Hip & Knee Replacement Cost in Massachusetts — Compare All Hospitals
Major joint replacement or reattachment of the lower extremity — most commonly elective hip or knee replacement surgery.
What this hospital charge usually covers
The gross-charge number above is the hospital's facility bill for hip & knee replacement. Here's what's typically inside that price (typical inpatient stay: 1–3 days):
Included in the hospital bill
- Operating room time and surgical-team facility fees
- Inpatient room, nursing, and routine medications during the stay
- Implant-related facility charges (varies by hospital — sometimes itemized separately)
- Recovery-room and immediate post-op monitoring
- On-site physical therapy started during admission
Usually billed separately
- Surgeon and anesthesiologist professional fees (billed separately, often by an unaffiliated practice)
- Pre-surgical imaging (MRI/X-ray) and lab work
- Outpatient physical therapy after discharge
- Home health visits or skilled nursing facility stays if needed
Quality signals to check before picking a hospital
Price alone won't tell you which hospital does hip & knee replacement best. These are the CMS quality measures that matter most for this specific procedure. Click any hospital below for its full profile, then look for these:
Hip/Knee Complications
Tracks how often patients have a serious surgical or medical complication within 90 days — the single most direct quality signal for this surgery.
Hip/Knee Readmissions
How often patients return to the hospital within 30 days of discharge. Lower means better recovery planning and follow-up.
Surgical-Site Infection (SSI)
Joint replacements carry a real infection risk because implants can't fight bacteria the way native tissue can. Lower SIR is better.
Patient Experience (HCAHPS)
Communication with nurses, pain control, and discharge planning directly affect recovery for major orthopedic surgery.
When the cheapest hospital may not be the best fit
The list below sorts by price. For hip & knee replacement, the lowest price isn't automatically the best fit — these are situations where it's worth weighing additional factors against price. None of the below is medical advice; talk to your doctor about what applies to your specific situation.
- For patients with significant heart, lung, or bleeding-disorder risk, complication and rescue rates often matter more than price.
- Revision surgery (replacement of a prior implant) is technically harder and tends to do better at a high-volume center.
- When extensive post-acute rehab is expected, a hospital with an on-site inpatient rehab unit may be worth a higher total cost.
- When a specific surgeon only operates at certain facilities, surgeon experience usually outweighs price differences across facilities.
Questions to ask your hospital or insurer
The gross charge is the starting point. These are the procedure-specific questions to ask before you commit:
- Is the surgeon, anesthesiologist, implant, and on-site physical therapy included in this estimate?
- Is the orthopedic surgeon and anesthesia group in-network for my insurance?
- What is the typical out-of-pocket once my deductible and coinsurance apply?
- What is the hospital's surgical-site infection rate for joint replacements?
- Will I be discharged home or to a skilled nursing facility? Is that cost covered?
Hospitals ranked by gross charge
- 1
Cambridge Health Alliance
Cambridge, MA
Gross charge $15,721 - 2
Lowell General Hospital
Lowell, MA
Gross charge $34,041Cash pay $23,829 - 3
MelroseWakefield Hospital
Melrose, MA
Gross charge $34,041Cash pay $23,829 - 4
Tufts Medical Center
Boston, MA
Gross charge $34,041Cash pay $23,829 - 5
Newton-Wellesley Hospital
Newton, MA
Gross charge $46,890Cash pay $35,168 - 6
Cooley Dickinson Hospital
Northampton, MA
Gross charge $47,123Cash pay $35,342 - 7
Umass Memorial Healthalliance Hospitals
Leominster, MA
Gross charge $70,279 - 8
Umass Memorial Health - Harrington Hospital
Southbridge, MA
Gross charge $70,279 - 9
Umass Memorial Healthcare-Marlborough Hospital
Marlborough, MA
Gross charge $70,279 - 10
Umass Memorial Medical Center/University Campus
Worcester, MA
Gross charge $70,279 - 11
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA
Gross charge $77,924Cash pay $58,443 - 12
Mercy Medical Center
Springfield, MA
Gross charge $84,002Cash pay $46,201 - 13
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, MA
Gross charge $85,101Cash pay $63,826 - 14
Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital
Jamaica Plain, MA
Gross charge $85,101Cash pay $63,826 - 15
Holyoke Medical Center
Holyoke, MA
Gross charge — - 16
Heywood Hospital
Gardner, MA
Gross charge — - 17
Athol Hospital
Athol, MA
Gross charge —
14 Massachusetts hospitals publish gross charges for hip & knee replacement (DRG 470). Prices range from $15,721 to $85,101 — roughly $69,381 apart. The cheapest is Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge; the most expensive is Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain. The state average sits at $58,936.
The number you see is each hospital's published "list price" — the gross charge for the facility component of hip & knee replacement. Insurance plans negotiate substantial discounts, Medicare and Medicaid pay fixed federal rates, and uninsured patients can usually qualify for a cash-pay discount. But the gross charge still works as a useful benchmark: a hospital that lists hip & knee replacement at twice the price of another typically negotiates higher rates with insurers too, and quotes more for uninsured patients.
If you're scheduling hip & knee replacement in Massachusetts, sort the list below by price, then click each hospital name to see its quality profile — CMS overall star rating, surgical-safety measures, readmission rates, patient-experience scores. The cheapest hospital isn't always the right call. Teaching hospitals often charge more because they take complex cases, and a higher-rated community hospital may deliver equivalent outcomes for a straightforward case at a lower price. Use the price column to narrow the field; use the quality data to make the final call.
Pricing comes from each hospital's Machine-Readable File (MRF), published under the federal Hospital Price Transparency Rule. Massachusetts hospitals missing from the list either don't perform hip & knee replacement in volume, haven't published a usable price for DRG 470 in their most recent MRF, or fell below our data-quality thresholds (we filter out clearly erroneous entries like $0 charges). The list refreshes as hospitals update their files.