Itemized  ·  Procedures  ·  Lumbar epidural steroid injection

Lumbar epidural steroid injection cost.

What lumbar epidural steroid injection costs at 137 US hospitals across 63 metros, pulled from the federally-mandated machine-readable files each hospital is required to publish. Cash-pay range: $59 to $18,771 (318× spread). CPT code 64483.

Cheapest cash price
$59
Jefferson Regional Medical Center
Jefferson Hills, PA
vs.
Most expensive cash price
$18,771
HCA Houston Healthcare Kingwood
Houston, TX

Top 5 cheapest hospitals for lumbar esi.

# Hospital Cash price
1
Jefferson Regional Medical Center
Jefferson Hills, PA
 $59 to $2,740
2
Adventist Health Glendale
Glendale, CA
 $63 to $1,661
3
Adventist Health White Memorial Montebello
Montebello, CA
 $73 to $110
4
Allegheny General Hospital
Pittsburgh, PA
 $75 to $2,706
5
Seattle Children's Hospital
Seattle, WA
 $172 to $30,972

See all 137 hospitals, your insurance, your zip.

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What is lumbar epidural steroid injection?

Steroid injection into the lumbar spine for back/leg pain.

An outpatient injection used for radiating low-back pain (sciatica), herniated disc, or spinal stenosis. About 15-30 minutes; image-guided. Often a series of three.

Dramatic price spreads between hospital outpatient departments and pain-management clinics — sometimes 10x. The published rate is the facility fee; the physician's fee is usually billed separately.

Why prices vary this much.

The same lumbar epidural steroid injection on the same equipment can cost 318 times more at one hospital than another. Three reasons.

Chargemasters are arbitrary. The "sticker price" hospitals publish was never designed for consumers. It's a starting number for negotiation with insurance companies, with adjustments stacked on top for decades. Almost no one pays the chargemaster.

Negotiated rates are confidential bilateral contracts. Each insurance company negotiates its own rate with each hospital. Aetna at Hospital A might pay 60% of what Cigna pays at the same hospital for the same code. You see one rate; the hospital sees dozens.

Cash pay is a separate thing entirely. Many hospitals offer a "self-pay" or "cash-pay" rate that's dramatically cheaper than what they'd bill insurance, especially for elective imaging. If you have a high-deductible plan, paying cash and filing for reimbursement (or just eating the cost) can be the cheapest path.

What to ask the hospital before you book.

The four questions that surface hidden costs:

1. "Is the price you're quoting me the all-in price, or just the facility fee?" Hospitals often quote the facility fee and bill the radiologist or anesthesiologist separately on a different invoice.

2. "What's the cash-pay rate vs the rate you'd bill my insurance?" Don't assume insurance is cheaper. For high-deductible plans, cash pay is often the better deal.

3. "If I'm uninsured, do you have a financial assistance policy I qualify for?" Federally-tax-exempt hospitals are required to have one, and it can knock 50-100% off the bill for households under specific income thresholds.

4. "If I get a bill and the price is different than what was quoted, what's your dispute process?" Get the answer before you book, in writing if possible. If the bill comes in higher than the quote, you have leverage.

Common questions.

How much does lumbar epidural steroid injection cost in 2026?+
Cash-pay prices for lumbar epidural steroid injection (CPT 64483) range from $59 to $18,771 across the 137 hospitals in our dataset. The price varies by hospital, payer, and whether you pay cash or use insurance. Cash-pay rates are often dramatically cheaper than the rate insurance would pay at the same hospital, which is one of the more uncomfortable truths in this data.
Why does lumbar epidural steroid injection cost so much more at some hospitals than others?+
Three reasons. First, hospital chargemasters (the "sticker price") are largely arbitrary and were never designed for consumers. Second, hospitals in expensive real-estate markets (Manhattan, San Francisco, Boston) carry higher facility overhead. Third, the negotiated rate each insurance company pays is the result of confidential bilateral contracts, so the same procedure on the same machine can cost 5x more depending on which insurance card you hand over.
Is the cash price always the cheapest option?+
Not always, but more often than you'd expect. For lumbar epidural steroid injection in our dataset, the cash price beats the negotiated insurance rate at many hospitals, especially for patients with high-deductible plans. Always ask the hospital for both numbers before you decide which to use. If you have a low-deductible plan and the procedure is in-network, insurance is usually still cheaper.
What does the published price include?+
For lumbar epidural steroid injection (CPT 64483), the published rate generally includes the procedure itself plus the immediately associated facility and professional fees as the hospital has assigned them. It does NOT include separate physician consultations, follow-up visits, prescriptions, or any complications that require additional treatment. Always ask: "Is this the all-in price, or just the facility fee?"
Where does this data come from?+
Federal law (45 CFR 180.50, the Hospital Price Transparency Rule) requires every US hospital to publish a machine-readable file with their negotiated rates and cash prices. We download those files directly from each hospital, parse them, and present them in a comparable format. No surveys, no estimates, no scraped review sites. The data is current as of the latest publication date for each hospital.