How much does a knee replacement cost?
What a knee replacement costs depends on who is paying. Without insurance, the figure to use is a hospital's cash price, and the hospitals below publish theirs. For people on Medicare, what Medicare pays for a total knee replacement done as an outpatient in 2026 averages $14,275 in total at a hospital outpatient department, of which the patient pays about $1,967, or $10,552 at an ambulatory surgical center with the patient paying about $2,109, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; that is the government's rate for Medicare patients, and a private plan or a cash payer is charged its own price. There is no national figure for what private insurance pays: FAIR Health's consumer cost lookup, the nearest thing to one, gives estimates only for a ZIP code you enter, so it is not quoted here. Boston Medical Center publishes a gross charge of $17,778.00 and a cash price of $8,000.10 for a total knee arthroplasty, CPT 27447, in its file dated 13 March 2026. That is the only knee-specific published price found across five hospitals, and the reason why is the most useful thing on this page. The inpatient code hospitals bill a knee replacement under, MS-DRG 470, is described in their own files as major hip and knee joint replacement or reattachment of lower extremity, and MS-DRG 469 adds total ankle replacement to that. It is a bundle, not a knee code, so the figures published against it are not knee replacement prices however precise they look. Separately, and never added to the hospital figure, the parts outside it are published too: the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons gives the 2026 Medicare payment to the surgeon as $1,159.64, covering the operation and the 90 days after it; and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sets 2026 skilled nursing facility coinsurance at $217 a day from day 21 of a stay.
$17,778.00 list, $8,000.10 cash
CPT 27447, total knee arthroplasty, at one hospital on 13 March 2026
$1,159.64
what Medicare pays the surgeon in 2026, covering the operation and the 90 days after it
$14,275
what Medicare pays in total, Medicare patients only, a total knee replacement done as an outpatient, hospital outpatient, 2026
$10,552
what Medicare pays in total, Medicare patients only, a total knee replacement done as an outpatient, ambulatory surgical center, 2026
Cost breakdown
Each table below comes from one source, named underneath it, with the date that source last revised the figures. Everything is a United States figure in USD.
The one knee-specific published hospital price found, from a file last updated 13 March 2026
| CPT | Description, as the file prints it | Gross charge | Cash price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27447 | HC Total Knee Arthroplasty | $17,778.00 | $8,000.10 |
What the other four hospital files give for a knee replacement, and why none of it is a price
| Hospital | What it publishes, and why that is not a knee price |
|---|---|
| Franklin Memorial | CPT 27447 is present, as both a facility row and a professional row, and the gross and discounted-cash fields are blank on all of them, so no amount is published |
| Oregon Health & Science | CPT 27447 and MS-DRG 469 and 470 are all present, with gross and cash blank throughout |
| University of Chicago | A minimum of $13,758.17 and a maximum of $36,418.00, and that identical pair is published for THREE different operations, 27446, 27447 and 27486. It does not distinguish a total knee replacement from a revision, so it cannot be the price of either |
| NYU Langone Tisch | 260 named plan rates, but only on MS-DRG 469 and 470, which are the hip-and-knee-and-ankle bundle. The rates are real and they are not knee replacement prices |
What Medicare pays the surgeon for CPT 27447 in 2026, national amount
| Who is paid | Payment | Change on 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| A surgeon outside an advanced payment model | $1,159.64 | down 7.8% |
| A qualifying advanced payment model participant | $1,165.46 | down 7.3% |
What a patient on Original Medicare owes for a skilled nursing facility stay in 2026
| Days of the stay | Coinsurance per day |
|---|---|
| Days 1 to 20 | $0 |
| Days 21 to 100 | $217 |
What Medicare pays for knee replacement, 2026, for Medicare patients only: the total and the patient's share
| Procedure | Code | Hospital outpatient total | Patient pays | Surgical center total | Patient pays |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total knee replacement, outpatient | 27447 | $14,275 | $1,967 | $10,552 | $2,109 |
What changes the price
- Whether the number you are reading is a knee number at all
- Start here, because most published figures fail it. MS-DRG 470 reads, in the hospitals’ own files, as major hip and knee joint replacement or reattachment of lower extremity, and MS-DRG 469 adds total ankle replacement. Anything derived from those rows describes a group of operations.
- Whether the price is the hospital or the whole episode
- Boston Medical Center publishes $17,778.00 for the procedure code with a cash price of $8,000.10. That is the facility. The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons gives the 2026 Medicare payment to the surgeon as $1,159.64, which is not inside the hospital figure, and the implant is billed separately again.
- What happens after you leave
- Almost nothing published counts it. A patient on Original Medicare who goes to a skilled nursing facility pays nothing for the first 20 days and $217 a day from day 21 to day 100 in 2026, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and that is the patient’s share rather than the facility’s charge.
- Whether it is done as an inpatient or an outpatient
- The two are billed differently, which is why a procedure code and an inpatient bundle can both describe the same operation and produce different numbers. The single hospital figure on this page is a procedure code rather than an admission.
