How to Find Your Hospital's Published Cash Price Before You Schedule Anything

Since January 1, 2021, every hospital in the United States has been required to publish its prices publicly. Since April 1, 2026, those prices must include actual payment data, not estimates. The information is there. The problem is finding it, because hospitals are not required to make it easy to use. This article shows you how to find the cash-pay price for any procedure at any hospital before you schedule anything.

Where the file lives

Every hospital must post a machine-readable file (MRF) on its website. The file contains standard charges for every item and service the hospital provides. It is typically a large CSV, JSON, or XML file with tens of thousands of rows. Look for it in one of these locations:

• A "Price Transparency" or "Standard Charges" link in the website footer
• A "Patients & Visitors" or "Billing" section of the website
• A direct search on the hospital's website for "machine-readable file" or "standard charges"
• Google: [hospital name] standard charges machine-readable file

The file name usually contains the hospital name and "standard-charges." For example: mercy-hospital-springfield-standard-charges.csv.

How to search the file

If the file is a CSV or XLSX, open it in Excel, Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet application. If it is JSON or XML, use a JSON viewer or a tool like Turquoise Health's free parser.

Once the file is open, use Ctrl+F (or Command+F) to search for your procedure. Try multiple search terms:

• The common name: "knee replacement," "colonoscopy," "MRI"
• The CPT code if you have it: "27447" (total knee), "45380" (colonoscopy with biopsy), "73721" (MRI knee without contrast)
• Partial matches: "knee," "colon," "magnetic"

Which column to read

Hospital MRFs contain multiple price columns. The one you want depends on your situation:

↑ If the "Discounted Cash Price" column is blank or says "$0," the hospital may not have published a valid cash-pay rate. That is a compliance issue. You can report it to CMS.

What to do with the number

The discounted cash price in the MRF is your opening benchmark. Use it in three ways:

First, compare across hospitals. Pull the MRF from two or three hospitals in your area and compare the discounted cash price for the same CPT code. The variation can be 200% to 300% between facilities in the same city.

Second, compare against ambulatory surgery centers and independent centers. If the procedure can be done at an ASC or independent imaging center, their price is almost always lower than the hospital cash-pay rate. The MRF gives you the hospital's number to compare against.

Third, use it as leverage. When you call the hospital billing department to negotiate, you now know their published cash-pay rate. If they quote you a higher number on the phone, you can say: "Your published standard charges file shows a discounted cash price of $X for this procedure code. Can you match or beat that?"