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Procedure price report

Direct referral for hospital observation care

HCPCS G0379the billing code this page is about

A one-time charge for being sent directly into hospital observation care without an emergency department or clinic visit first; the hourly observation time is billed separately.

Hospitals typically charge $528 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 356 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $508. Most fall between $250 and $788 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
356
States
41
Filings dated
Dec 2023 – 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 356 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
$183$271$528$728$1,127

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 6.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($183 vs $1,127).

How the prices are spread

$77 – $103: 5 hospitals$77$103 – $139: 8 hospitals$139 – $186: 10 hospitals$139$186 – $250: 27 hospitals$250 – $335: 43 hospitals$250$335 – $449: 32 hospitals$449 – $603: 92 hospitals$449$603 – $809: 52 hospitals$809 – $1,085: 32 hospitals$809$1,085 – $1,456: 21 hospitals$1,085median $528price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (322 of 356 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$77$1035
$103$1398
$139$18610
$186$25027
$250$33543
$335$44932
$449$60392
$603$80952
$809$1,08532
$1,085$1,45621

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$608
Median cash price$528
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.87×

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 $528.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceVTNew Hampshire: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNHWashington: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $524 across 13 hospitalsMN$524Illinois: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureILWisconsin: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWIMichigan: median $290 across 17 hospitalsMI$290New York: median $707 across 12 hospitalsNY$707Massachusetts: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: median $479 across 10 hospitalsOR$479Nevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceWYSouth Dakota: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceSDIowa: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIAIndiana: median $407 across 10 hospitalsIN$407Ohio: median $250 across 17 hospitalsOH$250Pennsylvania: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figurePANew Jersey: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNJConnecticut: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureRICalifornia: median $397 across 10 hospitalsCA$397Utah: median $728 across 24 hospitalsUT$728Colorado: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCONebraska: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceNEMissouri: median $570 across 15 hospitalsMO$570Kentucky: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $560 across 18 hospitalsVA$560Maryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureDEArizona: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceARTennessee: median $226 across 15 hospitalsTN$226North Carolina: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureOKLouisiana: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureLAMississippi: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceHITexas: median $554 across 37 hospitalsTX$554Florida: median $188 across 19 hospitalsFL$188
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $528. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Utah UT24$728+38%$674 – $728
New York NY12$707+34%$207 – $1,500
Missouri MO15$570+8%$570 – $736
Virginia VA18$560+6%$351 – $748
Texas TX37$554+5%$528 – $602
Minnesota MN13$524−1%$455 – $524
Oregon OR10$479−9%$271 – $602
Indiana IN10$407−23%$250 – $447
California CA10$397−25%$304 – $839
Michigan MI17$290−45%$268 – $528
Ohio OH17$250−53%$250 – $568
Tennessee TN15$226−57%$76 – $478
Florida FL19$188−64%$68 – $246
Iowa IA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Jersey NJ9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oklahoma OK9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Pennsylvania PA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Illinois IL7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Louisiana LA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Rhode Island RI4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Delaware DE1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wisconsin WI1not 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 $528.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care289$534$251 – $839
Children’s7fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access58$524$184 – $674
Ownership
For-profit73$529$225 – $770
Government41$407$76 – $870
Non-profit240$528$268 – $748
System affiliation
Part of a system306$528$250 – $751
Independent50$496$227 – $818

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$898
Median cash price$528
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

284 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $524 and the average of the middle 60% is $490; most fall between $235 and $728.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 284 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
$173$268$524$674$897

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.2× what the cheapest tenth charges ($173 vs $897).

Of the 323 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 284 gave a usable cash price; 6 carried a plausibility flag, 18 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 15 a list price only.

How complete is this

356 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (9%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 405 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted356
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here13
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded19
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded17
Hospitals that filed this code405

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 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.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Direct refer hospital observ.

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, “Direct referral for hospital observation care (CPT G0379) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-g0379-direct-referral-for-hospital-observation-care