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What hospitals have to publish, in plain English
Since 2021, a federal rule has required US hospitals to put their prices online. This site checks, hospital by hospital, whether the required price file can actually be found and opened.
Who sets the rule
CMS, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is the federal agency that runs Medicare. It wrote the hospital price transparency rule and is the only body that decides who is breaking it.
What a hospital must post
One large price file listing every item and service it sells, with the list price, the cash price, and the price it agreed with each insurer. It is built for software to read, not for a patient to browse, and must be updated at least once a year.
Why it matters
The same procedure can cost very different amounts depending on the hospital and the insurer. Published prices let employers, insurers, researchers and comparison tools see those differences. A file that can’t be found helps no one.
What this site doesn’t do
It doesn’t check whether the prices are correct, predict what a patient will pay, or make legal findings. Every result is a dated observation. Read the caveats.
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The hospital’s website
Start from the website on the official CMS hospital list.
Can’t reach or confirm the site Not assessed
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The pointer file
A short text file every hospital site must keep at one fixed address. It points to the price file.
hospital.example/cms-hpt.txt location-name: Example Regional Hospital source-page-url: https://hospital.example/prices mrf-url: https://hospital.example/charges.csvMissing or unreadable Issue observed
The site refuses automated requests Not assessed
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The price file
Often millions of rows: every service, priced for every insurer. We open it and read its declared update date and format version.
Over a year old, or an outdated format Issue observed
Opens and is current File located
- CCN
- CMS Certification Number. The six-digit ID CMS gives each hospital; use it to tell apart hospitals with similar names.
- Critical access hospital
- A small rural hospital, 25 inpatient beds or fewer, with a special Medicare status.
- Template version
- CMS publishes a required layout for the price file. Each file declares which version it follows.
- Exempt
- Hospitals CMS treats as already compliant, such as Veterans Affairs and military hospitals, plus confirmed closures.
Overview
One mark for every hospital
Solid marks have a result. Hollow marks do not. Hover, tap, or click a mark to see the hospital.
Findings
What the check found
Hospitals grouped by what still needs checking. Choose a group to see why it is flagged, the findings behind it, and the hospitals involved. A flagged result is a tracker finding, not a fine or CMS decision.
hospitals
Why it is flagged
What a person does next
Findings in this group
Failed checks do not establish that a hospital website or file is incorrect. Nationwide verification report · 5,419 per-CCN dispositions (CSV) · browser observations · search reviews · September 9 review · 990 assessments (CSV)
File age
How stale is the published data?
Days from each file's declared update date to today. CMS requires an update at least once a year. The findings above use each file's age on the day it was checked, so their count of old files can be lower.
Breakdown
Results by class and state
Rate uses only hospitals with a result. Reached shows the share checked. An * means fewer than half were reached. Click a column to sort.
By hospital class
| Class | Mix | Total | File located |
|---|
By state
| Mix |
|---|
Work queue
What still needs work
Open follow-up work, grouped by the next step. Each hospital appears once.
Outreach
Hospital outreach
Track emails, replies, and notes. The tracker can draft an email, but it never sends one.
Latest update
Look up
Look up any hospital
Search every hospital by name, city or CCN. Badges show recorded checks, not full compliance.
Method
How a hospital gets its label
1. Find the website
Use the website in the CMS list. If none works, mark the hospital not assessed.
2. Fetch the pointer
Check /cms-hpt.txt and /.well-known/cms-hpt.txt. If the site refuses the
request, mark it not assessed and record that access was denied.
3. Match the facility
Match the hospital to the right entry. For unclear names, compare the name and address.
4. Read the file
Open the charge file and read its version and update date.
Caveats
What these results mean
The tracker checks whether files exist and open. Prices and fields inside them are not fully verified.
Results can go stale
Every label is tied to the snapshot date. A hospital may have changed its files since then.
“File located” describes discovery
It means a file was found and opened. The check does not cover every price, code, or required field.
“Issue observed” needs verification
A discovery, request, date, or template check raised a concern. It may reflect a hospital issue, a changed URL, or a limitation of the tools.
Not assessed means no result
Domain, access, or hospital identity remains unresolved, including sites that refused our request. A working website or file may exist. These hospitals are excluded from every rate.
Matching is automated, and imperfect
Software matches hospital names to file entries. Some matches may be wrong or missing.
The registry underneath has its own lag
Hospital names and websites come from CMS. That list can lag behind closures, mergers, and rebrands.
File age is only as honest as the file
The date comes from the file's declared metadata. The website's deployment date is not substituted, and the declaration itself may be wrong.
This does not predict patient charges
These files do not show what a patient will pay. Use the hospital's estimator or billing office.
Corrections are welcome and remain local
A correction changes only your browser. It does not change the published results.