Hospital · CCN 340051
Watauga Medical Center
336 Deerfield Road, Boone, NC 28607 · Watauga County
Part of UNC Health Care System
Micropolitan area core: primary flow within an urban cluster of 10,000 to 49,999
26 admission types 44 outpatient services price file: failed
Billed per dollar paid, all admissions
2.55×
$21.1M billed against $8.3M paid across 592 Medicare discharges; the national figure is 5.03×.
3.6%
of adults in Watauga County have medical debt in collections
12.1%
uninsured in the county · state 11.2%
$62K
median household income
2.5×
billed ÷ paid, inpatient, summed over the county's hospitals in the Medicare file (1 in the inpatient or outpatient file)ⓘ
33.0%
obesity in the countyⓘ
9.8%
diagnosed diabetes (PLACES)
6.3%
coronary heart disease (PLACES)
—
median age · — below poverty (ACS)
01 · Admissions
What it billed Medicare, by admission type
Average charge submitted and average total payment per discharge, 2024. Rows under 11 discharges are suppressed by CMS. The last column is the hospital's ratio against its state's for the same admission.
DRG
Admission
Discharges
Charge
Paid
Billed ÷ paid
871
Septicemia or severe sepsis without mv >96 hours with mcc
78
$37,413
$18,923
2.0× st 3.5×
291
Heart failure and shock with mcc
54
$22,548
$11,893
1.9× st 3.2×
470
Major hip and knee joint replacement or reattachment of lower extremity without mcc
46
$54,819
$17,509
3.1× st 4.5×
193
Simple pneumonia and pleurisy with mcc
35
$27,936
$12,112
2.3× st 3.5×
177
Respiratory infections and inflammations with mcc
34
$35,580
$15,777
2.3× st 3.3×
522
Hip replacement with principal diagnosis of hip fracture without mcc
23
$53,118
$19,598
2.7× st 4.6×
481
Hip and femur procedures except major joint with cc
23
$55,186
$20,066
2.8× st 4.4×
065
Intracranial hemorrhage or cerebral infarction with cc or tpa in 24 hours
23
$27,722
$9,614
2.9× st 4.2×
309
Cardiac arrhythmia and conduction disorders with cc
22
$16,567
$7,082
2.3× st 3.4×
322
Percutaneous cardiovascular procedures with intraluminal device without mcc
19
$57,369
$16,706
3.4× st 5.5×
287
Circulatory disorders except ami, with cardiac catheterization without mcc
19
$31,964
$9,989
3.2× st 4.6×
194
Simple pneumonia and pleurisy with cc
19
$17,257
$7,797
2.2× st 3.7×
308
Cardiac arrhythmia and conduction disorders with mcc
17
$24,690
$11,397
2.2× st 3.6×
178
Respiratory infections and inflammations with cc
16
$25,682
$9,411
2.7× st 3.6×
690
Kidney and urinary tract infections without mcc
16
$20,123
$7,748
2.6× st 3.5×
641
Miscellaneous disorders of nutrition, metabolism, fluids and electrolytes without mcc
16
$15,296
$7,494
2.0× st 3.6×
698
Other kidney and urinary tract diagnoses with mcc
16
$28,683
$15,627
1.8× st 3.0×
392
Esophagitis, gastroenteritis and miscellaneous digestive disorders without mcc
15
$24,304
$7,523
3.2× st 3.6×
190
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with mcc
14
$29,962
$10,408
2.9× st 3.6×
689
Kidney and urinary tract infections with mcc
14
$20,211
$11,104
1.8× st 3.3×
378
Gastrointestinal hemorrhage with cc
14
$24,183
$9,088
2.7× st 3.9×
483
Major joint or limb reattachment procedures of upper extremities
12
$82,826
$23,218
3.6× st 4.5×
189
Pulmonary edema and respiratory failure
12
$36,319
$12,152
3.0× st 3.7×
208
Respiratory system diagnosis with ventilator support <=96 hours
12
$118,069
$32,853
3.6× st 3.6×
280
Acute myocardial infarction, discharged alive with mcc
12
$37,695
$14,839
2.5× st 3.6×
603
Cellulitis without mcc
11
$19,753
$8,556
2.3× st 3.0×
02 · Outpatient
Outpatient services
Comprehensive APCs, Medicare's outpatient payment groups: submitted charge against what Medicare allowed, per service.
