DRG 549 · Musculoskeletal

Joint Infection Cost in Iowa — Compare All Hospitals

A hospital stay for a bacterial infection inside a joint, such as the knee or hip, which causes severe pain and swelling. Treatment typically combines IV antibiotics with a procedure to drain or wash out the joint.

State average
$15,258
gross charge · DRG 549
Hospitals
7
with published pricing
Price range
$5,312 – $46,394
low to high
Lowest $5,312 Highest $46,394

Iowa hospitals price joint infection (Medicare DRG 549) anywhere from $5,312 to $46,394 — a $41,082 gap between the cheapest and most expensive option. The cheapest is Mahaska Health in Oskaloosa; the most expensive is Mercy Medical Center Cedar Rapids (Acute Care) in Cedar Rapids. The state average sits at $15,258.

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 joint infection at twice the price of another typically negotiates higher rates with insurers too, and quotes more for uninsured patients.

If you're scheduling joint infection 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 joint infection in volume, haven't published a usable price for DRG 549 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.

Hospitals ranked by gross charge

  1. 1

    Mahaska Health

    Oskaloosa, IA

    Gross charge $5,312
    Cash pay $4,515
  2. 2

    Winnmed

    Decorah, IA

    Gross charge $6,751
    Cash pay $4,725
  3. 3
    Gross charge $7,975
    Cash pay $5,583
  4. 4

    Waverly Health Center

    Waverly, IA

    Gross charge $8,982
    Cash pay $4,671
  5. 5

    Mitchell County Regional Health Center

    Osage, IA

    Gross charge $12,879
    Cash pay $11,591
  6. 6

    Jefferson County Health Center

    Fairfield, IA

    Gross charge $18,512
    Cash pay $11,107
  7. 7

    Mercy Medical Center Cedar Rapids (Acute Care)

    Cedar Rapids, IA

    Gross charge $46,394
    Cash pay $30,156
  8. 8

    UnityPoint Health - Marshalltown Hospital

    Marshalltown, IA

    Gross charge
  9. 9

    Trinity Muscatine

    Muscatine, IA

    Gross charge
  10. 10

    Trinity Regional Medical Center

    Fort Dodge, IA

    Gross charge
  11. 11

    Chi Health Mercy Council Bluffs

    Council Bluffs, IA

    Gross charge
  12. 12
    Gross charge
  13. 13

    St Lukes Hospital (Acute Care)

    Cedar Rapids, IA

    Gross charge
  14. 14

    Methodist Jennie Edmundson

    Council Bluffs, IA

    Gross charge
  15. 15

    UnityPoint Health - Iowa Methodist Medical Center

    Des Moines, IA

    Gross charge
  16. 16

    UnityPoint Health - Trinity Bettendorf Hospital

    Bettendorf, IA

    Gross charge
  17. 17

    Allen Hospital

    Waterloo, IA

    Gross charge
  18. 18

    Finley Hospital

    Dubuque, IA

    Gross charge
  19. 19
    Gross charge
  20. 20
    Gross charge
  21. 21

    Chi Health - Mercy Corning

    Corning, IA

    Gross charge
  22. 22
    Gross charge
  23. 23

    Chi Health Missouri Valley

    Missouri Valley, IA

    Gross charge
  24. 24

    Clarke County Hospital

    Osceola, IA

    Gross charge
  25. 25

    Henry County Health Center

    Mount Pleasant, IA

    Gross charge
  26. 26

    St Lukes Regional Medical Center

    Sioux City, IA

    Gross charge
  27. 27
    Gross charge

Compare joint infection pricing in nearby states