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I need my gallbladder out

Laparoscopic gallbladder removal with a hospital admission — the full episode, pre-op visit through follow-up.

Typical US price before insurance

$21,210

$16,313typical range$27,457

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 hospital facility fee is $18,765 of this; the surgeon gets $961 and anesthesia $754. Note this is the INPATIENT path — the large facility fee gives it away. Done as day surgery it costs far less: Medicare pays the same rate for an outpatient gallbladder removal as for an outpatient appendectomy. Replaces an older 2018 figure of $28,233; different sources and samples, so this does NOT mean the surgery got cheaper.

What Medicare pays for the same care $13,815

Private insurers pay 1.5× what Medicare pays for this.

All-in: $13,183 to the hospital plus $632 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

Your coverage

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Where you live

Your state

$21,210

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.

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.