What Medicare actually pays for after shoulder surgery
Short answer: almost nothing. None of the 68 Medicare durable medical equipment codes this site tracks apply to a sling, an ice wrap, an adaptive shirt, or a sleep wedge — this equipment isn't the lower-extremity or general-mobility DME those codes cover. The one thing you don't pay for, the sling itself, isn't a Medicare story at all — it's simply handed to you by your hospital before you go home.
Medicare's DME fee schedule covers almost nothing for shoulder recovery — the sling comes from the hospital; the rest is yours to buy.
All 68 Medicare equipment codes this site tracks are lower-extremity or general-mobility DME (walkers, canes, commodes, hospital beds and rails, patient-lift slings, seat-lift mechanisms) — confirmed by reading every code, not assumed. There is no code in that set for an arm sling, an ice wrap, an adaptive shirt, or a sleep wedge.
Source: Medicare's equipment fee schedule (CMS DMEPOS, July 2026)
What does the hospital actually give you?
Just one thing, equipment-wise: the sling. OHSU Orthopaedics' own total shoulder patient guide states it directly:
“There is little specialty equipment needed prior to a shoulder replacement surgery. You will need a sling (hospital provided) and icing supplies (to be obtained by the patient).”
— OHSU Orthopaedics, total shoulder patient preparation and recovery guidelinesA second institution, University of Washington Medicine's rotator cuff repair handout, independently confirms the same hand-off pattern — the sling comes from your surgical team, and you remove it yourself once home when it isn't needed. Neither hospital source frames the sling as a Medicare-billed item, and it isn't one: it was never a purchase, so there's no fee-schedule entry to check.
What does insurance typically handle, beyond equipment?
This site tracks durable medical equipment codes only — not the medical side of your care. In general terms, your insurance (Medicare or otherwise) typically covers the medical parts of shoulder-surgery recovery separately from equipment: the surgery itself, anesthesia, follow-up visits with your surgeon, and physical or occupational therapy sessions, all billed under medical benefits rather than DME. We don't track those codes or claim figures here — check your own plan's surgical and outpatient-therapy benefits for what applies to you specifically.
Why isn't shoulder equipment in Medicare's DME data at all?
Nothing is missing here. A separate HCPCS "L-code" range exists for upper-extremity orthotics, including a surgeon-prescribed arm or shoulder brace — but that range sits outside the 68 lower-extremity and mobility codes this site tracks. The hip guide found the same for abduction braces. The comfort items on this checklist (sling pads, ice wraps, adaptive shirts, sleep wedges) sit outside both the L-code orthotics range and the 68-code DME set — they were never billed as durable medical equipment under any code, prescription or not.
Go deeper
Sources
- Medicare's equipment fee schedule (CMS DMEPOS, July 2026) — the full list of 68 codes this page checks every claim against
- OHSU Orthopaedics, "Total shoulder arthroplasty patient preparation and recovery guidelines" (PDF) — source of the sling-is-hospital-provided quote above; read 2026-07-28
- University of Washington Medicine, "Care After Your Rotator Cuff Repair Surgery" (PDF) — independent second-institution confirmation; read 2026-07-28
- CMS HCPCS Level II quarterly file, July 2026 release — code descriptions and range definitions, including the L-code upper-extremity orthotics range referenced above
- Palmetto GBA DMECS Product Classification List (PDAC) — confirms zero shoulder/sling-immobilizer classification among the lower-extremity DME products tracked
- Our free dataset (CC BY 4.0) — every HCPCS code above in one downloadable file