Hospital price transparency, made readable
What hospitals actually charge, from their own files.
Cash prices, negotiated rates and list prices for common procedures at US hospitals. Every number links to the hospital's published file and shows its date. No estimates, no medical advice.
Or start from where you are
Same procedure, same city, very different prices
A few comparisons from the files. The spread is the story.
Riverside, CA
Comprehensive metabolic panel (blood test)
$3 to $1,090
cash price at 20 hospitals
New York, NY-NJ
Preventive visit, new patient age 18 to 39
$33 to $12,839
cash price at 26 hospitals
Los Angeles, CA
Upper endoscopy (EGD)
$178 to $61,772
cash price at 30 hospitals
Riverside, CA
Partial thromboplastin time (blood clotting test)
$1 to $388
cash price at 20 hospitals
Los Angeles, CA
Complete blood count (CBC) with differential
$2 to $591
cash price at 42 hospitals
New York, NY-NJ
Preventive visit, new patient age 40 to 64
$117 to $36,991
cash price at 22 hospitals
Procedures people shop for
The CMS list of shoppable services: things you can plan ahead for.
Prothrombin time (blood clotting test)
CPT 85610 · 1,628 hospitals
$1
lowest cash
Partial thromboplastin time (blood clotting test)
CPT 85730 · 1,627 hospitals
$1
lowest cash
TSH test (thyroid)
CPT 84443 · 1,626 hospitals
$1
lowest cash
Complete blood count (CBC) with differential
CPT 85025 · 1,626 hospitals
$1
lowest cash
Liver function panel
CPT 80076 · 1,621 hospitals
$2
lowest cash
Basic metabolic panel (blood test)
CPT 80048 · 1,617 hospitals
$2
lowest cash
Comprehensive metabolic panel (blood test)
CPT 80053 · 1,615 hospitals
$2
lowest cash
Lipid panel (cholesterol test)
CPT 80061 · 1,613 hospitals
$1
lowest cash
PSA test (prostate)
CPT 84153 · 1,590 hospitals
$1
lowest cash
Metro areas
Hospitals compared within the same Census metro area, so the comparison is between places you could actually go.
New York, NY-NJ
51 of 110 hospitals publish
Dallas, TX
51 of 88 hospitals publish
Los Angeles, CA
46 of 100 hospitals publish
Chicago, IL-IN
44 of 82 hospitals publish
Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD
29 of 51 hospitals publish
Detroit, MI
22 of 36 hospitals publish
Riverside, CA
20 of 34 hospitals publish
Phoenix, AZ
19 of 42 hospitals publish
Houston, TX
19 of 60 hospitals publish
St. Louis, MO-IL
18 of 36 hospitals publish
Minneapolis, MN-WI
17 of 30 hospitals publish
Columbus, OH
16 of 20 hospitals publish
Guides
How the system works and how to pay less. Plain English, no medical advice.
How hospital price transparency works: the files, the rule and what is actually in them
Since 2021 every US hospital must publish its prices in a machine-readable file. Here is what the rule requires, what the files contain, why so many are hard to use, and how PricedCare reads them.
What is a facility fee, and why is the hospital's price not the whole bill?
The price a hospital publishes for a procedure is its facility fee. The surgeon, anesthesia, pathology and radiology usually bill separately. Here is what each part is, who bills it, and how to get the full picture before you go.
How to ask a hospital for a cash price, and get it in writing
Every hospital publishes a discounted cash price, and many will go lower. What to ask for, what to say, when paying cash beats using insurance, and how to make the number stick.
How to read a hospital bill and find the errors
The summary bill hides everything. Ask for the itemized statement, learn what the codes mean, and check each line against the hospital's own published prices. The most common errors, and what to do about them.
Cash price or insurance? When paying yourself is cheaper
The hospital's cash price is sometimes lower than the rate your insurer negotiated. When that happens, why it happens, and how to decide which to use for a given service.
The No Surprises Act, explained: what a hospital can and cannot bill you
Since 2022 a federal law limits surprise bills from out-of-network doctors at in-network hospitals and gives self-pay patients the right to a written estimate. What it covers, what it does not, and how to use it.
How it works
Hospitals publish
Since 2021, every hospital must post a machine-readable file of its standard charges. Most do, some don't, and we say which.
We read the files
Monthly, we download each file and pull out the codes on the shoppable list: cash price, negotiated rates by payer, and the list price.
You compare
One procedure, one metro, every hospital's number with source and date. Then you call and ask for it in writing.