How ProcedureRadar Works
From raw hospital files to the prices you see. Every step, explained.
Last updated
Methodology in one paragraph
Our methodology covers how we collect, parse, and normalize hospital pricing data. We download machine-readable files from roughly 3,500 hospital websites, required under the federal Hospital Price Transparency Rule (45 CFR Part 180), then map raw billing codes to plain-English procedure names, flag suspect rows, and compute distributions so prices are comparable across facilities.
Founder of ProcedureRadar, former NFL running back (Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings), former offensive assistant coach (New York Giants), corporate finance and technology entrepreneur, Villanova University alumnus.
Reviewed by Kevin Monangai on .
Methodology is where we show our work. Every price on the site traces back to a hospital Machine-Readable File required under 45 CFR Part 180. We download, parse, normalize, and quality-flag roughly 3,500 hospitals every month, then publish the prices that clear our checks, which today covers more than 2,000 hospitals. If you want to know exactly how a number ended up on our site, this page walks through every step.
Our Pipeline
Every price on ProcedureRadar passes through a six-step pipeline. Each step is automated, logged, and auditable.
Hospitals publish Machine-Readable Files (MRFs) as required by the CMS Hospital Price Transparency Rule (45 CFR Part 180). These files contain every price the hospital has negotiated with every insurer, plus cash and self-pay rates. The rule took effect January 1, 2021, with enforcement penalties increasing through 2026.
We maintain a registry of MRF URLs for 3,500 hospital MRFs across 100 US metros. URLs are refreshed monthly using automated scrapers, the CMS hospital registry, and a CCN-EIN bridge that cross-references hospital identifiers across federal databases. When a hospital changes its file location, our discovery system adapts.
MRF files arrive in three formats, each requiring a dedicated parser. We handle encoding issues, malformed rows, schema variations, and format inconsistencies automatically. Files range from a few kilobytes to multiple gigabytes.
Raw billing codes (CPT, HCPCS, DRG) are mapped to plain-English procedure names using CMS crosswalk files. "CPT 70553" becomes "MRI of the Brain." Payer names are normalized across hospitals: "UNITED HEALTH CARE," "UHC," and "United Healthcare" all resolve to the same entity. This normalization is what makes cross-hospital comparison possible.
Every pricing record is validated against expected ranges. $0 prices, $999,999 placeholders, and duplicate entries are flagged and quarantined. Each hospital receives a transparency score based on data completeness, freshness, and consistency. Records that pass validation receive a confidence rating visible on every pricing page.
See confidence badges in actionValidated, normalized pricing data is loaded into our database and published to procedureradar.com. Pages regenerate weekly via Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR). The raw source file URL is preserved on every record so you can verify any data point by downloading the original hospital file yourself.
See a live example: MRI of the Knee in New YorkData Sources
Every price on ProcedureRadar originates from a single, authoritative source: hospital Machine-Readable Files published under federal law.
The Hospital Price Transparency Rule requires all hospitals operating in the United States to publish their standard charges for all items and services in a machine-readable format. This includes gross charges, discounted cash prices, payer-specific negotiated rates, and de-identified minimum and maximum negotiated charges. Non-compliant hospitals face penalties of up to $2 million per year as of 2024.
What's in an MRF File
File Formats Vary
CMS does not mandate a single file format. Hospitals publish in CSV (tall or wide layout) or JSON. Each format requires a dedicated parser, and column naming conventions vary across hospitals. Our pipeline handles all three.
// Actual MRF data rows, simplified for illustration billing_code,description,payer,charge_type,price "70553","MRI BRAIN W/O & W CONTRAST","CASH","cash_discount",1050.00 "70553","MRI BRAIN W/O & W CONTRAST","AETNA PPO","negotiated",2340.00 "70553","MRI BRAIN W/O & W CONTRAST","UNITED HC","negotiated",1875.00 "27447","TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT","CASH","cash_discount",28500.00
Coverage
Our coverage spans the top 100 US metros by population, representing approximately 85% of US hospitals, 90% of consumer healthcare search volume, and 95% of the addressable B2B market. We prioritize CMS-designated shoppable services: procedures that consumers can schedule in advance and compare prices for. This includes imaging (MRI, CT, X-ray), common surgeries (knee replacement, cataract surgery, hernia repair), diagnostic procedures (colonoscopy, cardiac catheterization), and preventive screenings.
Expansion continues to additional procedures (500+ target) and deeper payer-specific rate coverage as hospitals improve their MRF compliance.
Last pipeline scan: . Next scheduled refresh: May 1, 2026.
Quality Scoring
Not all hospital data is equally reliable. Every pricing record on ProcedureRadar carries a confidence rating so you know how much weight to give it. We never hide data quality issues. We surface them.
- 5+ payers reporting rates
- File updated within 90 days
- Prices consistent with expected ranges
- Multiple charge types present
- 2 to 4 payers reporting
- File date 90 to 180 days old
- Minor data gaps present
- Some charge types missing
- Single payer or cash only
- File older than 6 months
- Significant data gaps
- Potential outlier values
Data Quality, Explained
How fresh is this data? Every hospital publishes its own pricing file, and each hospital updates that file on its own schedule, not ours. Right now, 67.2% of priced records come from a hospital file updated within the last 180 days, 24.3% come from a file older than that, and 8.5% come from a file the hospital never dated at all. We re-parse every hospital's file monthly on our own cadence, regardless of how old that hospital's own file is. The freshness numbers above describe the hospital's publishing habits, not ours.
How is a price linked to a procedure? We link prices to procedures two ways. Most of the time, 63.1% of priced records, we match on the exact billing code the hospital listed. The rest of the time, 36.9%, we match on the procedure's written description because the hospital didn't list a workable code. Code matching is the stronger link. Description matching is a real match, but a looser one, and we think you should know which kind you're looking at.
What does the quality flag mean? Every price on ProcedureRadar carries a quality flag behind the scenes: our own read on how much to trust that specific number, based on things like how it was matched and how recently the source file was updated. When a hospital or procedure doesn't have enough priced records to support a real median or percentile, we don't publish a shaky statistic. We suppress it instead.
Figures above are current as of . See our full methodology white-paper.
Limitations
We believe in being upfront about what our data does and does not include. No healthcare pricing tool can capture every variable that affects your final bill. Here is what falls outside our data.
- Surgeon and anesthesiologist fees. These professionals often bill separately from the hospital facility fee. The MRF price may not include their charges. Ask your provider whether the quoted price is all-inclusive.
- Procedure complexity variants. A "knee replacement" could be total or partial. An "MRI" could be with or without contrast. The same procedure name can encompass different scopes of work at different price points.
- Real-time pricing. Our pipeline scans monthly. Hospital prices can change between scans. The prices you see reflect the most recent monthly snapshot, not a live feed.
- Non-shoppable emergency services. Emergency room visits and unplanned urgent procedures are not typically shoppable. Pricing data for these services exists in MRF files but is less meaningful for pre-visit comparison.
- Non-compliant hospitals. Some hospitals still do not publish MRF files or publish incomplete data despite the federal mandate. We can only show prices for hospitals that publish their data. Non-compliant hospitals are absent from our results.
Common Data Questions
Explore the Data
Now that you know how we collect and validate it, put it to work.
ProcedureRadar's pricing dataset is built from federally mandated hospital Machine-Readable Files.
Disclosure required by 45 CFR Part 180.
Last updated: