How Much Does Partial Hospitalization (PHP) Cost?

A partial hospitalization program (PHP) will typically cost between $3,500 and $18,000 out-of-pocket for a full two to six week course if your costs aren’t covered by insurance.

The cost varies a lot depending on where the program is, how long you stay, and what your insurance covers. Some programs charge around $350 a day, while others run $600 or more.

Cost is usually the first thing people ask us about at Los Angeles Outpatient Center (LAOP), which is why we put this guide together. Our admissions team goes over the numbers with everyone before they start, because we want people to know what their insurance will cover and what they’ll be paying themselves before day one.

PHP is the most intensive mental health treatment you can get while still sleeping in your own bed. You attend during the day, most days of the week, and go home at night. Most people don’t pay the full price though. Insurance and cash-pay rates can move the number by thousands of dollars.

What PHP Costs Per Day, Per Week, and in Total

PHP tends to be priced per day, and before insurance a day generally runs about $350 to $600.

Every other PHP figure comes from that daily rate. PHP runs five days a week, about six hours a day, so roughly 30 hours of care a week, which comes to about $1,750 to $3,000 a week at those rates.

A full course usually lasts two to six weeks, which works out to 10 to 30 program days. That puts a full course at around $3,500 on the short, lower-priced end and around $18,000 on the long, higher-priced end.

Six weeks is usually about as long as PHP runs, and that ceiling is deliberate. Six hours a day is a lot to ask of anyone, and people tend to wear down when a program runs that hard for months. Your care team will generally step you down to a lighter level of care once you’re ready, rather than keeping you at full days.

You’ll also see published daily rates well under $350 and well over $600, and we’ll get into why below.

What’s Included in a PHP Day’s Price

A day of PHP is billed at one flat daily rate that covers everything between the time you arrive and the time you go home.

In our program, a week inside that rate includes:

• 27 group sessions, which are the backbone of the week
• Two individual sessions with your primary therapist
• One family session
• A weekly appointment with a psychiatrist, plus medication management
• A weekly medical follow-up
• A psychiatric evaluation at intake

Because programs generally bill by the day rather than by the service, none of those appointments shows up as its own line item on your bill.

[ILLUSTRATION: A single “PHP day” block broken into its components (group sessions, individual therapy, psychiatry, medication management) with one price tag on the whole block]

It helps to look at that day by the hour. A $350 to $600 day holding six hours of clinical care works out to roughly $60 to $100 an hour. A single 50-minute session with a private therapist in Los Angeles commonly runs $150 to $300, and that’s one hour with one clinician.

As a public reference point, Medicare’s published 2026 outpatient per-diem for a hospital-based PHP day runs about $320 to $420, one of the few PHP day rates published anywhere.

So an hour of care inside a PHP day generally costs well under half what an hour of private therapy does.

Why Published PHP Prices Vary So Much

Search for PHP prices online and you’ll find published daily rates anywhere from $200 to $1,200. Four things drive most of that spread:

1. The setting the program runs in: A PHP inside a hospital carries hospital overhead and prices to match. A freestanding outpatient center delivering the same care generally comes in lower.
2. Where the program is located: Costs tend to track local wages and rents, so a Los Angeles figure usually won’t match a national average.
3. How many days the quote assumes: A per-day rate doesn’t tell you much on its own, and most published totals never say which day count they used.
4. What’s inside the rate: Some programs fold psychiatry and the intake evaluation into the daily figure, and others bill for them separately, so two quotes of “$400 a day” can describe fairly different things.

The level of amenities a program offers moves the number too, though generally less than the four above.

When a program quotes you a price, ask how many days it assumes and which services sit inside the daily rate. That’s what makes two quotes comparable. At LAOP, our admissions team will review cost and insurance with you as a priority, so there are no surprises when the bill lands.

What Most People Actually Pay for PHP

Very few people pay for the full cost of treatment themselves. With an in-network plan, a full course of PHP typically costs somewhere between $0 and $5,000 out of pocket.

What you pay largely depends on which of three routes you’re on:

• Self-pay: you pay the program directly at the established self-pay rate, without using insurance.
• In-network: the program has a contracted rate with your insurance plan. Your share depends on your deductible, copay, coinsurance, and where you are in your plan year. 
• Out-of-network: the program does not have a contracted rate with your plan. Depending on your benefits, insurance may cover a portion of treatment, but your out-of-pocket costs may be higher than they would be in-network. 

