CPT29881

Knee Arthroscopy Cost in New Hampshire

Arthrs kne srg mnisectmy m/l

$3,859Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facility
Hospital payments are wage-adjusted by locality, so the ZIP changes the numbers.
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New Hampshire Medicare physician rate (2026)

+0.8% vs national

Single statewide locality.

New Hampshire (Hospital)
$519.71
Facility physician fee
Private plan est.
$676–$1,039
~130–200% of Medicare
Cash / self-pay est.
$416–$780
~80–150% of Medicare

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.

Surgery centre, total
$2,161
$516 physician + $1,645 facility
Physician fee alone
$516
Only 13% of the hospital total

Choosing a surgery centre 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 centre.

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 New Hampshire

Check your ZIP for local context, whether you are in Manchester, Nashua, Concord, the Seacoast around Portsmouth, the Lakes Region, or the North Country.

What knee arthroscopy costs at hospitals near you

Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in New Hampshire moves the bill more than anything else you control.

Locked

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 centre 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 New Hampshire

National office$515.71
National hospital (physician)$515.71
New Hampshire vs nationalwithin 2% of the national office rate of $515.71

Where New Hampshire ranks for this CPT

Rank (lowest physician fee first)#36 of 51
Lowest stateArkansas ($459.17)
Highest stateAlaska ($624.72)

Knee Arthroscopy and how New Hampshire is priced

New Hampshire is priced as one statewide locality with geographic indices above the national average, keeping company with its high-cost New England neighbors. From Nashua to the North Country, the fee schedule applies identical adjustments, even though the southern tier is economically an extension of greater Boston. CMS has never split the state, so the Massachusetts border is also a pricing border: cross it southbound and the metro Boston locality takes over. That makes New Hampshire a clear example of how locality lines, not just providers, shape what Medicare approves.

Southern New Hampshire residents routinely use Boston hospitals for complex care, accepting metro pricing in exchange for academic-center depth, while the state's own tertiary referral center sits in the west near the Vermont border. The Lakes Region and North Country rely on small rural hospitals with limited procedure menus. No state income or sales tax attracts retirees, steadily raising Medicare demand.

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?

Knee Arthroscopy in New Hampshire: questions

New Hampshire is a single Medicare locality for this fee schedule. The 2026 physician rate for CPT 29881 is $519.71 in an office and $519.71 in a hospital, statewide. A ZIP lookup still confirms the locality mapping.

Not on the physician fee schedule. New Hampshire 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 $104 for the office physician line or $104 for the hospital physician line in New Hampshire. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.

No. $519.71 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 centre. Anesthesia, pathology and other codes billed the same day are extra. New Hampshire ranks #36 of 51 states on the physician line (within 2% of the national office rate of $515.71).

Data source: 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (CMS PPRRVU26B, released March 2026). Conversion factor: $33.4009. Prices shown are Medicare allowed amounts for the physician service and may not match what you are billed. Private insurance and self-pay ranges, when shown, are labeled estimates (typical multiples of Medicare), not quotes. This site is an independent cost tool, not medical advice.