Compare Published Hospital Prices
Across the United States
Every US hospital is required by federal law to publish their prices. We make that data easy to search, compare, and understand.
What We Do
Since January 2021, the CMS Price Transparency Rule has required every hospital in the United States to publish a machine-readable file containing their prices for all items and services. As of April 2026, enforcement has been strengthened with penalties of up to $5,500 per day for non-compliance.
These files are publicly available but often enormous (tens or hundreds of megabytes), formatted for machines rather than people, and scattered across thousands of hospital websites. We download them, extract pricing for common procedures, and present the data so you can compare costs across hospitals and insurance plans.
We do not modify the prices. We display them exactly as published by the hospitals, with links to the original source files so you can verify the data yourself.
Now Available: Houston, TX
Live DataHouston is home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the world. We currently have pricing data from 2 major Houston hospitals covering common procedures including MRI, colonoscopy, and emergency room visits. Here is what the data reveals:
Brain MRI (Without Contrast)
Cash Price Range
$1,335.5 - $1,667.36
Insured Rate Range
$239.69 - $1,691.87
The same MRI at the same hospital can cost 7x more through one insurance plan than another.
Screening Colonoscopy
Cash Price Range
$519 - $1,541.44
Medicare vs Commercial
$934.2 vs $5,545
One hospital's cash price ($519) is lower than many of its own negotiated insurance rates.
Emergency Room Visits
Level 5 Cash Price
$1,763.04 - $2,376
Medicare vs Commercial
$598.24 vs $2,392.98
Facility fees only. Physician bills, labs, and imaging are billed separately.
Houston Hospitals
All Houston hospitals →Understanding Hospital Pricing
Hospital price transparency files contain several different types of prices. Gross charges are the hospital's full list prices before any discounts. These are rarely what anyone actually pays, but they serve as the starting point for negotiations. Cash prices (sometimes called self-pay or uninsured rates) are the discounted rates hospitals offer to patients paying out of pocket. Negotiated rates are the prices that each insurance company has agreed to pay the hospital for a specific service.
Prices vary dramatically between insurers at the same hospital because each plan negotiates its own rates independently. Medicare and Medicaid rates are set by the federal government and are typically the lowest. Commercial insurance rates can be two to five times higher than Medicare for the same service at the same facility.
The facility fees shown in transparency data do not include physician fees. When you visit an emergency room, for example, you will receive a separate bill from the doctor who treated you. Labs, imaging, and other ancillary services are also billed separately.
Growing Coverage
We are adding new cities and hospitals on a regular basis. Over 6,000 US hospitals are required to publish pricing files under federal law, and our goal is to make all of that data accessible and comparable. Each new metro area includes all major hospitals with published pricing data for common procedures.
Important Notes
- ✓ Published prices are gross charges and facility fees. Most patients pay less.
- ✓ Your actual cost depends on your insurance plan, deductible, and network status.
- ✓ This site provides pricing information only, not medical advice. Disclaimer
- ✓ See incorrect data? Let us know and we'll review it.