361
Colorado CO24$203−17%$169 – $315
Kansas KS55$191−21%$152 – $271
Maine ME23$191−22%$90 – $363
Arkansas AR14$185−24%$115 – $216
Missouri MO31$185−24%$128 – $229
New Hampshire NH17$179−26%$151 – $216
Michigan MI52$177−27%$47 – $260
Louisiana LA10$171−30%$79 – $269
Georgia GA28$162−33%$123 – $294
Indiana IN34$160−34%$113 – $287
Florida FL27$158−35%$16 – $383
West Virginia WV22$154−37%$135 – $305
Oklahoma OK31$153−37%$27 – $232
Alabama AL20$151−38%$122 – $293
Tennessee TN15$148−39%$76 – $166
Kentucky KY27$140−42%$127 – $261
Mississippi MS18$124−49%$108 – $199
Pennsylvania PA31$98−60%$80 – $242
New Jersey NJ9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT3not 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 $243.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care590$220$117 – $320
Children’s18fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access627$255$160 – $364
Ownership
For-profit68$181$113 – $311
Government342$246$153 – $356
Non-profit825$244$135 – $351
System affiliation
Part of a system872$242$133 – $343
Independent365$244$153 – $361

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$331
Median cash price$243
Cash as a share of list, median hospital75%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 25%. 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

746 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $246 and the average of the middle 60% is $245; most fall between $139 and $357.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 746 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
$96$155$246$328$428

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 4.5× what the cheapest tenth charges ($96 vs $428).

Of the 807 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 746 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 50 a list price only.

How complete is this

1,237 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (31%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,324 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,237
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here24
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded63
Hospitals that filed this code1,324

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 Consultation, evaluation, and preventative care family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as 1st Hospital IP/Obs Care Moderate Mdm 55 Minutes.

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, “First hospital or observation visit, moderate complexity (CPT 99222) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-99222-first-hospital-or-observation-visit-moderate-complexity