The details of your plan set the final number. We break those down in our guide to how much PHP costs with insurance.

How PHP Costs Compare to Therapy, IOP, and Inpatient

By the hour, PHP is one of the least expensive ways to get clinical care. What makes the total big is how many hours you attend.

Level of care	Hours of care per week	Typical cost before insurance	Roughly per hour of care
Weekly therapy	~1 hour	~$150 – $300 a session	~$150 – $300
IOP	~9 hours	~$750 – $1,050 a week	~$85 – $115
PHP	~30 hours	~$1,750 – $3,000 a week	~$60 – $100
Inpatient / residential	24/7	~$10,000 – $60,000 a month	Priced per day of stay

All self-pay figures, before insurance.

The hourly rate and the size of the bill are two different things. Stepping down from PHP to IOP lowers what you pay because you’re attending about a third of the hours, even though IOP costs a little more per hour of care. When to make that move is a clinical decision your care team makes with you, and the smaller bill follows from it.

How to Lower What You Pay for PHP

The overall price of PHP can feel daunting, especially if you’re not sure how much your insurance will cover. The number you’re first quoted is rarely what you end up paying though, and every lever that moves it starts with a call to admissions.

1. Ask for the cash-pay rate: If you’re paying without insurance, ask whether the program offers a separate self-pay rate and how that rate is structured. Some programs charge by the day, while others may quote a weekly or program-based amount. 
2. Ask about payment plans and financial assistance: Find out whether they can spread the cost over months, and whether they have scholarship funds or a sliding scale, meaning the price adjusts to your income. None of this is usually posted on a website, so you do have to ask. Admissions teams hear the question every day.
3. Get a free benefits check before you commit: Admissions can check your coverage at no cost, usually the same day, which turns a published range into your own number. An in-network plan also can’t bill you past your yearly out-of-pocket maximum, which is the most you can be charged for covered care in a year.
4. Ask about a single case agreement: If the program is out of network, a single case agreement is a one-off deal a program negotiates with your insurer to cover you at close to in-network rates. The case usually rests on distance from in-network options, or a clinical or cultural fit you can’t get elsewhere. Ask whether they’ll petition for one.
5. Ask when a step down to IOP makes clinical sense: IOP runs far fewer hours a week, so the bill is smaller. But when to move should be a clinical decision your care team makes with you, not a financial one, and it’s fair to ask what the criteria are. It’s also worth asking whether a program runs both levels, as we do, so the step down doesn’t mean finding a new team and repeating an intake.

PHP Costs That Don’t Show Up on the Invoice

Three costs sit outside the program’s bill, and lost income is usually the biggest of them.

Time away from work. PHP takes up your weekdays for a few weeks, so most people step back from work while they’re in the program. Without short-term disability, your paycheck stops during that time, and even with it, disability usually only replaces a portion of your pay. It’s worth checking your employer’s leave and short-term disability policy before you pick a start date.

Getting to the program. Insurance doesn’t cover your commute, and some medications can make driving in the morning unsafe. Ask whether the program helps with rides, because some do.

Prescriptions. Medication management is usually part of PHP, but the prescriptions themselves still carry your normal copay.

It’s worth pricing these out alongside the program fee. None of them are reasons to avoid care, they’re just much easier to handle when you’ve planned for them.

You Won’t Know Your PHP Cost Until You Ask

Most people rarely end up paying the full price of a day in PHP, and finding out your own number costs nothing. One call to an admissions team gets you a benefits check or a cash quote.

A PHP day costs what it does because it’s a full day of clinical care billed as one rate. Nobody should turn down treatment over a price they never confirmed.

Get a Real Number Before You Decide

If you’re in or around Los Angeles and considering a PHP, we’d love to chat. LAOP is a CARF-accredited PHP and IOP in Culver City. We’re in network with TRICARE, TriWest, Blue Shield of California, and Magellan, and other major insurers are out of network.

Call us at 888-449-0852 or use the form on our site. Our admissions team will run a free benefits check and give you a real number, cash-pay rate included. We keep those money conversations with admissions, separate from your time with the therapists, so your care stays focused on you. No surprise costs, no pressure.

If you’re in crisis right now or having thoughts of suicide, please call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. A trained counselor is there around the clock. The call is free and confidential.