Hip & Knee Replacement Cost in Iowa — 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
Montgomery County Memorial Hospital + Clinics
Red Oak, IA
Gross charge $12,743Cash pay $8,920 - 2
Burgess Health Center
Onawa, IA
Gross charge $31,374Cash pay $25,099 - 3
Buena Vista Regional Medical Center
Storm Lake, IA
Gross charge $33,207Cash pay $26,565 - 4
Winnmed
Decorah, IA
Gross charge $34,532Cash pay $24,172 - 5
Waverly Health Center
Waverly, IA
Gross charge $36,667Cash pay $19,067 - 6
Cass County Memorial Hospital
Atlantic, IA
Gross charge $36,768Cash pay $25,738 - 7
Wayne County Hospital
Corydon, IA
Gross charge $37,395 - 8
Spencer Municipal Hospital
Spencer, IA
Gross charge $43,300Cash pay $32,475Medicare pays (avg) $13,745 - 9
Myrtue Medical Center
Harlan, IA
Gross charge $43,925Cash pay $25,477 - 10
Iowa Specialty Hospital - Clarion
Clarion, IA
Gross charge $49,918Cash pay $29,951 - 11
Floyd County Medical Center
Charles City, IA
Gross charge $51,230Cash pay $20,492 - 12
MercyOne Newton Medical Center
Newton, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 13
MercyOne Genesis Davenport Medical Center
Davenport, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327Medicare pays (avg) $11,469 - 14
MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center (Acute Care)
Mason City, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327Medicare pays (avg) $12,743 - 15
MercyOne Waterloo Medical Center
Waterloo, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327Medicare pays (avg) $12,347 - 16
MercyOne Dubuque Medical Center (Acute Care)
Dubuque, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327Medicare pays (avg) $11,753 - 17
Mercyone Clinton Medical Center
Clinton, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 18
Mercyone Siouxland Medical Center
Sioux City, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 19
Hancock County Health System
Britt, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 20
Franklin General Hospital
Hampton, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 21
MercyOne Genesis DeWitt Medical Center
Dewitt, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 22
MercyOne Elkader Medical Center
Elkader, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 23
MercyOne New Hampton Medical Center
New Hampton, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 24
MercyOne Oelwein Medical Center
Oelwein, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 25
Mercyone Centerville Medical Center
Centerville, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 26
MercyOne Dyersville Medical Center
Dyersville, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 27
Hansen Family Hospital
Iowa Falls, IA
Gross charge $58,965Cash pay $38,327 - 28
Cherokee Regional Medical Center
Cherokee, IA
Gross charge $61,852Cash pay $49,482 - 29
Mahaska Health
Oskaloosa, IA
Gross charge $62,264Cash pay $52,924 - 30
St Anthony Regional Hospital
Carroll, IA
Gross charge $71,063 - 31
Mercy Medical Center Cedar Rapids (Acute Care)
Cedar Rapids, IA
Gross charge $81,275Cash pay $52,829Medicare pays (avg) $11,633 - 32
Jefferson County Health Center
Fairfield, IA
Gross charge $112,795Cash pay $67,677 - 33
UnityPoint Health - Marshalltown Hospital
Marshalltown, IA
Gross charge — - 34
Trinity Muscatine
Muscatine, IA
Gross charge — - 35
Trinity Regional Medical Center
Fort Dodge, IA
Gross charge — - 36
Chi Health Mercy Council Bluffs
Council Bluffs, IA
Gross charge — - 37
University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center Downtown
Iowa City, IA
Gross charge — - 38
St Lukes Hospital (Acute Care)
Cedar Rapids, IA
Gross charge —Medicare pays (avg) $11,511 - 39
Methodist Jennie Edmundson
Council Bluffs, IA
Gross charge —Medicare pays (avg) $11,952 - 40
UnityPoint Health - Iowa Methodist Medical Center
Des Moines, IA
Gross charge —Medicare pays (avg) $11,344 - 41
UnityPoint Health - Trinity Bettendorf Hospital
Bettendorf, IA
Gross charge — - 42
Allen Hospital
Waterloo, IA
Gross charge — - 43
Finley Hospital
Dubuque, IA
Gross charge —Medicare pays (avg) $11,134 - 44
UnityPoint Health - Grinnell Regional Medical Center
Grinnell, IA
Gross charge — - 45
Grundy County Memorial Hospital
Grundy Center, IA
Gross charge — - 46
Chi Health - Mercy Corning
Corning, IA
Gross charge — - 47Gross charge —
- 48
Chi Health Missouri Valley
Missouri Valley, IA
Gross charge — - 49
Clarke County Hospital
Osceola, IA
Gross charge — - 50
Henry County Health Center
Mount Pleasant, IA
Gross charge — - 51
St Lukes Regional Medical Center
Sioux City, IA
Gross charge — - 52
Community Memorial Hospital Medical Center
Sumner, IA
Gross charge —
Iowa hospitals price hip & knee replacement (Medicare DRG 470) anywhere from $12,743 to $112,795 — a $100,051 gap between the cheapest and most expensive option. The cheapest is Montgomery County Memorial Hospital + Clinics in Red Oak; the most expensive is Jefferson County Health Center in Fairfield. The state average sits at $54,492.
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 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 Iowa, 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. Iowa 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.