How Much Does a Knee Arthroscopy Cost in Missouri?
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$3,859Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, a knee arthroscopy costs about $3,859 in total at a hospital outpatient department or about $2,161 at an ambulatory surgery center, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). The physician's own fee in Missouri averages $495, from $481 to $504 across 3 Medicare localities.
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- ✓The add-on codes that typically land on the bill
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Missouri Medicare physician rate (2026)
-4.0% vs nationalAverage of 3 localities. Office range $481.35–$504.28.
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 $1,698 on the Medicare allowed amount for knee arthroscopy. 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.
Your ZIP in Missouri
Enter a ZIP code to see which Missouri locality covers you: metro St. Louis, metro Kansas City, or rest-of-state areas like Springfield, Columbia, Joplin, and the Bootheel.
What knee arthroscopy costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in Missouri 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.
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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.
National vs Missouri
Where Missouri ranks for this CPT
CPT 29881 by Missouri locality
| Locality | Office |
|---|---|
| metropolitan st. louis | $504.28 |
| metropolitan kansas city | $499.99 |
| rest of missouri | $481.35 |
PE GPCI ranges from 0.862 to 0.952 in Missouri. That index is why the same CPT is not one price statewide.
Knee Arthroscopy and how Missouri is priced
Missouri is a three-locality state: metropolitan St. Louis and metropolitan Kansas City are each priced separately, and everywhere else falls into a rest-of-state locality with lower geographic adjustments. Both metro localities approve higher amounts than outstate Missouri, and the Kansas City locality applies only to the Missouri side of that metro, since the Kansas side prices under Kansas's statewide locality. Springfield, Columbia, and the rural counties all share rest-of-state factors. The metro-versus-outstate gap is the main pricing story here.
St. Louis and Kansas City hold the state's academic medical centers and most of its specialty depth, drawing patients from far beyond Missouri's borders, including southern Illinois and eastern Kansas. Outstate Missouri is served by regional hubs in Springfield, Columbia, and Cape Girardeau, with the Ozarks and Bootheel among the harder places to reach specialty care. Rural hospital viability has been a persistent concern across the state.
This procedure: Knee arthroscopy with meniscectomy is keyhole surgery in which the surgeon inserts a small camera into the knee and trims away the torn portion of the meniscus, the cartilage shock absorber between the bones. It treats meniscal tears causing pain, catching, or locking. The procedure takes 30 to 60 minutes under general or regional anesthesia at an outpatient surgery center, and most patients walk the same day and return to desk work within days.
What Is Knee Arthroscopy?
Knee arthroscopy with meniscectomy is keyhole surgery in which the surgeon inserts a small camera into the knee and trims away the torn portion of the meniscus, the cartilage shock absorber between the bones. It treats meniscal tears causing pain, catching, or locking. The procedure takes 30 to 60 minutes under general or regional anesthesia at an outpatient surgery center, and most patients walk the same day and return to desk work within days.
What Affects the Cost
- –Ambulatory surgery centers typically charge far less for this procedure than hospital outpatient departments.
- –A meniscus repair with sutures, if the tear pattern allows one, is a different code with a longer recovery and different pricing than simple trimming.
- –The pre-operative MRI that diagnosed the tear is part of the true episode cost and may still be working through your deductible.
- –Post-operative physical therapy visits, often 4 to 12 of them, are billed per visit on top of the surgery.
- –Anesthesia bills separately, and a regional nerve block for pain control adds a line item.
- –Any additional work done through the scope at the same time, such as cartilage smoothing, can add or change surgical codes.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Is my tear traumatic or degenerative, and would a course of physical therapy first be a reasonable and cheaper option?
- 2.Will this be a meniscectomy or a repair, and how do the costs and recovery differ?
- 3.Can we book this at a freestanding surgery center rather than the hospital?
- 4.What other procedures might you perform once you are inside the knee, and how would they change the bill?
- 5.How many therapy visits will I need afterward and at what cost per visit?
Other featured procedures in Missouri
Knee Arthroscopy in other states
Knee Arthroscopy in Missouri: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, a knee arthroscopy costs about $3,859 in total at a hospital outpatient department or about $2,161 at an ambulatory surgery center, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). The physician's own fee in Missouri averages $495, from $481 to $504 across 3 Medicare localities. Enter a ZIP for the exact Missouri locality.
Yes. CMS splits Missouri into 3 payment localities. For this CPT the office physician fee spans $22.93 from the lowest to highest locality. Enter a ZIP code to see which Missouri locality covers you: metro St. Louis, metro Kansas City, or rest-of-state areas like Springfield, Columbia, Joplin, and the Bootheel.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $99 for the office physician line or $99 for the hospital physician line in Missouri. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.
No. $495.21 is only the physician's share. Adding Medicare's facility payment brings the total to about $3,859 in a hospital outpatient department, or about $2,161 at an ambulatory surgery center. Anesthesia, pathology and other codes billed the same day are extra. Missouri ranks #21 of 51 states on the physician line (4% below the national office rate of $515.71).