# Tonsil and adenoid removal, under age 12 in Atlanta, GA

Billing code `42820`. Prices for this code at 18 hospitals within 35 miles of Atlanta, taken from the machine-readable standard charge files each hospital is required to publish under the CMS Hospital Price Transparency Rule (45 CFR 180.50).

Source page: https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/atlanta/tonsil-and-adenoid-removal-under-age-12

Remove tonsils and adenoids

## Before quoting any figure below

- **Hospital charges only.** The surgeon, anaesthetist, radiologist and pathologist bill separately and appear in no hospital price file, by construction. Every figure below is part of a total, never the total.
- **A negotiated rate is not a bill.** It is what a hospital and an insurer agreed. What a patient owes depends on their deductible, coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximum.
- **Each hospital's figure is a median across its own plans.** The spread inside one hospital is often wider than the gap between two of them.
- **"not mentioned" is not $0.** It means this hospital's file does not label a row that way. Silence is not a statement that the charge does not exist.
- **A hospital absent from the table says nothing about its prices.** It may publish this code under a revenue or drug code this site cannot map to a procedure.

A procedure code is billed twice -- once by the hospital for its own costs, once by the doctor for their work -- and hospitals publish different sides of that split under the same code. Of the hospitals here, 11 publish a facility charge; 1 publish both, mixed together; 6 do not label which half the figure is.

## Typical price

|  | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cheapest tenth | $5,920 |
| Typical | $6,133 |
| Dearest tenth | $6,313 |

The cheapest and dearest tenth are the hospitals a tenth of the way in from each end, not the single cheapest and dearest. Every hospital, including both extremes, is in the table below.

## Every hospital publishing this code

| Hospital | Where | CMS rating | Typical | Facility charge | Physician fee | Self-pay | Lowest | Highest | Plans on file |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grady Memorial Hospital | ATLANTA (6.1 mi) | 2/5 | see split | $5,886 | $235 | not published | $195 | $10,889 | 63 |
| Tanner Medical Center Villa Rica | VILLA RICA (33.1 mi) | 3/5 | $5,740 | not mentioned | not mentioned | $5,740 | $2,079 | $8,897 | 17 |
| Emory Hillandale Hospital | LITHONIA (16.0 mi) | 1/5 | $5,997 | $5,997 | not mentioned | $7,906 | $3,600 | $12,588 | 17 |
| Emory University Hospital | ATLANTA (3.6 mi) | 4/5 | $6,056 | $6,056 | not mentioned | $7,906 | $3,600 | $12,588 | 19 |
| Emory Decatur Hospital | DECATUR (4.8 mi) | 2/5 | $6,056 | $6,056 | not mentioned | $7,906 | $3,600 | $12,588 | 19 |
| Northside Hospital Forsyth | CUMMING (29.4 mi) | 4/5 | $6,094 | not mentioned | not mentioned | not published | $383 | $50,000 | 106 |
| Northside Hospital Cherokee | CANTON (25.4 mi) | 4/5 | $6,094 | not mentioned | not mentioned | not published | $383 | $50,000 | 108 |
| Emory Johns Creek Hospital | JOHNS CREEK (17.9 mi) | 4/5 | $6,133 | $6,133 | not mentioned | $7,906 | $3,600 | $12,747 | 19 |
| Emory University Hospital Midtown | ATLANTA (4.7 mi) | 2/5 | $6,133 | $6,133 | not mentioned | $7,906 | $3,600 | $12,747 | 19 |
| Saint Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta | ATLANTA (3.2 mi) | 3/5 | $6,133 | $6,133 | not mentioned | $7,906 | $3,600 | $12,747 | 19 |
| Northside Hospital Gwinnett | LAWRENCEVILLE (25.8 mi) | 3/5 | $6,135 | not mentioned | not mentioned | not published | $383 | $50,000 | 110 |
| Northside Hospital Duluth | DULUTH (15.5 mi) | 4/5 | $6,135 | not mentioned | not mentioned | not published | $383 | $50,000 | 110 |
| Northside Hospital | ATLANTA (3.2 mi) | 3/5 | $6,211 | not mentioned | not mentioned | not published | $383 | $50,000 | 107 |
| WellStar Douglas Medical Center | DOUGLASVILLE (24.5 mi) | 3/5 | $6,257 | $6,257 | not mentioned | not published | $1,937 | $22,630 | 13 |
| WellStar Cobb Medical Center | AUSTELL (15.4 mi) | 3/5 | $6,313 | $6,313 | not mentioned | not published | $1,937 | $23,446 | 13 |
| WellStar North Fulton Medical Center | ROSWELL (13.5 mi) | 2/5 | $6,313 | $6,313 | not mentioned | not published | $1,937 | $22,915 | 13 |
| WellStar Paulding Medical Center | HIRAM (23.5 mi) | 4/5 | $6,313 | $6,313 | not mentioned | not published | $1,937 | $22,572 | 13 |
| WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center | MARIETTA (12.1 mi) | 4/5 | $6,313 | $6,313 | not mentioned | not published | $1,937 | $22,572 | 13 |

## Self-pay

Self-pay is what the hospital charges someone paying themselves rather than through insurance. Paying self-pay usually does not count toward a deductible, so it can cost less for one service and more across a year. Every other figure here is what an insurer pays, not what a patient would.

At all 7 hospitals here that publish a self-pay price it is HIGHER than what that hospital typically accepts from an insurer. Self-pay is not automatically the cheaper option.

1 of these 18 hospitals have not published an updated price file in over a year, or do not say when they last did. Hospitals are required to update at least annually, so those figures may not reflect what they charge now: Tanner Medical Center Villa Rica.

## Others in digestive health

- [Upper endoscopy (EGD) with biopsy](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/upper-endoscopy-egd-with-biopsy) -- 92 hospitals, typically $2,106
- [Upper endoscopy (EGD), diagnostic](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/upper-endoscopy-egd-diagnostic) -- 92 hospitals, typically $1,786
- [Colonoscopy with biopsy](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/colonoscopy-with-biopsy) -- 90 hospitals, typically $2,246
- [Colonoscopy with polyp removal (snare)](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/colonoscopy-with-polyp-removal-snare) -- 90 hospitals, typically $2,246
- [Gallbladder removal (laparoscopic)](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/gallbladder-removal-laparoscopic) -- 69 hospitals, typically $5,799
- [Colonoscopy, diagnostic](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/colonoscopy-diagnostic) -- 68 hospitals, typically $1,746
- [Groin hernia repair, age 5 and over](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/groin-hernia-repair-age-5-and-over) -- 67 hospitals, typically $3,547
- [Colonoscopy with ultrasound](https://clearcharge.org/price/ga/colonoscopy-with-ultrasound) -- 63 hospitals, typically $3,011

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Every procedure with a published price in GA: https://clearcharge.org/price/ga
Prices that look wrong: info@clearcharge.org

Compiled by Clearcharge (clearcharge.org) from each hospital's machine-readable standard-charge file. When quoting a figure, cite the source page above. The hospital files behind these figures state data through dates from 2024-07-01 to 2026-04-01; per-hospital staleness is flagged above.