← All scenarios
🔙

I need spinal fusion surgery

Lumbar fusion — the bigger of the two common back surgeries, including hardware.

Typical US price before insurance

$67,015
$50,727typical range$87,919

This is an allowed amount — the price actually negotiated with insurers, not the inflated list price. Source: Health Care Cost Institute — HealthPrices.org (2021–2022 vintage (HCCI does not publish the exact data year)).

The inpatient facility fee is $60,179 of this. It costs about 2.5x a simple diskectomy.

What Medicare pays for the same care $33,069
Private insurers pay 2× what Medicare pays for this.

All-in: $31,370 to the hospital plus $1,699 to the doctor (IPPS/MS-DRG, 2024). Divide the two figures above and you get our ratio — check our arithmetic. Source: CMS.

What you'd actually pay

—

Where you live

$67,015

The national average price.

State prices from RAND's hospital price study — how much your state's hospitals charge private insurers relative to Medicare. This is a statewide price level, not a per-procedure state price. Maryland isn't shown: it sets hospital rates for all payers, so the comparison doesn't apply there.

spinal fusion surgery cost by state

Prices swing more than 2× across the country for identical care. Pick your state:

Alabama $55,670 Alaska $77,305 Arizona $73,611 Arkansas $42,742 California $82,318 Colorado $76,777 Connecticut $67,807 Delaware $81,790 District of Columbia $63,585 Florida $91,288 Georgia $83,637 Hawaii $64,904 Idaho $76,249 Illinois $66,487 Indiana $79,152 Iowa $59,891 Kansas $66,223 Kentucky $60,683 Louisiana $61,211 Maine $67,015 Massachusetts $50,921 Michigan $49,865 Minnesota $62,794 Mississippi $48,810 Missouri $65,168 Montana $66,751 Nebraska $75,194 Nevada $70,709 New Hampshire $56,989 New Jersey $70,445 New Mexico $64,640 New York $81,790 North Carolina $73,875 North Dakota $59,891 Ohio $73,083 Oklahoma $59,364 Oregon $67,279 Pennsylvania $59,100 Rhode Island $51,976 South Carolina $85,748 South Dakota $65,960 Tennessee $61,738 Texas $66,223 Utah $57,253 Vermont $74,666 Virginia $69,126 Washington $65,960 West Virginia $88,386 Wisconsin $84,692 Wyoming $71,236
This is an estimate, not a bill. It applies published average deductibles and a 20% coinsurance (KFF's measured average for a hospital admission) to a national average price. Your actual plan, hospital and diagnosis will move this number. Not medical or financial advice.