Where each line of the bill comes from

Every estimate on this site is the sum of separate lines, each computed from its own public file: the anesthesia from the CMS base units and the 2026 conversion factor of the Medicare locality, the operating room from the CMS October 2026 rate of the procedure's codes adjusted with the FY 2026 wage index, and the weeks after from what you enter. The surgeon's fee is the one line no public file prices: it counts only when you type the figure of your quote. One script reads the CMS files and writes the tables the pages compute from; nothing is typed by hand.

The cost pages that rank first give one figure or one undated range with nothing to separate it, and end on a consultation or a credit form; this site splits each bill into the surgeon's fee, the anesthesia and the operating room, prices the last two from Medicare's 2026 rate files adjusted to your metro area, lets you add the surgeon from your own quote, names and dates every figure, and asks you for nothing.

1. The surgeon's fee

Each practice sets its own surgeon's fee for cosmetic work, and no public file publishes those fees, nationally or by metro area. Medicare does not pay for cosmetic surgery, so its physician fee schedule gives no cosmetic fee either. The site therefore leaves the surgeon out of every benchmark: the totals on the pages are the operating room and the anesthesia only. When you type a surgeon's quote in the calculator, it is added as the first line of the bill, and the quote checker shows what a single all-inclusive quote leaves for the surgeon once the other two lines are counted at Medicare rates.

2. The operating room

Medicare publishes what it pays the facility for each procedure code. In an ambulatory surgery center, the national rate is in Addendum AA; in a hospital outpatient department, in Addendum B. We use the October 2026 editions. Each national rate is adjusted to the metro area as the CY 2026 final rule prescribes: for a surgery center, 50 % of the rate is multiplied by the wage index of the area, taken before the rural floor and reclassification; for a hospital, 60 % is multiplied by the final wage index of the area (FY 2026 Table 3).

When a session has several codes, a surgery center is paid in full for the code with the highest rate and at 50 % for each other code that carries the multiple procedure flag (42 CFR 416.172(e)). In a hospital, a code with status J1 is a comprehensive payment that packages the rest of the session: only the highest J1 rate is paid. The CMS 5 % cap on a year-to-year fall of an area's wage index is not applied; it moves few areas, by a little.

3. The anesthesia

Anesthesia for a procedure is billed under an anesthesia code with a fixed number of base units (CMS base unit file; the latest edition posted on the CMS site is that of 2022). Time is added in units of 15 minutes, counted to one decimal. The sum is multiplied by the conversion factor of the Medicare locality for 2026 (CMS Anesthesiologists Center, non-qualifying column), $20.50 at national level. A session of several procedures is billed once, with the highest base units and the time of the whole session.

The default time is the median intra-service time CMS records for the procedure's codes in the 2026 physician work time file (CMS-1832-F). Where CMS records none, for liposuction, the Brazilian butt lift and the facelift, it is the mean operating time of a published series (liposuction, facelift). Real anesthesia time also counts the minutes before the incision and after the closing, so it is longer: the calculator lets you type the time you were quoted.

4. The weeks after

Unpaid days off work are multiplied by a daily pay, by default the median usual weekly earnings of full-time workers in the 2026, quarter 2 release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, $1,251, divided by five (series LEU0252881500). Garments, medicines and help at home are what you enter. Financing uses the Federal Reserve's G.19 average rates and the deferred interest rule of Regulation Z.

5. A worked example

A breast augmentation in Miami in a surgery center. The national rate of CPT 19325 is $3,172; the wage index of CBSA 33124 before floor is 0.9488, so the factor is 50 % × 0.9488 + 50 % = 0.9744, and the room comes to $3,090. Anesthesia code 00402 carries 5 base units; the CMS median time of 60 minutes adds 4 units; at the factor of $22.69 for the locality miami, that makes $204. Room and anesthesia: $3,295, before the surgeon's fee of your quote.

6. The procedures and their codes

7. The metro areas

8. Limits

• Medicare does not pay for cosmetic surgery (42 CFR 411.15(h)). Its rates for the same codes are a public benchmark, not what a cosmetic patient is charged: private facilities and anesthesia groups set their own prices, usually higher.
• The surgeon's fee is not estimated. Each practice sets it, so a benchmark here, room and anesthesia only, is never the price of the operation.
• The codes of a real operation may differ from those used here, and implants, garments, tests and follow-up visits can be billed separately.
• Hair transplants, neck lifts, dermal fillers and breast reductions are not estimated: no CMS file gives the codes, the time or the rate needed.
• Nothing here is medical advice or a quote. Only a surgeon who has examined you can say what you need and what it will cost.

Corrections: contact page.