How much is a vasectomy reversal?

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.

What changes the price

Which repair the surgeon finds is needed

Mayo Clinic describes two operations: a vasovasostomy sews the cut ends of each tube back together, and a vasoepididymostomy attaches the tube to the epididymis behind the testicle, which is more complicated. The first is CPT 55400, which AAPC files under repair procedures on the vas deferens; the second is billed under 54900 or 54901, which AAPC files under repair procedures on the epididymis. Mayo Clinic says which one is needed is usually decided during the operation, and that it can be one on each side.

Which hospital

Boston Medical Center publishes $8,751.00 as its gross charge for CPT 55400. The other two hospitals here publish no gross charge for it at all.

Whether you are paying cash

Boston Medical Center publishes a cash price of $3,937.95 against its gross charge of $8,751.00. Neither of the other two hospitals publishes a cash price for the operation.

Which plan you have

Boston Medical Center publishes plan rates for CPT 55400 from $1,505.24 for Tufts PPO to $10,060.24 for UnitedHealthcare Commercial, with Medicare at $4,094.86.

The surgeon is billed separately

Franklin Memorial Hospital files the surgeon's professional rates for CPT 55400 apart from the hospital's, between $481.65 and $1,022.80 depending on the plan. A hospital's facility figure is one part of the bill.

How to pay less

Ask your plan whether it covers a reversal at all

Mayo Clinic says a reversal may be expensive and insurance might not cover it. A plan rate in a hospital file means a price is agreed for the code, which is a different question from whether your policy pays for it.

Ask for a quote that names both codes

Because the repair is often chosen during the operation, ask the surgeon what you would be charged under 55400 and under 54900 or 54901, so the price does not change after the fact.

Ask a hospital for its cash price by code

Quote CPT 55400. Boston Medical Center publishes a cash price well under its gross charge; the other two hospitals here publish none.

Questions

Where these figures come from

Every figure here is published by the hospital named beside it, in US dollars, in the United States, in its own machine-readable standard charges file under 45 CFR 180.50, and each file carries the attestation that the information encoded is true, accurate and complete as of the date in the file. The dates are the ones the files give themselves: 13 March 2026 for Boston Medical Center, 9 September 2025 for Franklin Memorial Hospital, and 1 April 2026 for The University of Chicago Medical Center. All three files were downloaded again before this page was written, and each was byte-identical to the copy read on 25 September 2026. The distinct published prices were counted per code and per billing class before any was quoted. Where a file publishes no gross or cash figure, the page says "not published". Plan rates are what a plan pays the hospital, not what a patient owes. Nothing here is averaged or restated as a typical cost, and three hospitals are three hospitals rather than a national picture. How the operation is done comes from Mayo Clinic, and where the codes sit comes from AAPC; neither is cited for a price.

• Hospital Price Transparency

  Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · page last modified 16 September 2026

  The rule itself. CMS states that starting 1 January 2021 each hospital operating in the United States is required to publish pricing information online in two ways, as a comprehensive machine-readable file with all items and services and as a display of shoppable services in a consumer-friendly format, that CMS audits a sample of hospitals and investigates complaints, and that hospitals may face civil monetary penalties for noncompliance. Cited for the obligation and the enforcement, never for a price.

• Hospital Price Transparency: Consumers

  Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · page last modified 10 September 2024

  CMS's own description of what a hospital must make public: standard charges including the rates they negotiate with insurance companies and the discounted price a hospital is willing to accept directly from a patient if paid in cash. Cited for what the files are supposed to contain, which is how this page can say what a given file leaves out.

• Hospital Price Transparency: Hospitals

  Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · page last modified 10 March 2026

  The CMS page setting out what a hospital must publish: a single machine-readable file of gross charges, discounted cash prices, payer-specific negotiated charges and de-identified minimum and maximum negotiated charges for all items and services, and a display of at least 300 shoppable services a consumer can schedule in advance.

• Vasectomy reversal

  Mayo Clinic · no revision date shown on the page

  The hospital's patient page on the operation, cited for how it is done and no figure: a vasovasostomy sews the cut ends of each vas deferens back together; a vasoepididymostomy attaches the vas deferens to the epididymis and is more complicated; it is not possible to know ahead of time which is needed, and in most cases the surgeon decides during the operation; the procedure is generally done as an outpatient; and it may be expensive, and insurance might not cover it. The site refuses an ordinary fetch, so the page was read through a fetch service on 1 October 2026.

• CPT code 55400, Repair Procedures on the Vas Deferens

  AAPC · undated code reference

  The coding association's reference page for the code, cited only for where the American Medical Association's code set files it: under repair procedures on the vas deferens. No figure.

• CPT code 54900, Repair Procedures on the Epididymis

  AAPC · undated code reference

  The coding association's reference page for the code, cited only for where the American Medical Association's code set files it and its neighbour 54901: under repair procedures on the epididymis. No figure.

• Pricing and estimates: standard charges machine-readable file

  Boston Medical Center · Attested by Christopher Abate · file last_updated_on 13 March 2026

  The hospital's own machine-readable file, 043314093_BostonMedicalCenter_standardcharges.csv, schema version 3.0.0, carrying the attestation required by 45 CFR 180.50 that the information encoded is true, accurate and complete as of the date in the file. Unlike its inpatient rows, its imaging rows carry a gross charge, a discounted cash price and a rate for each named health plan, which is why this page can answer the question about paying without insurance from a published figure rather than an estimate.

• Standard charges machine-readable file

  Franklin Memorial Hospital · Attested by Kenneth Olsen · file last_updated_on 9 September 2025

  The hospital's own machine-readable file, 010238552-1922791417_mainehealth_standardcharges.csv, schema version 3.0.0, published by MaineHealth for its Franklin Memorial Hospital location in Farmington, Maine, and carrying the same attestation under 45 CFR 180.50. It is the oldest of the three files quoted here and is said rather than smoothed. On every imaging row its discounted cash price is identical to its gross charge.

• Procedure Price Lookup for Outpatient Services

  Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · no date shown on the page; it gives national averages based on Medicare's 2026 payments and copayments

  Medicare's own national averages for an outpatient procedure, split by hospital outpatient department and ambulatory surgical center. For each it gives what Medicare pays, what the patient pays on average, and the total of the facility fee and the doctor's fee. Medicare rates are set by the government, so they work as a national benchmark; a private plan or a cash payer is charged its own price. Figures were read from the JSON the lookup page loads, saved in docs/research/cms-ppl-2026-10-12.json. Tests the tool does not cover, such as an EKG, an echocardiogram, a mammogram or an emergency visit, are not priced from it.

• Price transparency: standard charges machine-readable file

  The University of Chicago Medical Center · Attested by Chris Allen · file last_updated_on 1 April 2026

  The hospital's own machine-readable file, 363488183_the-university-of-chicago-medical-center_standardcharges.json, schema version 3.0.0, carrying the attestation required by 45 CFR 180.50 that the information encoded is true, accurate and complete as of the date in the file. At MS-DRG level it publishes no gross charge and no discounted cash price, and instead names each health plan and the rate agreed with it, alongside a minimum and a maximum.

Sources on this page checked between 23 September and 12 October 2026. How we source prices.