FAQ
What we have, what we don't, and what to do with the answers.
No. Search is open to anyone. We don't ask for an email, an account, or any personal details. We don't track who you are or what you searched.
Yes. The pricing data we use is required to be public, and we believe consumers shouldn't have to pay to access information that's already meant to be available to them. We may eventually offer additional features for businesses or researchers, but the core search will stay free.
Type a procedure name (like "MRI of knee" or "colonoscopy") or a billing code (CPT or HCPCS) if you have one from your provider. We currently recognize the most common procedure names directly. Broader natural-language search is coming.
CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) is the standardized code system that medical billing uses. Every procedure has a 5-digit code. You'll see them on bills and explanations of benefits. If you have one, searching by code gives the most precise results.
We're starting with Idaho, with pricing data from Regence BlueShield of Idaho. We're rolling out additional states and insurers in the Pacific Northwest first, then nationally. If your state isn't covered, tell us — coverage decisions follow demand.
Federal price transparency rules (effective since 2021) require insurance companies and hospitals to publish their negotiated rates as machine-readable files. These files are public but practically unsearchable by humans. We download them, clean them, and make them searchable.
Because that's what real healthcare pricing looks like. The same procedure can have very different negotiated rates at different facilities — sometimes 5x or 10x apart. Even at the same facility, different insurance plans negotiate different rates. We show all of them, sorted by price, so you can see the range.
Some insurer-provider contracts price procedures as a percentage of "billed charges" rather than as a flat dollar amount. We label these clearly. They're harder to act on as a consumer, but we still show them so you can see the full picture.
Insurers republish their transparency files monthly. Our data reflects the most recent version we've ingested for each insurer. We surface the publication date in the underlying records and refresh regularly.
A few possible reasons: the procedure code may not yet be in our index, your specific provider may not be on the insurer's published rate list, or the procedure may be priced as part of a bundled rate rather than individually. If you searched a billing code we don't show, the rate genuinely isn't in the published file we have.
Almost certainly not the exact amount you'll pay personally. What we show is the rate the insurer pays the provider. Your share depends on your deductible, copay, coinsurance, and whether you've met your out-of-pocket maximum. But the negotiated rate is the foundation — it sets the total cost that gets divided between you and your insurer.
As a starting point for an informed conversation. Before scheduling a procedure, look it up here. Take the rate range you find to the provider's billing office and ask whether you'd be charged in line with what their negotiated rate suggests. If you have a high deductible and might pay out of pocket, ask about cash-pay options — sometimes those are lower than insurance-negotiated rates.
You can absolutely use it as evidence in a billing dispute. Negotiated rates are the legitimate prices the insurer agreed to pay; if you've been billed substantially more, that's worth questioning. We're not lawyers and this isn't legal advice — but the data is real, public, and yours to cite.
We use Google Analytics for aggregate site metrics (how many people visit, which pages, that kind of thing). We don't tie searches to identities, we don't sell search history, and we don't share what individual users look up with insurers, providers, or anyone else.
HIPAA covers protected health information about specific patients. Negotiated rates between insurers and providers aren't PHI — they're contract terms, and they're legally required to be public. So HIPAA doesn't apply to the data we publish, but we still treat your use of the site as private.
We answer real emails. Send one over and we'll get back to you.