DRG 460 · Musculoskeletal

Spinal Fusion Cost in Tennessee — Compare All Hospitals

Spinal fusion surgery (non-cervical), used to treat severe degenerative disc disease, scoliosis, or vertebral instability.

State average
$120,918
gross charge · DRG 460
Hospitals
9
with published pricing
Price range
$33,419 – $142,388
low to high
Lowest $33,419 Highest $142,388

Tennessee hospitals price spinal fusion (Medicare DRG 460) anywhere from $33,419 to $142,388 — a $108,969 gap between the cheapest and most expensive option. The cheapest is Unity Medical Center in Manchester; the most expensive is Highpoint Health – Riverview with Ascension Saint Thomas in Carthage. The state average sits at $120,918.

Gross charges are the hospital's list price for the facility part of your stay — the room, operating-room time, nursing, and equipment. 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 spinal fusion at twice the price of another typically negotiates higher rates with insurers too, and quotes more for uninsured patients.

If you're scheduling spinal fusion in Tennessee, 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. Tennessee hospitals missing from the list either don't perform spinal fusion in volume, haven't published a usable price for DRG 460 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.

What this hospital charge usually covers

The gross-charge number above is the hospital's facility bill for spinal fusion. Here's what's typically inside that price (typical inpatient stay: 2–5 days):

Included in the hospital bill

  • Operating-room time (typically 3–6 hours for a single-level fusion)
  • Inpatient room, nursing, medications during the stay
  • Recovery-room and immediate post-op monitoring
  • Intraoperative neuromonitoring (varies by hospital)

Usually billed separately

  • Surgeon, anesthesiologist, and assistant-surgeon professional fees
  • Pedicle-screw / cage / bone-graft hardware (sometimes itemized separately, sometimes bundled)
  • Pre-surgical MRI, CT, and bone-density scans
  • Outpatient physical therapy after discharge

Quality signals to check before picking a hospital

Price alone won't tell you which hospital does spinal fusion 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:

Surgical-Site Infection

Spine hardware infections often require additional surgery to remove and replace — the stakes for SSI prevention are high.

Patient Safety Composite (PSI-90)

Captures the patient-safety indicators most relevant to long, complex inpatient surgery (DVT, post-op respiratory failure, accidental punctures).

30-Day Readmissions (hospital-wide)

Reflects discharge planning quality — important since spine fusion patients often have complex pain-management needs.

When the cheapest hospital may not be the best fit

The list below sorts by price. For spinal fusion, 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.

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:

Hospitals ranked by gross charge

  1. 1

    Unity Medical Center

    Manchester, TN

    Gross charge $33,419
    Cash pay $26,735
  2. 2

    Cookeville Regional Medical Center

    Cookeville, TN

    Gross charge $58,124
    Cash pay $35,630
  3. 3
    Gross charge $142,388
    Cash pay $46,419
  4. 4
    Gross charge $142,388
    Cash pay $41,720
  5. 5
    Gross charge $142,388
    Cash pay $46,419
  6. 6

    Starr Regional Medical Center Athens

    Athens, TN

    Gross charge $142,388
    Cash pay $27,908
  7. 7
    Gross charge $142,388
    Cash pay $35,455
  8. 8
    Gross charge $142,388
    Cash pay $46,419
  9. 9
    Gross charge $142,388
    Cash pay $46,419
  10. 10

    Cumberland Medical Center

    Crossville, TN

    Gross charge
  11. 11

    Roane Medical Center

    Harriman, TN

    Gross charge
  12. 12

    Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge

    Oak Ridge, TN

    Gross charge
  13. 13
    Gross charge
  14. 14

    Leconte Medical Center

    Sevierville, TN

    Gross charge
  15. 15

    Memorial Healthcare System, Inc

    Chattanooga, TN

    Gross charge
  16. 16

    Fort Loudoun Medical Center

    Lenoir City, TN

    Gross charge
  17. 17

    Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center

    Knoxville, TN

    Gross charge
  18. 18

    Parkwest Medical Center

    Knoxville, TN

    Gross charge
  19. 19
    Gross charge

Compare spinal fusion pricing in nearby states