How Much Does Orthopedic Hardware Removal Cost in Massachusetts?
Removal of implant deep
$3,362Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, orthopedic hardware removal costs up to about $3,362 in total at a hospital outpatient department or about $1,643 at an ambulatory surgery center, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). The physician's own fee in Massachusetts averages $415, from $399 to $431 across 2 Medicare localities.
- ✓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
Massachusetts Medicare physician rate (2026)
+7.9% vs nationalAverage of 2 localities. Office range $649.19–$714.09.
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 $1,719 on the Medicare allowed amount for orthopedic hardware removal. Ask whether your procedure can be done at an ambulatory surgery center.
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 Massachusetts
Look up your ZIP to see whether metro Boston or rest-of-state pricing applies, from Boston and Cambridge to Worcester, Springfield, the North and South Shores, and Cape Cod.
What orthopedic hardware removal costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in Massachusetts 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 01001.
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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 Massachusetts the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $266.80.
National vs Massachusetts
Where Massachusetts ranks for this CPT
CPT 20680 by Massachusetts locality
| Locality | Office |
|---|---|
| metropolitan boston | $714.09 |
| rest of massachusetts | $649.19 |
PE GPCI ranges from 1.053 to 1.194 in Massachusetts. That index is why the same CPT is not one price statewide.
Orthopedic Hardware Removal and how Massachusetts is priced
Massachusetts is priced through two localities: metro Boston and the rest of the state. Boston's locality carries clearly higher geographic adjustments, reflecting some of the highest medical wages and office costs in the nation, while Worcester, Springfield, and the Cape share the lower rest-of-state factors. The split means the fee schedule itself acknowledges what everyone in the state already knows about Boston prices. Even so, rest-of-state Massachusetts still prices above most of the country.
Boston has arguably the densest concentration of academic medical centers anywhere, and its teaching hospitals pull referrals from all of New England and beyond. That prestige comes with a high-cost market structure that state policymakers have scrutinized for years. Western Massachusetts operates more like a regional market centered on Springfield, and Cape and islands residents contend with seasonal capacity strain.
This procedure: CPT 20680 is the removal of deep orthopedic hardware, such as a rod, plate, screws or pins that were placed to fix a broken bone. Hardware is taken out when it causes pain or irritation, becomes infected, or limits movement, and sometimes after a fracture has fully healed in younger patients. It is usually an outpatient operation under anesthesia, and the size of the job depends on the implant: removing a long rod from the thigh bone is a bigger operation than taking out a few screws from the ankle.
What Is Orthopedic Hardware Removal?
CPT 20680 is the removal of deep orthopedic hardware, such as a rod, plate, screws or pins that were placed to fix a broken bone. Hardware is taken out when it causes pain or irritation, becomes infected, or limits movement, and sometimes after a fracture has fully healed in younger patients. It is usually an outpatient operation under anesthesia, and the size of the job depends on the implant: removing a long rod from the thigh bone is a bigger operation than taking out a few screws from the ankle.
What Affects the Cost
- –The size and location of the implant drive operating time: removing an intramedullary rod from the femur takes longer than removing a small ankle plate.
- –Hardware removed through separate incisions can be billed more than once in the same operation.
- –Anesthesia is billed separately by the anesthesia provider.
- –Surgery centers typically have lower facility fees than hospital outpatient departments.
- –If infection is found, cultures, antibiotics and sometimes a hospital stay add to the total.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.What is causing my symptoms, and is removal likely to help?
- 2.Is all of the hardware coming out, and through how many incisions?
- 3.Will this be done at a surgery center or a hospital?
- 4.Will I need crutches, a brace or physical therapy afterward?
- 5.Is the anesthesia group in my network?
Other featured procedures in Massachusetts
Orthopedic Hardware Removal in other states
Orthopedic Hardware Removal in Massachusetts: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, orthopedic hardware removal costs up to about $3,362 in total at a hospital outpatient department or about $1,643 at an ambulatory surgery center, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). The physician's own fee in Massachusetts averages $415, from $399 to $431 across 2 Medicare localities. Enter a ZIP for the exact Massachusetts locality.
Yes. CMS splits Massachusetts into 2 payment localities. For this CPT the office physician fee spans $64.90 from the lowest to highest locality. Look up your ZIP to see whether metro Boston or rest-of-state pricing applies, from Boston and Cambridge to Worcester, Springfield, the North and South Shores, and Cape Cod.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $136 for the office physician line or $83 for the hospital physician line in Massachusetts. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.
No. $414.84 is only the physician's share. Adding Medicare's facility payment brings the total to up to about $3,362 in a hospital outpatient department, or about $1,643 at an ambulatory surgery center. Anesthesia, pathology and other codes billed the same day are extra. Massachusetts ranks #45 of 51 states on the physician line (8% above the national office rate of $631.95).