Hospital price data · October 2026 files
Ask the hospital price data a question.
Type a question or pick one. Answers are calculated from 4,574 hospitals' own price files (October 2026), with the numbers and caveats shown.
Answers are calculated from the hospital price files with fixed formulas, not written by an AI model, so every number can be traced. Pick a question to start.
Get the Hospital Price Spread Report (free PDF)
The price gaps behind these pages for 20 common procedures, the states at both ends, and the questions to ask before you book.
- The biggest gaps between hospitals, with real numbers
- How cash and insured prices compare
- A short script for asking for a price in advance
Questions we asked the data
Answers to common questions, calculated from the October 2026 files. Select a question to ask it in the tool above.
Which procedures vary the most in price between hospitals?
Among 64 common procedures, the widest spread between low-priced and high-priced hospitals (90th percentile divided by 10th percentile of published cash prices) is for Sinus surgery at 45x ($332 to $14,851, 807 hospitals); Ear tubes at 24x ($305 to $7,478, 919 hospitals); Tonsillectomy at 24x ($451 to $10,738, 869 hospitals); Appendectomy at 22x ($905 to $20,211, 1,217 hospitals); Hip replacement at 21x ($1,892 to $39,834, 976 hospitals).
Where is paying cash more than the insurer rate?
At the same hospital, the cash price is most often above the hospital's own commercial insurer rate for Metabolic panel (73% of 2,894 hospitals); CT scan, head (72% of 3,107 hospitals); CT scan, abdomen (71% of 3,109 hospitals); CT scan (all) (70% of 3,150 hospitals). It is least often higher for Cataract surgery (37%); Childbirth (35%).
Which procedures have the biggest gap between states?
Comparing each state's median published cash price (states with 10 or more hospitals), the largest gaps between the highest- and lowest-priced state are Sinus surgery at 41x (Ohio $13,774 vs. Oregon $338); Spinal fusion at 31x (Virginia $43,146 vs. Pennsylvania $1,380); Knee replacement at 20x (Ohio $37,685 vs. Maine $1,892); Ear tubes at 20x (Ohio $6,536 vs. Oklahoma $334).
Is the cash price higher than the insurer rate for a brain MRI?
For brain MRI without contrast (CPT 70551), the cash price is higher than the hospital's own insurer rate at 69% of the 3,058 hospitals that publish both, and the typical hospital's cash price is 1.5x its insurer rate.
How much does a colonoscopy cost?
At the colonoscopy code with the most hospitals (CPT 45378), the median published cash price is $1,616 across 2,034 hospitals, and the middle 80% run from $507 to $4,118.
Which state is the most expensive for a knee replacement?
By median published cash price (states with 10 or more hospitals), total knee replacement is highest in Ohio ($37,685) and lowest in Maine ($1,892), a 20x gap.
How to read this
Each answer is a fixed calculation on the same cleaned hospital price data as the other Learn tools, shown with the number of hospitals behind it. Prices are one per hospital, outpatient, from the hospital's own file. With fewer than 10 hospitals we show the lowest, median and highest only, and with fewer than 3 we do not answer.
What this does and does not tell you
- These are published prices, not what you will pay. A listed insurer rate is not necessarily your plan's rate.
- Prices differing between hospitals does not show that one hospital is better or worse. We do not infer causes.
- We do not answer questions about a named hospital here. Use the Scorecard or the Variability Explorer for that.
Common questions
Is this an AI chatbot?
No. Answers are calculated with fixed formulas from the cleaned hospital price data, so each number can be traced. The page recognizes the procedure, state and kind of question in what you type, then runs the matching calculation. It does not write free-form answers.
What questions can it answer?
How much a procedure costs, how much prices vary between hospitals, whether the cash price is higher than the insurer rate, which state is most expensive, which procedures vary most, and how many procedures hospitals publish prices for. It does not answer questions about a specific hospital.
Do you save my question?
We record the kind of question asked and the procedure and state it was matched to, so we can improve the page. We do not record the text you type. A link you copy and share does contain your question, so it appears in ordinary web server logs when someone opens it.
Where does the data come from?
Federal rules require hospitals to post a machine-readable file of prices. CostKits reads those files every month and matches each price to a standard procedure (CPT) code. This page uses the October 2026 files. These are published prices, not what you will pay.
Data: hospital price transparency files, October 2026, processed by CostKits. Full methodology. Questions: hello@costkits.com. Need the underlying data? See the data files. See also the procedure cost pages for state-by-state prices.