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Procedure price report · Consultation, evaluation, and preventative care

Hospital discharge day, 30 minutes or less

CPT 99238the billing code this page is about

The clinician's work on the day a patient leaves the hospital — final exam, instructions, prescriptions and records — when it takes 30 minutes or less.

Hospitals typically charge $146 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 1,181 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $143. Most fall between $86 and $203 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
1,181
States
50
Filings dated
Aug 2022 – 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 1,181 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
$65$94$146$194$252

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 3.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($65 vs $252).

How the prices are spread

$48 – $58: 34 hospitals$48$58 – $70: 48 hospitals$70 – $84: 63 hospitals$70$84 – $101: 126 hospitals$101 – $121: 136 hospitals$101$121 – $145: 121 hospitals$145 – $175: 226 hospitals$145$175 – $210: 146 hospitals$210 – $252: 104 hospitals$210$252 – $303: 61 hospitals$252median $146price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (1,065 of 1,181 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$48$5834
$58$7048
$70$8463
$84$101126
$101$121136
$121$145121
$145$175226
$175$210146
$210$252104
$252$30361

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $146.

Alaska: median $313 across 15 hospitalsAK$313Maine: median $123 across 23 hospitalsME$123Vermont: median $118 across 12 hospitalsVT$118New Hampshire: median $99 across 15 hospitalsNH$99Washington: median $161 across 37 hospitalsWA$161Idaho: median $157 across 11 hospitalsID$157Montana: median $144 across 27 hospitalsMT$144North Dakota: median $178 across 19 hospitalsND$178Minnesota: median $195 across 61 hospitalsMN$195Illinois: median $159 across 61 hospitalsIL$159Wisconsin: median $200 across 46 hospitalsWI$200Michigan: median $120 across 48 hospitalsMI$120New York: median $145 across 50 hospitalsNY$145Massachusetts: median $182 across 13 hospitalsMA$182Oregon: median $185 across 41 hospitalsOR$185Nevada: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: median $146 across 12 hospitalsWY$146South Dakota: median $181 across 31 hospitalsSD$181Iowa: median $155 across 80 hospitalsIA$155Indiana: median $71 across 40 hospitalsIN$71Ohio: median $155 across 27 hospitalsOH$155Pennsylvania: median $59 across 30 hospitalsPA$59New Jersey: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNJConnecticut: median $200 across 11 hospitalsCT$200Rhode Island: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $165 across 40 hospitalsCA$165Utah: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $116 across 24 hospitalsCO$116Nebraska: median $153 across 37 hospitalsNE$153Missouri: median $104 across 31 hospitalsMO$104Kentucky: median $91 across 26 hospitalsKY$91West Virginia: median $93 across 23 hospitalsWV$93Virginia: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: median $161 across 10 hospitalsAZ$161New Mexico: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $120 across 55 hospitalsKS$120Arkansas: median $106 across 11 hospitalsAR$106Tennessee: median $63 across 20 hospitalsTN$63North Carolina: 9 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 $150 across 32 hospitalsOK$150Louisiana: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: median $91 across 12 hospitalsMS$91Alabama: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: median $107 across 25 hospitalsGA$107Hawaii: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $130 across 23 hospitalsTX$130Florida: median $203 across 19 hospitalsFL$203
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $146. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Alaska AK15$313+115%$222 – $408
Florida FL19$203+39%$87 – $280
Wisconsin WI46$200+37%$173 – $286
Connecticut CT11$200+37%$173 – $200
Minnesota MN61$195+33%$133 – $251
Oregon OR41$185+27%$147 – $233
Massachusetts MA13$182+25%$121 – $230
South Dakota SD31$181+24%$131 – $245
North Dakota ND19$178+22%$131 – $216
California CA40$165+13%$67 – $271
Arizona AZ10$161+11%$65 – $900
Washington WA37$161+11%$136 – $227
Illinois IL61$159+9%$88 – $264
Idaho ID11$157+8%$148 – $173
Ohio OH27$155+6%$99 – $236
Iowa IA80$155+6%$116 – $178
Nebraska NE37$153+5%$110 – $185
Oklahoma OK32$150+3%$87 – $160
Wyoming WY12$1460%$111 – $213
New York NY50$145−1%$60 – $225
Montana MT27$144−1%$107 – $214
Texas TX23$130−11%$80 – $212
Maine ME23$123−16%$63 – $209
Kansas KS55$120−18%$87 – $152
Michigan MI48$120−18%$65 – $165
Vermont VT12$118−19%$93 – $226
Colorado CO24$116−20%$91 – $180
Georgia GA25$107−27%$65 – $182
Arkansas AR11$106−27%$64 – $122
Missouri MO31$104−29%$73 – $122
New Hampshire NH15$99−32%$74 – $132
West Virginia WV23$93−36%$84 – $150
Kentucky KY26$91−37%$74 – $152
Mississippi MS12$91−38%$50 – $106
Indiana IN40$71−52%$58 – $156
Tennessee TN20$63−57%$38 – $92
Pennsylvania PA30$59−60%$50 – $173
Alabama AL9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
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
Louisiana LA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE2not 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 $146.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care555$137$75 – $195
Children’s17fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access607$152$99 – $215
Ownership
For-profit61$111$67 – $172
Government327$142$93 – $203
Non-profit791$148$86 – $210
System affiliation
Part of a system823$148$85 – $202
Independent358$139$88 – $214

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$197
Median cash price$146
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

709 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $147 and the average of the middle 60% is $147; most fall between $88 and $207.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 709 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
$67$97$147$198$250

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 3.7× what the cheapest tenth charges ($67 vs $250).

Of the 762 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 709 gave a usable cash price; 3 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

1,181 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (30%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 1,268 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted1,181
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here15
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 — excluded72
Hospitals that filed this code1,268

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 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 Consultation, evaluation, and preventative care family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Hospital IP/Obs Discharge Day Mgmt 30 Min/<.

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, “Hospital discharge day, 30 minutes or less (CPT 99238) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-99238-hospital-discharge-day-30-minutes-or-less