- Which hospital, where that can be answered at all
- Four of the five files read publish no usable amount for this operation, so the usual comparison between named hospitals is not available here. That is a fact about what hospitals publish rather than about what they charge.
- Which implant, and how many the hospital buys
- The implant is billed apart from the hospital charge and the surgeon, and its price depends on the model and on what the hospital negotiates. This page carried a 2024 review figure until 12 October 2026 and removed it, because a current US price for the implant alone is not publicly available at a date this site can stand behind. Ask the hospital whether its quote includes the implant.
How to pay less
- Ask whether the quote is the procedure code or the inpatient bundle
- They are different things and only one of them is knee-specific. If a figure comes from MS-DRG 469 or 470 it also covers hip replacements and, in 469, ankle replacements.
- Ask what the hospital figure leaves out
- At minimum the surgeon and the implant sit outside it. The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons gives the 2026 Medicare surgeon payment as $1,159.64. The implant is a separate line, so ask whether the quote includes it.
- Ask about going home rather than to a facility
- The post-acute stay is the line most within your control. Under Original Medicare a skilled nursing facility stay costs the patient $217 a day from day 21 in 2026, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, so ask your surgeon whether going home with outpatient therapy is an option for you.
- Ask for the cash price by name
- Boston Medical Center publishes $8,000.10 as its cash price against a gross charge of $17,778.00 on the same row, so at that hospital the question has a published answer.
- Treat a city or state average with the code in mind
- Most of those are built from the inpatient bundle, so they describe hips and knees together. That does not make them useless, and it does make them a different measurement from the one you are asking about.
Questions
How much does a knee replacement cost with Medicare?
Medicare's national average total for a total knee replacement done as an outpatient in 2026 is $14,275 in a hospital outpatient department, with the patient paying $1,967 on average, or $10,552 in an ambulatory surgical center, with the patient paying $2,109, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. With a private plan, your cost depends on its negotiated rate and your deductible; without insurance, ask for the cash price, which the hospital files on this page publish.
How much does a knee replacement cost?
Boston Medical Center publishes $17,778.00 as the gross charge for a total knee arthroplasty, CPT 27447, with a cash price of $8,000.10, in its file dated 13 March 2026. That is one named hospital on one date and it is the facility only.
Why is it so hard to find a second hospital price?
Because four of the five files read for this page publish no usable amount for the operation. Two leave the gross and cash fields blank, one publishes a single minimum and maximum that covers three different knee operations, and one publishes rates only against the inpatient bundle that also covers hips and ankles.
What is MS-DRG 470 and why does it matter?
It is the inpatient code a knee replacement is usually billed under, and the hospitals’ own files describe it as major hip and knee joint replacement or reattachment of lower extremity. MS-DRG 469 adds total ankle replacement. Figures published against those codes describe a group of operations rather than a knee replacement.
Does the hospital price include the surgeon?
No. The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons gives the 2026 national Medicare payment to the surgeon for a total knee replacement as $1,159.64, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services lists the code with a 90-day global period, so it covers the care for ninety days after surgery. That sits outside the hospital charge.
How much is the implant itself?
This page does not give one, because a current US price for the implant alone is not publicly available at a date this site can stand behind. The most recent published average found was in a review dated July 2024, which is past the age limit this site holds every price to, so it was removed on 12 October 2026.
What about rehabilitation afterwards?
Under Original Medicare in 2026, a skilled nursing facility stay costs the patient nothing for the first 20 days and $217 a day for days 21 to 100, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That is the patient’s share; a private plan sets its own.
Why does this page not give me one total?
Because no source publishes one. Adding a hospital charge to a surgeon payment would produce a number nobody has published and that no patient would be billed, so the parts are shown as parts.
Where these figures come from
The hospital figure here is published by Boston Medical Center in its own machine-readable standard charges file under 45 CFR 180.50, attested by Christopher Abate, in the file dated 13 March 2026 and downloaded again on 25 September 2026 before it was quoted. BEFORE ANY CODE WAS QUOTED THE DISTINCT PUBLISHED PRICES FOR IT WERE COUNTED PER CODE AND PER BILLING CLASS across five hospital files, which is what established that only one knee-specific figure exists. The component figures come from two dated publishers, all read on 9 October 2026: the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons memo of 13 November 2025 for the surgeon payment, checked against the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services relative value file released 26 August 2026; and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rates released 5 December 2025 for the nursing facility coinsurance. Until 9 October 2026 this page took its component figures from an undated association page whose references dated from 2012 and 2013; the surgeon payment it gave was higher than the 2026 fee schedule pays. NOTHING ON THIS PAGE IS ADDED TOGETHER. A hospital charge, a surgeon payment and a coinsurance rate are different measurements from different publishers, and summing them would invent a total nobody published. No ratio or difference between any two figures is stated. One hospital is one hospital and not a national picture.
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2026 National Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value File, October release (RVU26D)
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Pricing and estimates: standard charges machine-readable file
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Summary of the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule Payment Provisions
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MLN Matters MM14279, Medicare Deductible, Coinsurance & Premium Rates: CY 2026 Update