Data Story

522,201 Joint Replacements Across the U.S.

Every Medicare-billed hip, knee, and shoulder replacement performed by 8,293 orthopedic surgeons in 2023, visualized. Source: CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners Annual Release. License: CC-BY-4.0.

522,201
Total Procedures
8,293
Surgeons
50
States
44
Median per Surgeon
844
Most by One Surgeon
By Procedure Type
Knee replacements outnumber hip nearly 2:1
Knee
301,654
57.8%
Hip
161,633
30.9%
Shoulder
58,914
11.3%
Total Knee Arthroplasty (HCPCS 27447)
Total Hip Arthroplasty (HCPCS 27130)
Total Shoulder Arthroplasty (HCPCS 23472)
Surgeon Count by Procedure
81% do knees, only 25% do shoulders
Knee
6,740 surgeons
81.3%
Hip
4,539 surgeons
54.7%
Shoulder
2,098 surgeons
25.3%

Many surgeons perform multiple procedure types. Percentages are of 8,293 total unique surgeons. Shoulder replacement remains a highly specialized procedure.

Surgeon Volume Distribution
The top 1% of surgeons perform 6x the median volume
44
Median procedures/year
138
90th percentile
278
99th percentile
844
Highest volume surgeon

Most orthopedic surgeons perform fewer than 50 Medicare joint replacements per year. Only 60 surgeons (0.7%) exceed 300 procedures annually.

Highest Volume Surgeons
The 15 busiest joint replacement surgeons in America
Knee
Hip
Shoulder

Medicare fee-for-service only. Actual volumes are estimated 2.5–3x higher across all payers.

Volume by State — All 50 States
California, Florida, and Texas account for 20% of all joint replacements
STATE
KNEE HIP SHLDR TOTAL
Knee
Hip
Shoulder
Knee-to-Hip Ratio by State
Oklahoma and Arkansas perform 2.6 knee replacements for every hip; Vermont and Hawaii are nearly 1:1

Ratio of knee to hip replacement volume. National average is 1.87:1. States in the South and Midwest tend to skew higher toward knee replacements.

Data: CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners 2023 Annual Release • Medicare fee-for-service claims only (est. ~33–37% of all joint replacements)
Free JSON API (no signup, no rate limits): orthoprocedures.com/open-data • Methodology: orthoprocedures.com/data-methodology

Cite This Data

This dataset and visualization are free to use, share, and adapt under CC-BY-4.0. Attribution required. Source data from CMS (U.S. government, public domain).

Academic Citation (APA)
OrthoProcedures.com. (2026). 522,201 Joint Replacements Across the U.S.: Interactive Data Visualization of 2023 Medicare Orthopedic Surgery Volume [Data story]. Based on CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners 2023 Annual Release. https://orthoprocedures.com/data-story
Short Citation
OrthoProcedures.com, 2026. U.S. Joint Replacement Data 2023. https://orthoprocedures.com/data-story (CC-BY-4.0)

Source data and full JSON API available at orthoprocedures.com/open-data.

Full methodology at orthoprocedures.com/data-methodology.