Hip replacement clinicians

Understanding CMS Data

CMS's "Hip replacement" category combines specific billing codes for hip replacement surgery to calculate the number of times each clinician billed Medicare for a "Hip replacement." These include first-time hip replacement, partial hip replacement, and revision of a previous hip replacement. The category does not include every operation that implants a hip prosthesis: CMS leaves out the billing code that covers hip replacement to treat a broken hip, so those operations do not count toward this total. CMS reports only procedures that clinicians billed to Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Therefore, CMS's procedure volume data does not include procedures that clinicians may have performed on patients who have other health care coverage (e.g., commercial insurance, self-pay, or the VA). Billing variation and coding errors can also affect CMS's data. Therefore, the number of procedures that CMS reports for a clinician may be higher or lower than the actual number of hip replacements a clinician performed during the reporting period. Lastly, only clinicians with a primary specialty of Orthopedic Surgery, Sports Medicine, or Hand Surgery (as reported to Medicare) are presented.

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (August 18, 2026 release).