How Much Does Psychotherapy (45 min) Cost in District of Columbia?
Psytx w pt 45 minutes
$123.52In-office total2026 Medicare, District of Columbia averageUnder 2026 Medicare rates, psychotherapy (45 min) in a doctor's office costs about $124 in District of Columbia, with no separate facility fee. In a facility the national total is up to about $273 at a hospital outpatient department, because the facility is paid its own rate on top of the physician.
- ✓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
District of Columbia Medicare physician rate (2026)
+8.4% vs nationalSingle statewide locality.
What it costs in a hospital or surgery center
In a doctor’s office, the office rate above is the whole Medicare payment. When the same procedure is done in a hospital or surgery center, the facility bills its own fee on top of the physician, which is what these totals show. They are 2026 national Medicare amounts.
Medicare may pay the facility separately for this code or package it into another service on the same day, so treat the facility share as an upper bound. Medicare allowed amounts are not what an uninsured patient is charged, and not a quote. Private plans typically allow more.
Your ZIP in District of Columbia
Enter a ZIP code to see how the DC locality applies to your address, whether you are in the District itself, Bethesda or Silver Spring on the Maryland side, or Arlington and Alexandria in Virginia.
What psychotherapy (45 min) costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in District of Columbia 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 20001.
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. In District of Columbia the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $25.96.
National vs District of Columbia
Where District of Columbia ranks for this CPT
Psychotherapy (45 min) and how District of Columbia is priced
The District of Columbia is unusual in the fee schedule: it forms its own high-cost locality that reaches beyond the city line to cover close-in Maryland and Virginia suburbs, including areas such as Montgomery and Prince George's counties and the Arlington and Alexandria side of the Potomac. Its geographic indices are among the highest in the country, reflecting the region's wages and office costs. As a result, DC-area Medicare-approved amounts run well above those in the rest of Maryland or Virginia, and the boundary of that locality can matter more than the state line. A patient in Bethesda is priced with Washington, not with Baltimore.
The Washington area is dense with hospitals, including multiple academic medical centers and large regional systems competing across the district and its suburbs. That density gives patients real choice within a short distance, which is rare in American health care. Federal employment also means an unusually well-insured population, so cash-pay and Medicare-rate comparisons are most useful for those outside employer coverage.
This procedure: This is a standard individual psychotherapy session of about 45 minutes, the most commonly billed therapy length in the United States. You meet one-on-one with a therapist, in person or by video, to work on concerns such as anxiety, depression, or life stressors using approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy. Care typically involves weekly or biweekly sessions over months, so the per-session price compounds into a meaningful recurring expense.
What Is Psychotherapy (45 min)?
This is a standard individual psychotherapy session of about 45 minutes, the most commonly billed therapy length in the United States. You meet one-on-one with a therapist, in person or by video, to work on concerns such as anxiety, depression, or life stressors using approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy. Care typically involves weekly or biweekly sessions over months, so the per-session price compounds into a meaningful recurring expense.
What Affects the Cost
- –Therapy is a recurring cost; the number of sessions over a course of care dwarfs any single session fee.
- –Cash-pay rates vary enormously by city and clinician credential, and many therapists operate entirely outside insurance.
- –In-network copays or coinsurance per session are often much lower than cash rates, when you can find an in-network therapist with openings.
- –The technical difference between this 45-minute code and the 60-minute 90837 changes both the charge and what insurers reimburse.
- –Sliding-scale fees, training clinics, and employer EAP sessions can reduce or eliminate cost for a set number of visits.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.What is my per-session cost in network, and what would I actually get back if I see you out of network with a superbill?
- 2.Do you offer a sliding scale or reduced rate if I pay cash?
- 3.Does my employer EAP cover any sessions free before my insurance kicks in?
- 4.How many sessions do you anticipate for my goals?
- 5.What is your cancellation fee policy, since insurance will not pay those?
Other featured procedures in District of Columbia
Psychotherapy (45 min) in other states
Psychotherapy (45 min) in District of Columbia: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, psychotherapy (45 min) in a doctor's office costs about $124 in District of Columbia, with no separate facility fee. In a facility the national total is up to about $273 at a hospital outpatient department, because the facility is paid its own rate on top of the physician. District of Columbia is a single Medicare locality, so the physician rate is the same statewide.
Not on the physician fee schedule. District of Columbia uses one locality, so the Medicare physician rate is the same from one end of the state to the other. What still changes is site of service (office vs hospital) and any facility fee the hospital bills on its own claim.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $25 for the office physician line or $20 for the hospital physician line in District of Columbia. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.
In a doctor's office, $123.52 is Medicare's whole payment in District of Columbia: it covers the physician, the room and the supplies, with no separate facility fee. If it is done in a hospital outpatient department instead, the physician is paid about $97.56 and the hospital adds its own facility payment, bringing the national total to up to about $273. Services billed under other codes, such as lab work, are extra. District of Columbia ranks #50 of 51 states on the office rate (8% above the national office rate of $113.90).