How much do stitches cost?
Charged by wound length and location, on top of the emergency room facility fee.
What these stitches prices include
The figures below describe the repair procedure associated with code 12001. They are not a quote for a complete ER visit. A facility charge, clinician visit, medication or other treatment can add to the total.
Published list and cash prices are comparison points. Your own balance depends on the provider, services and insurance processing. The sample is limited to the hospitals in the source data; it is not a national average or a guaranteed price.
Ask before comparing: “Does this price include the visit and facility fees as well as the repair? Which separate bills should I expect?”
List price
$780
What the hospital lists the procedure at.
Cash price
$281
What the hospital charges someone paying without insurance.
Cash is
36%
of the list price. The self-pay discount, as published.
What different people pay
| The list price | What the hospital publishes as its gross charge | $780 |
| Paying without insurance | The hospital's own discounted cash price | $281 |
| An insurer with a contract | Median of the rates hospitals publish per payer and plan | $288 |
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 stitches 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 medians of what hospitals published, not an average of what people were billed.
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 an ER bill
Where this came from
Prices published by 62 hospitals in their machine-readable files under 45 CFR 180.50, 131 of which listed a cash price for this procedure. Those hospitals are all part of one health system, so treat these as that system's published prices rather than a national average. Retrieved 2026-08-07.