Spinal Fusion Cost in Tennessee — Compare All Hospitals
Spinal fusion surgery (non-cervical), used to treat severe degenerative disc disease, scoliosis, or vertebral instability.
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.
- For multi-level fusion or revision surgery, surgeon and hospital volume matter substantially — worth weighing against price.
- For prior failed spine surgery, high-volume academic centers tend to offer better outcomes on complex revisions.
- For patients with significant medical comorbidities (cardiac, pulmonary, diabetes), the hospital with the better PSI-90 score is usually worth the price difference.
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:
- Are all hardware (screws, cages, bone graft) costs included in this estimate?
- How many spinal fusions at this level does the surgeon perform per year?
- What is the expected length of stay, and what happens to the bill if I stay longer?
- Will I need post-discharge inpatient rehab, and is that estimated separately?
Hospitals ranked by gross charge
- 1
Unity Medical Center
Manchester, TN
Gross charge $33,419Cash pay $26,735 - 2
Cookeville Regional Medical Center
Cookeville, TN
Gross charge $58,124Cash pay $35,630Medicare pays (avg) $23,104 - 3
Southern Tennessee Regional Health System Winchester
Winchester, TN
Gross charge $132,762Cash pay $32,792 - 4
Highpoint Health-Sumner with Ascension Saint Thomas
Gallatin, TN
Gross charge $142,388Cash pay $46,419 - 5Gross charge $142,388Cash pay $41,720
- 6
Starr Regional Medical Center Athens
Athens, TN
Gross charge $142,388Cash pay $27,908 - 7
Southern Tennessee Regional Health System Lawrenceburg
Lawrenceburg, TN
Gross charge $142,388Cash pay $35,455 - 8
Highpoint Health-Trousdale With Ascension Saint
Hartsville, TN
Gross charge $142,388Cash pay $46,419 - 9Gross charge $142,388Cash pay $46,419
- 10
Johnson City Medical Center
Johnson City, TN
Gross charge $278,284Cash pay $41,743Medicare pays (avg) $21,340 - 11
Roane Medical Center
Harriman, TN
Gross charge — - 12
LaFollette Medical Center
La Follette, TN
Gross charge — - 13
Jefferson Memorial Hospital
Jefferson City, TN
Gross charge — - 14Gross charge —
- 15
North Knoxville Medical Center
Powell, TN
Gross charge —Medicare pays (avg) $20,102 - 16
Parkwest Medical Center
Knoxville, TN
Gross charge —Medicare pays (avg) $21,810 - 17
Affiliate of Vitruvian Health
Cleveland, TN
Gross charge — - 18
Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown
Nashville, TN
Gross charge —Medicare pays (avg) $19,991 - 19
Maury Regional Medical Center (Critical Access)
Lewisburg, TN
Gross charge — - 20
Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge
Oak Ridge, TN
Gross charge — - 21
Claiborne Medical Center
Tazewell, TN
Gross charge — - 22
Leconte Medical Center
Sevierville, TN
Gross charge — - 23
Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center
Knoxville, TN
Gross charge — - 24
Memorial Healthcare System, Inc
Chattanooga, TN
Gross charge — - 25
University Health System, Inc
Knoxville, TN
Gross charge —Medicare pays (avg) $25,471
Tennessee hospitals price spinal fusion (Medicare DRG 460) anywhere from $33,419 to $278,284 — a $244,865 gap between the cheapest and most expensive option. The cheapest is Unity Medical Center in Manchester; the most expensive is Johnson City Medical Center in Johnson City. The state average sits at $135,692.
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.