California procedure costs
378 hospitals · 15,736 Medicare providers · 6,723 procedure codes with California locality adjustments.
The short answer
California has 378 hospitals and 15,736 Medicare-billing providers across 6,723 procedure codes. The average Medicare payment per procedure is $347.40; the average submitted (billed) charge is $1,972.60.
- Procedure codes
- 6,723
- Providers per hospital
- 41.6
- Billed-to-Medicare ratio
- 5.7x
- Markup rank
- #24 of 56
Source: CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, 2023.
About this dataset, nationwide
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the 2023 Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners dataset records payments for 9,297 procedure codes billed across 5,426 hospitals in 56 states and territories; see our methodology for how each figure is sourced and computed.
California against every US state
Where the state's average Medicare payment per procedure falls, all 56 tracked jurisdictions
$347 higher than 98% of 56 states
Each bar is a $25-wide band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, 2023
The priciest procedures in California
Highest average Medicare payment per procedure billed in California. Hover any bar for the exact figure; even these top procedures are billed well above what Medicare reimburses.
Top procedures by Medicare payment - California
The cost spread in California
The highest- and lowest-paying procedures Medicare reimbursed in California, side by side.
Most expensive
Least expensive
Top Procedures by Volume
California Healthcare Cost Landscape
CMS lists 378 hospitals in California across 236 cities. LOS ANGELES holds 19 (5%). The three densest cities together hold 11% of the state roster. Statewide that is 15,736 Medicare-billing providers, 41.6 per listed hospital.
266 hospitals carry a CMS overall star rating (25 five-star, 71 four-star, 83 three-star, 56 two-star, 31 one-star) ; five-star share among rated facilities is 9%. 112 hospitals in this extract have no published overall rating.
Facility-type mix: Acute Care Hospitals 277 (73%); Psychiatric 40 (11%); Critical Access Hospitals 38 (10%); Childrens 10 (3%).
Among the 30 highest-volume procedure codes billed in California, Drugs (Administered) leads with 90.4M services (52% of this top-volume slice) across 16 codes. Next is Office Visit at 10%.
Submitted charges average $1,972.60 against $347.40 Medicare payment (5.7x billed-to-Medicare). That ratio ranks #24 of 56 jurisdictions with both figures in this extract. Average Medicare payment itself is #1 of 56.
Volume leaders are not the high-payment codes. Provision Of Covid-19 Test, Nonprescription Self-Administered And Self-Collected Use, Fda Approved, Authorized Or Cleared, One Test Count is in the top volume slice but not the highest Medicare payments; Sipuleucel-T, Minimum Of 50 Million Autologous Cd54+ Cells Activated With Pap-Gm-Csf, Including Leukapheresis And All Other Preparatory Procedures, Per Infusion is in the high-payment set without matching volume rank.
These are CMS roster and claims aggregates for California, not a quote for any patient, plan, or visit. See the methodology and CMS Medicare Provider Charge Data.
Where California hospitals sit
City of the CMS hospital roster, not a travel or care recommendation. 236 distinct cities appear on 378 listed facilities.
| City | Hospitals | Share of state roster |
|---|---|---|
| LOS ANGELES | 19 | 5% |
| SAN FRANCISCO | 13 | 3% |
| SACRAMENTO | 10 | 3% |
| SAN DIEGO | 8 | 2% |
| BAKERSFIELD | 6 | 2% |
| LONG BEACH | 6 | 2% |
| ANAHEIM | 5 | 1% |
| FRESNO | 5 | 1% |
Nationwide states with similar hospital scale or Medicare payment
Two CMS-extract-derived peer sets for California: nearest hospital inventory and nearest statewide average Medicare payment. Not clinical substitutes: registry-scale and payment neighborhoods only.
Similar CMS hospital count
Nearest states with ≥5 hospitals (378 here).
Similar average Medicare payment
Nearest states with published averages ($347.40 here).
Hospitals in California
How California Compares Nationally
California's average Medicare payment is #1 of 56 in this extract. Submitted-over-Medicare markup ranks #24 of 56 (5.7x). Hospital-count peers (nearest CMS roster size to 378): Texas 465, Florida 222, Ohio 196, Illinois 194. Payment peers (nearest average Medicare payment to $347.40): New York $313.07, Maryland $310.43, Arizona $286.66, Pennsylvania $284.85.
Those peer sets are registry neighborhoods, not clinical substitutes. Markup rank and payment rank can diverge: a jurisdiction can sit high on billed-to-Medicare while sitting mid-pack on payment, or the reverse. Figures remain CMS averages for California, not an out-of-pocket quote.
Related registry pages
California averages sit on two maps: Medicare payment and submitted-over-Medicare markup.
- Procedure codes billed in this extract, in national volume order. Browse procedures
- State payment rank versus markup rank on the rankings hub. Rankings
- How these figures are sourced. Methodology
Figures here are California CMS averages, not a quote for any patient, plan, or visit.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Every figure on PlainProcedure is rendered directly from CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, the data changelog, or report a data error.