How much does cataract surgery with a lens implant cost in the US?

Across 691 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $2,545, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $2,200 and $4,182. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $3,329 across the 253 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.

Why do Cataract Surgery prices vary so much?

Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 5.0 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $1,507 in Arizona to $6,838 in Oregon.

Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?

Sometimes. At 89 of the 253 hospitals that list a cash price (35%), it is lower than that hospital's own median negotiated rate. If you have a high deductible, ask the hospital for its self-pay price before you book.

What is the Medicare rate shown here?

$2,358 is the CMS national outpatient (OPPS) payment rate for this service (July 2026). We show it as a government baseline: the national median negotiated rate is 1.1 times it.

All procedures / Cataract Surgery

Cataract Surgery Cost in the US (2026): What 691 Hospitals NegotiatedNPI VERIFIED

Across 691 US hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate for cataract surgery with a lens implant is $2,545 — 1.1× the Medicare outpatient rate of $2,358. The middle half of hospitals negotiated between $2,200 and $4,182; the priciest tenth negotiated more than $6,235, 5.0× the cheapest tenth (under $1,248). Hospitals that list a self-pay price ask a median of $3,329 (253 hospitals).

Code CPT 66984 · Source: hospital machine-readable files (45 CFR §180), file dates 2024-01-01 to 2026-09-14 (median 2026-04-01) · Medicare baseline: CMS OPPS Addendum B, July 2026 · Data extracted 2026-10-06 · Page updated 2026-10-07

National median

$2,545

all plan types · 691 hospitals

Middle half

$2,200–$4,182

25th–75th percentile of hospitals

Median cash price

$3,329

self-pay · 253 hospitals list one

Medicare baseline

$2,358

CMS OPPS national · July 2026

691 hospitals, one bar per price band

median $2,545Medicare $2,358

$0$5,000$10,000

Each bar counts hospitals whose median rate falls in that price band; the last, dashed bar holds the 21 at $10,000 or more. The cheapest tenth negotiated under $1,248, the priciest tenth over $6,235 — 5.0× apart for the same procedure.

These are contract reference rates, not your bill. A median across hospitals is not a quote for your plan or network. Your out-of-pocket cost depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network status.

This is the hospital's facility fee for the outpatient procedure. The surgeon and anesthesia are billed separately.

Coverage: 691 of the 5,419 hospitals in the CMS roster have an identity-verified price file with this procedure in our data. It is not a random sample, and a hospital missing here has not been judged non-compliant — we may simply not have its file yet. 37 of these 691 hospital files were more than 12 months old at extraction — hospitals must update yearly; we keep the figures and say so rather than hide them.

By insurance type

Insurance type	Hospitals	Median	Middle half	× Medicare
Commercial (plan type not stated)	394	$4,712	$3,249 – $7,369	2.0×
PPO	396	$5,073	$3,336 – $7,734	2.2×
HMO	288	$4,711	$2,860 – $6,851	2.0×
EPO	50	$4,182	$2,382 – $7,404	1.8×
POS	30	$5,120	$4,029 – $6,192	2.2×
ACA Marketplace	279	$3,832	$2,999 – $5,074	1.6×
Medicare Advantage	338	$2,303	$2,146 – $2,493	1.0×
Medicare (as listed)	400	$2,345	$2,198 – $2,530	1.0×
Medicaid	384	$1,810	$935 – $2,475	0.8×
Workers' comp	51	$3,123	$2,934 – $4,309	1.3×

Plan types are grouped from each hospital's plan names. Each figure is a median of hospital-level medians; types with fewer than 20 hospitals are left out.

