Guides
Understanding hospital prices
Short, practical, jargon-free guides to reading hospital price files, comparing prices safely, and understanding what a published price is — and is not.
Reading the data
How to read a hospital price transparency file
What the machine-readable files contain and how to make sense of a row.
Read →CPT, HCPCS, revenue codes & NDC explained
The four code systems in a price file — and which one to compare on.
Read →How we verify hospital price data
The steps we take — and the things we deliberately never do.
Read →What “selected prices” means
Why some pages show a portion of a file, and how to reach the full data.
Read →Pricing concepts
How to compare hospital prices safely
A practical method for comparing like-for-like — and the traps to avoid.
Read →How to compare prices by CPT code
Step-by-step: find the code, open its page, compare the exact same service.
Read →How to compare prices by procedure
Step-by-step: start from a service name and compare across hospitals and cities.
Read →How to compare prices before you call a hospital
A 15-minute pre-call checklist: find the code, note nearby prices, walk in armed.
Read →What to ask your hospital or insurer before a procedure
The billing-office and insurer questions that turn a published price into a real estimate.
Read →Gross charge vs cash price vs negotiated rate
The price types you’ll see, and when each one actually applies.
Read →What negotiated rates mean
The plan-specific agreed price — and why one code has so many of them.
Read →What discounted cash prices mean
The self-pay price, and when it can beat using insurance.
Read →What allowed amounts mean
The total a plan recognizes — and how it differs from a negotiated rate.
Read →Why hospital prices vary
The three forces — payer, facility, billing code — behind the spread.
Read →Why the same CPT code can have different prices
Same code, 10×+ price gap — the chargemaster, setting, and price-type forces behind it.
Read →Why prices are blank or missing
A blank is missing data, never $0 — what that tells you.
Read →Why your actual hospital bill may be different
Why a published price is a reference point, not your final bill.
Read →Standards & trust
Methodology
How files are discovered, parsed, validated, and labelled.
Read →Data limitations
What the data can and cannot tell you — stated plainly.
Read →Why some pages are not indexed
The thresholds a page must meet to be indexed, and why we set them.
Read →Glossary
Plain-language definitions of the pricing and billing terms.
Read →Looking for the data itself? Browse hospitals, procedures, or CPT / HCPCS codes.