About Hospital Cost Compare

Compare hospital cost data across American Hospitals

On May 8, 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicade released data showing what over 3000 U.S. Hospitals billed Medicare for the top 100 Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) along with what Medicare actually reimbursed. This data represents over 163,000 individual price points across the U.S. and shows wildly different rates for the same procedures. HospitalCostCompare.com allows you to drill down through the specific data to see how your local Hospital compares and see how much the same diagnosis costs around the country..

All cost data displayed on this website has been aggregated from CMS and other publicly accessible sources. Comments made on this site do not reflect the opinions of the site owner.

Read more about the release of this data:


This site is created and maintained by Paul Reilly, @pmreil, paul@hospitalcostcompare.com



Data Definitions (data source - http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/index.html)
DRG Code and description identifying the DRG. DRGs are a classification system that groups similar clinical conditions (diagnoses) and the procedures furnished by the hospital during the stay.
Discharges The number of discharges billed by the provider for inpatient hospital services.
Average Covered Charges The provider's average charge for services covered by Medicare for all discharges in the DRG. These will vary from hospital to hospital because of differences in hospital charge structures.
Average Total Payments The average of Medicare payments to the provider for the DRG including the DRG amount, teaching,  disproportionate share, capital, and outlier payments for all cases. Also included in Total Payments are co-payment and deductible amounts that the patient is responsible for and payments by third parties for coordination of benefits.