How to pay cash for hospital care
Every US hospital must publish its discounted cash price — what it charges patients who pay directly — in a public file (45 CFR 180.50). Get the procedure code from your doctor, compare the hospitals near you, call the one you pick with the code, and ask for its self-pay price, a Good Faith Estimate and its financial assistance policy before you pay.
Checked against cms.gov on 2026-09-29
1. Get the procedure code
Ask the doctor who orders the test or surgery for its CPT or HCPCS code. The code decides the price: a knee MRI without contrast is 73721, with contrast 73723, and a hospital prices them differently. Blood work is often several codes, one per test.
2. Compare hospitals
Search the code or the procedure name on SelfPayRates to see every hospital price we have collected in your area, each linked to the hospital's own file. Prices for the same code differ a lot. At the hospitals we track, a knee MRI without contrast (73721) has a median cash price of $1,751; one hospital in ten charges $579 or less, and one in ten $3,741 or more.
3. Call and confirm
Published prices are standard charges, not quotes. Call the hospital's billing or self-pay line and ask:
- What is your self-pay price for code … as an outpatient?
- Does it include the physician's fee (radiologist, surgeon, anesthesia), or is that billed separately?
- Can you send me a Good Faith Estimate? (your right to one)
- Do you offer a discount for paying in full up front?
4. Ask about financial assistance
Nonprofit hospitals must have a written financial assistance policy, and patients who qualify cannot be charged more for emergency or medically necessary care than the hospital generally bills insured patients. Ask for the policy and the application before and after treatment; eligibility depends on income and differs by hospital.
5. Keep the paperwork
Keep the estimate, the itemized bill and the receipt. If the bill is $400 or more above the estimate for any one provider or facility, you can dispute it within 120 days.
If a hospital's price is missing
A hospital that does not publish its cash prices, or publishes a file nobody can read, is not meeting the federal rule. You can report it to CMS through the hospital price transparency page.
Questions
Is the cash price cheaper than my insurance price?
Sometimes. With a high deductible you pay the insurer's negotiated rate out of pocket, and some hospitals' cash prices are lower than that rate. Each SelfPayRates market page shows the cash price next to the negotiated range the hospital published, where it did.
Does paying cash count toward my deductible?
Not automatically. Some insurers accept the receipt as a claim; ask yours before you pay if the deductible matters to you.
Can a hospital charge me more than its published cash price?
The published price is the hospital's standard charge for a self-pay patient for that code; the final bill can add separately billed services. Ask for a Good Faith Estimate before scheduled care and compare it with the published price.
This page explains federal rules in plain words; it is not legal advice. Your state may give you more protection.