APC
Service
Services
Charge
Allowed
Billed ÷ allowed
5115
Level 5 Musculoskeletal Procedures
247
$45,451
$12,163
3.7×
5491
Level 1 Intraocular Procedures
200
$7,519
$2,137
3.5×
8011
Comprehensive Observation Services
186
$11,134
$2,518
4.4×
5302
Level 2 Upper GI Procedures
89
$10,902
$1,726
6.3×
5114
Level 4 Musculoskeletal Procedures
83
$32,920
$6,668
4.9×
5072
Level 2 Excision/ Biopsy/ Incision and Drainage
75
$9,927
$1,511
6.6×
5374
Level 4 Urology and Related Services
64
$14,962
$3,224
4.6×
5191
Level 1 Endovascular Procedures
64
$19,054
$3,042
6.3×
5361
Level 1 Laparoscopy and Related Services
61
$25,436
$5,307
4.8×
5375
Level 5 Urology and Related Services
50
$24,128
$4,669
5.2×
5116
Level 6 Musculoskeletal Procedures
43
$63,839
$17,331
3.7×
5373
Level 3 Urology and Related Services
32
$6,857
$1,898
3.6×
5183
Level 3 Vascular Procedures
31
$14,674
$2,971
4.9×
5113
Level 3 Musculoskeletal Procedures
31
$19,781
$3,017
6.6×
5431
Level 1 Nerve Procedures
27
$11,992
$1,799
6.7×
5341
Level 1 Abdominal/Peritoneal/Biliary and Related Procedures
24
$18,927
$3,224
5.9×
5112
Level 2 Musculoskeletal Procedures
21
$7,285
$1,498
4.9×
5223
Level 3 Pacemaker and Similar Procedures
21
$27,995
$9,944
2.8×
5154
Level 4 Airway Endoscopy
18
$21,209
$3,336
6.4×
5155
Level 5 Airway Endoscopy
18
$34,381
$6,379
5.4×
5182
Level 2 Vascular Procedures
17
$7,634
$1,493
5.1×
5092
Level 2 Breast/Lymphatic Surgery and Related Procedures
15
$39,118
$6,078
6.4×
5193
Level 3 Endovascular Procedures
14
$43,257
$9,629
4.5×
5503
Level 3 Extraocular, Repair, and Plastic Eye Procedures
14
$13,336
$2,178
6.1×
5222
Level 2 Pacemaker and Similar Procedures
12
$37,710
$7,918
4.8×
5091
Level 1 Breast/Lymphatic Surgery and Related Procedures
—
—
—
—
5414
Level 4 Gynecologic Procedures
—
—
—
—
5415
Level 5 Gynecologic Procedures
—
—
—
—
5163
Level 3 ENT Procedures
—
—
—
—
5465
Level 5 Neurostimulator and Related Procedures
—
—
—
—
5073
Level 3 Excision/ Biopsy/ Incision and Drainage
—
—
—
—
5093
Level 3 Breast/Lymphatic Surgery and Related Procedures
—
—
—
—
5372
Level 2 Urology and Related Services
—
—
—
—
5362
Level 2 Laparoscopy and Related Services
—
—
—
—
5164
Level 4 ENT Procedures
—
—
—
—
5165
Level 5 ENT Procedures
—
—
—
—
5184
Level 4 Vascular Procedures
—
—
—
—
5192
Level 2 Endovascular Procedures
—
—
—
—
5153
Level 3 Airway Endoscopy
—
—
—
—
5224
Level 4 Pacemaker and Similar Procedures
—
—
—
—
5231
Level 1 ICD and Similar Procedures
—
—
—
—
5232
Level 2 ICD and Similar Procedures
—
—
—
—
5313
Level 3 Lower GI Procedures
—
—
—
—
5416
Level 6 Gynecologic Procedures
—
—
—
—
03 · Its own price file
What the hospital's price-transparency file says
Not read: not the CMS template: header ['<head>'] (blocked).
Sources for this hospital
the files read, as fetched — not our copy of them- MUP_INP_RY26_P03_V10_DY24_PrvSvc.CSV · 38.0M bytes · fetched 2026-08-21 · sha256 2ab6da15be4c… · publisher's page · public domain (US federal)
- MUP_OUT_RY26_P04_V10_DY24_Prov_Svc.csv · 28.1M bytes · fetched 2026-08-21 · sha256 f293918edbf6… · publisher's page · public domain (US federal)
- chsp-hospital-linkage-2023.csv · 1.5M bytes · fetched 2026-08-21 · sha256 a86146f10c8d… · publisher's page · public; cite AHRQ Compendium of U.S. Health Systems
- 2020 ZCTA to County relationship file · US Census Bureau · 2020tab20_zcta520_county20_natl.txt · 6.8M bytes · fetched 2026-08-21 · sha256 3ed41278d637… · publisher's page · public domain (US federal)
- · fetched 2026-08-23 · blocked
Every figure on this page is computed from these files by pipeline/prices/; the same rows are in the API.
Source rows for this hospital as JSON: inpatient · outpatient · price file. CMS, Medicare Inpatient and Outpatient Hospitals by Provider and Service, 2024.