Guide
What “selected prices” means on HospitalPricer
Most hospitals publish price files far too large to show in full. Here is exactly what we show, why, and how to reach the complete data — with no guessing and no filler.
Two labels you will see
- Full price list — we have parsed the hospital’s entire published file. Everything the hospital discloses is here and searchable.
- Selected prices — the hospital publishes an unusually large file, so we show the portion we parsed within safe limits. It is a genuine slice of the hospital’s own prices, clearly labelled, never padded or invented.
Today most hospitals in our data carry the Selected prices label, because their files are very large. We would rather be plain about that than imply a page is complete when it is not.
How the selection actually works
When a file is too large to parse in full, we read it in its own order and keep rows up to a fixed limit. The process is deterministic — the same file always yields the same selection — but it is not a representative sample. We do not rank, curate, or statistically balance the rows. That is precisely why we say “selected prices,” not “representative sample.”
What that means for you
- Every price shown is a real, source-backed row from the hospital’s file.
- A specific service you want may or may not be inside the portion we display.
- A blank price is missing data, never a $0 price — we never fill in a value the hospital did not publish.
How to reach the complete data
You are never limited to what a preview shows:
- Open a hospital’s full price page to search, filter, and sort everything we have parsed for that hospital.
- Follow the “The hospital’s original price file” link on any hospital page to the complete file the hospital publishes itself.
- Read our methodology for how files are discovered, parsed, validated, and labelled.
Why we are strict about this
Hospital pricing is money- and health-adjacent. Overstating completeness — calling a partial view “representative,” or a blank a “$0” — would mislead exactly when accuracy matters most. Clear labels let you judge the data yourself, which is the entire point of this site.
Frequently asked questions
- Is “selected prices” the same as a representative sample?
- No, and we deliberately do not call it representative. A representative sample is chosen to mirror the whole; our selected set is simply the portion we parsed first, in the file's own order, up to a safe limit. It is a real slice of the hospital's published prices — not a statistical estimate of them.
- Can I see the hospital's complete price file?
- Yes. Every hospital page links to the hospital's own original published file (“The hospital's original price file→”), which is the complete machine-readable file the hospital posts under federal price-transparency rules.
- Does a selected page hide the cheapest or most expensive prices?
- It can. Because the selection is a portion of a large file rather than a curated best/worst list, a specific service may or may not be in the portion we show. Use the hospital's full price page to search everything we've parsed, and the source file for the complete list.
- Why not just show every price for every hospital?
- The largest files contain millions of rows. Loading them in full would be slow, costly, and fragile. Showing a selected portion keeps pages fast and reliable while still being honest about what is and isn't included.