What a knee replacement actually costs
The implant itself is a large line item and hospitals mark it up very differently from one another.
Billed
$102,062
Hospital and doctor charges added together.
Medicare accepted
$18,851
What Medicare treated as payable.
The gap
5.4x
How many times the accepted amount the billed figure was.
What different people pay
| Medicare | Facility plus the doctor's fee, whole admission | $18,851 |
The gap is the argument
A list price is close to fiction. Almost nobody pays it: Medicare does not, no insurer with a contract does, and the hospital itself will take far less from someone paying cash. It is an opening number.
If your bill for knee replacement is near the list price, the figures above are what you raise. Ask for the cash price by name, it is published and they are required to honour it. Then ask why you are being charged more than a contracted payer for identical work.
What these numbers are not: a quote. Prices vary by hospital, by region and by what else happens during the visit. These are Medicare rates; commercial insurers pay differently, usually more.
Upload it to a free mediloop account. An automatic first look reads the charges and shows what looks worth questioning, usually in about a minute. If you want a specialist to take it from there, it is a flat $129, refunded in full if the bill isn't lowered by at least $129.
Check my bill for freeRather work through it yourself? You got a surgery bill
Where this came from
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2024 data, retrieved 2026-08-07. Medicare fee-for-service only.