Clearcharge

Hospital prices, out in the open.

Spinal tap (lumbar puncture), diagnostic in Athens, GA62270

HC SPINAL PUNCTURE,LUMBAR,DIAGNOSTIC

Across 9 hospitals within 35 miles of Athens that publish a negotiated price for this code. Each hospital's figure is the middle of the rates it publishes across its own insurance plans, so the spread within one hospital is often wider than the gap between two. A hospital whose published address is a PO box is placed at its city centre, so a distance shown for it is approximate.

Self-pay is what the hospital charges someone paying themselves rather than through insurance — the number to use if you have no coverage, or if this hospital is out of network. Paying self-pay usually doesn’t count toward your deductible, so it can cost less for this one service and more across a full year, if you’d have met your deductible anyway. Every other figure here is what an insurer pays, not what you would.

At 6 of the 8 hospitals here that publish a self-pay price, it is lower than what that same hospital typically accepts from an insurer — so it is worth asking for, in writing, at those. At the other 2 it is higher. Either way it is worth asking whether you qualify for financial assistance, which is a different thing and often a much larger discount.

Narrow this by your insurance plan or distance →

These are prices the hospitals published themselves, as required by the federal Hospital Price Transparency Rule (45 CFR 180.50). They are the hospital's share only — the surgeon, anesthesiologist and radiologist usually bill separately and do not appear in any hospital file, so treat every figure here as part of a total rather than the total. What you actually pay also depends on your plan's deductible and coinsurance.