Open Inguinal Hernia Repair Cost
Prp i/hern init reduc >5 yr
$4,166Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, an open inguinal hernia repair costs about $4,166 in total at a hospital outpatient department or about $2,252 at an ambulatory surgery center, counting both the physician and the facility. The physician's own fee is about $508 of that, and a ZIP code adjusts every figure to your area.
- ✓Your ZIP's wage-adjusted hospital and surgery center rates
- ✓Five nearby hospitals by name, with CMS star ratings
- ✓The add-on codes that typically land on the bill
- ✓A word-for-word script for asking for a good-faith estimate
- ✓A private link you can reopen and share
- ✓Everything in the Premium report
- ✓15 nearby hospitals instead of five
- ✓Filled good-faith-estimate request letter
- ✓Bill-negotiation letter
- ✓Printable PDF download
National Medicare physician rate (2026)
What the whole procedure costs
The rate above is the physician’s fee on its own. The facility bills separately, and for most procedures the facility is the larger half of the bill. These are 2026 national Medicare amounts.
Choosing a surgery center over a hospital saves about $1,914 on the Medicare allowed amount for open inguinal hernia repair. Ask whether your procedure can be done at an ambulatory surgery center.
Medicare pays the hospital a single comprehensive amount for this procedure, covering the facility's share of the encounter including implants and supplies. Medicare allowed amounts are not what an uninsured patient is charged, and not a quote. Private plans typically allow more.
Get the rate for your ZIP
CMS adjusts this CPT by locality. A five-digit ZIP is enough: no account, no insurance card.
What open inguinal hernia repair costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in your area moves the bill more than anything else you control.
Rates for your ZIP, 5 named hospitals with CMS ratings, the add-on codes, and the scheduler script.
For example 90001.
One-off payment, no account and no subscription. You get a private link and an email. No medical records and no insurance card, ever.
What these numbers are
Every figure on this page is a 2026 Medicare allowed amount: the physician line comes from the Physician Fee Schedule adjusted by geographic practice-cost indices, and the facility totals come from the CMS hospital outpatient (OPPS) and ambulatory surgery center rates. None of them is a hospital chargemaster price, your insurer's contracted rate, or a quote. Anesthesia, pathology, imaging reads and follow-up care are billed under their own codes when they apply, and an inpatient stay is paid a different way again.
How CMS prices CPT 49505
Work is about 51% of the office total RVU; practice expense is about 36%. Localities with a high PE GPCI move this code more when practice expense is a large share.
Office vs hospital for this code
Office (non-facility) physician rate: $508.03. Hospital (facility) physician rate: $508.03.
Medicare patients typically owe 20% of the allowed amount after the Part B deductible, about $102 for the office physician fee, before any Medigap coverage. That coinsurance does not include a hospital facility fee.
Labeled private-plan and cash ranges on this page are arithmetic multiples of Medicare, not negotiated quotes. Ask the billing office for the CPT code, the site of service, and a good-faith estimate.
Open Inguinal Hernia Repair cost by state
2026 Medicare office rate for CPT 49505, averaged across each state's localities. Open a state for its locality table and full cost breakdown.
What Is Open Inguinal Hernia Repair?
Open inguinal hernia repair fixes a groin hernia through a single incision a few inches long over the bulge. The surgeon pushes the bulging tissue back into place and reinforces the weak spot in the abdominal wall, usually with a piece of surgical mesh. It is one of the most common operations in the United States, it can often be done under local anesthesia with sedation rather than general anesthesia, and most patients go home the same day.
What Affects the Cost
- –The type of anesthesia matters: local anesthesia with sedation is usually billed for less than general anesthesia.
- –Repairing both sides in the same operation is billed with a bilateral modifier and raises the surgeon's fee, although it costs less than two separate operations.
- –A hernia that is trapped (incarcerated) or has lost its blood supply (strangulated) uses a different, higher-paying code and can need emergency admission.
- –Surgery centers usually charge a much lower facility fee than hospital outpatient departments for the same repair.
- –The mesh is part of the facility payment rather than billed by the surgeon.
How It Is Billed
CPT 49505 is an open repair of an initial inguinal hernia on one side, in a patient aged 5 or older, when the hernia can be pushed back in (reducible). An incarcerated or strangulated hernia uses 49507, a recurrent hernia uses a different code, and a laparoscopic repair uses 49650. The surgeon's fee includes routine follow-up during a 90-day global period, and anesthesia is billed on its own claim.
Insurance & Coverage Notes
Repair of a symptomatic hernia is covered by Medicare and commercial plans. Some plans require prior authorization for elective hernia surgery, and small hernias that cause no symptoms are sometimes watched rather than repaired right away. Your usual surgical cost sharing applies: the deductible first, then coinsurance up to your out-of-pocket maximum. Because the operation is usually elective, there is time to compare surgery center and hospital prices before you book.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Will this be an open or a laparoscopic repair, and why that approach for me?
- 2.Can it be done under local anesthesia with sedation?
- 3.Is the surgery booked at a surgery center or a hospital, and what is the facility fee at each?
- 4.If you find a hernia on the other side, will you repair it, and how is that billed?
- 5.Which follow-up visits are included in the surgeon's fee?
Open Inguinal Hernia Repair (CPT 49505): questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, an open inguinal hernia repair costs about $4,166 in total at a hospital outpatient department or about $2,252 at an ambulatory surgery center, counting both the physician and the facility. The physician's own fee is about $508 of that, and a ZIP code adjusts every figure to your area.
For CPT 49505 the office and hospital physician rates are essentially the same ($508.03). The hospital will still usually add a separate facility fee that this page does not show.
Open inguinal hernia repair fixes a groin hernia through a single incision a few inches long over the bulge. The surgeon pushes the bulging tissue back into place and reinforces the weak spot in the abdominal wall, usually with a piece of surgical mesh. It is one of the most common operations in the United States, it can often be done under local anesthesia with sedation rather than general anesthesia, and most patients go home the same day. CMS bills it as “Prp i/hern init reduc >5 yr.”
Not on its own. $508.03 is the physician allowed amount in a facility. Medicare also pays the facility, which takes the total to about $4,166 in a hospital outpatient department or about $2,252 at an ambulatory surgery center. Anesthesia, pathology and imaging interpretation billed under other codes are separate again. Private-plan allowed amounts are often higher than Medicare; your deductible and coinsurance still apply.
For cash-pay surgery shopping, use this CPT as the Medicare floor when you compare written quotes. How cash-price shopping works.