By state

State	Hospitals	Median	Middle half	× Medicare	Median cash
Alabama	9	$2,112	$2,006 – $2,197	0.9×	$2,465
Arizona	5	$1,507	$1,507 – $2,647	0.6×	$2,151
California	27	$3,977	$2,954 – $11,042	1.7×	$2,953
Florida	30	$2,543	$2,411 – $3,983	1.1×	$1,606
Georgia	22	$4,175	$2,591 – $4,337	1.8×	$3,033
Hawaii	6	$2,338	$2,241 – $2,632	1.0×	—
Idaho	5	$4,479	$1,637 – $4,591	1.9×	$5,599
Illinois	21	$2,572	$2,473 – $3,984	1.1×	$4,311
Indiana	14	$3,257	$2,930 – $5,468	1.4×	$3,977
Iowa	9	$2,235	$1,614 – $2,376	0.9×	$2,146
Kansas	14	$3,559	$2,211 – $4,512	1.5×	$3,091
Kentucky	19	$2,288	$2,188 – $3,494	1.0×	$2,697
Louisiana	17	$2,090	$1,963 – $3,664	0.9×	$1,900
Massachusetts	6	$2,607	$2,388 – $3,234	1.1×	$12,675
Michigan	25	$2,044	$1,248 – $2,444	0.9×	$2,858
Minnesota	22	$2,335	$2,264 – $2,395	1.0×	$4,276
Mississippi	11	$2,220	$2,112 – $3,238	0.9×	$3,280
Missouri	19	$2,335	$2,268 – $2,452	1.0×	$5,427
Nebraska	18	$2,358	$1,807 – $3,153	1.0×	$3,499
Nevada	5	$3,203	$3,203 – $3,203	1.4×	—
New Hampshire	6	$3,372	$2,993 – $4,185	1.4×	—
New Jersey	19	$4,759	$2,596 – $5,110	2.0×	$4,996
New Mexico	8	$3,301	$2,513 – $13,999	1.4×	$953
New York	32	$2,881	$2,530 – $3,215	1.2×	$1,825
North Carolina	13	$2,227	$2,172 – $2,271	0.9×	$5,661
North Dakota	5	$3,411	$2,349 – $3,516	1.4×	$5,072
Ohio	40	$2,526	$2,146 – $5,366	1.1×	$5,142
Oklahoma	17	$2,890	$2,191 – $4,333	1.2×	$4,650
Oregon	13	$6,838	$3,759 – $6,838	2.9×	$4,905
Pennsylvania	38	$2,282	$1,661 – $2,469	1.0×	$1,825
South Carolina	23	$2,397	$2,271 – $4,649	1.0×	$3,461
Tennessee	14	$2,302	$2,187 – $2,662	1.0×	$2,360
Texas	67	$2,444	$2,198 – $4,338	1.0×	$3,942
Utah	13	$2,570	$2,570 – $4,182	1.1×	—
Vermont	5	$2,260	$2,188 – $2,847	1.0×	$3,650
Virginia	14	$5,535	$3,900 – $7,213	2.3×	—
Washington	6	$3,836	$2,922 – $5,599	1.6×	$3,637
West Virginia	6	$2,387	$864 – $5,440	1.0×	$8,907
Wisconsin	24	$3,312	$2,194 – $5,086	1.4×	$1,597

middle half of hospitalsstate medianMedicare rate · a dotted end means the range runs past $10,000

States with at least 5 hospitals in our data (39 states). 9 smaller states are counted in the national figures but not listed — a median of two or three hospitals says more about those hospitals than about the state.

Get the data

Hospital-level and insurer-level rates for this procedure are in the full dataset. A free three-procedure sample (brain MRI, head CT, diagnostic colonoscopy) is open under CC BY 4.0: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23199844 · Kaggle.

Frequently asked questions

How much does cataract surgery with a lens implant cost in the US?: Across 691 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $2,545, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $2,200 and $4,182. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $3,329 across the 253 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.
Why do Cataract Surgery prices vary so much?: Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 5.0 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $1,507 in Arizona to $6,838 in Oregon.
Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?: Sometimes. At 89 of the 253 hospitals that list a cash price (35%), it is lower than that hospital's own median negotiated rate. If you have a high deductible, ask the hospital for its self-pay price before you book.
What is the Medicare rate shown here?: $2,358 is the CMS national outpatient (OPPS) payment rate for this service (July 2026). We show it as a government baseline: the national median negotiated rate is 1.1 times it.

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