We believe healthcare prices should be public, understandable, and fair because informed people make better decisions and a more competitive system benefits everyone.

The Cost of Confusion

America spends more on healthcare than any other country and gets the worst results.

In 2024, the United States spent over $5.3 trillion on healthcare, more than 18 percent of GDP.

That’s $13,432 per person, $3,700 more than the average in other wealthy nations.

And yet, we rank last in health system performance among our peers.

According to the Commonwealth Fund’s 2024 “Mirror, Mirror” report, we trail on access, equity, and outcomes.

We pay more. We get less. And no one can tell us why.

This isn’t just economic. It’s personal.

Families delay care. Patients skip follow ups. Millions make health decisions based on money, not medicine.

The impact is emotional, generational, and urgent.

The Healthcare Pricing Crisis

Whether you’re a patient, an employer, a policymaker, or a provider this affects you.

In American healthcare, prices aren’t what they seem.

They’re not based on cost, quality, or fairness. They depend on your insurance, your provider, your employer, and your ZIP code.

Even for something as basic as a scheduled checkup or planned surgery, it’s nearly impossible to know what you’ll pay or why.

I’ve lived this problem firsthand.

When my son was born, he spent 17 days in the NICU. The hospital bill was enormous.

But what shocked me more than the amount was how little I understood what I was being charged.

Dozens of line items. No explanations. No clarity on what insurance covered or why.

I didn’t see a final total until weeks after discharge. The bill felt less like a record of care and more like a code I couldn’t crack.

Maybe you’ve seen it too.

A bill arrives with charges you can’t explain. One line says $6,000. Another says “adjustment: $5,012.”

No one told you what anything would cost. And now it’s yours. You don’t know who to call, what to contest, or whether to just pay and move on.

Pricing can change without reason.

During an ER visit for an unrelated issue, I watched the receptionist write “CASH” across the intake form.

Just like that, the price changed. No explanation. Different paperwork, different cost.

And when I needed an ambulance to transfer between two nearby hospitals, the bill was $400. Insurance wouldn’t cover it.

Had I known the price, I would’ve made a different choice.

That moment made me realize something deeper.

Even the most basic decisions about care are made in a vacuum. Urgency is met with silence about cost.

It’s a pattern too many of us know.

Decisions made in the moment. A bill that arrives weeks later. And no way to do anything about it.

We’ve accepted this, not because it’s acceptable, but because there hasn’t been a better way.

Now there is.

Why HealthFees.org Exists

In 2020, two federal rules created a breakthrough:

For the first time, price transparency became a requirement. But like many well intentioned laws, the execution fell short. The data was released, but it was massive, fragmented, and unreadable without engineering expertise.

It was technically compliant but practically unusable. These regulations were a breakthrough, but the data was buried in machine readable files the public couldn’t use.

So we built a platform to do what the system didn’t.

We transform the data into something usable.

HealthFees.org takes federally required hospital and insurer pricing files and structures them into a free, public tool anyone can use.

You can:

  • Search by procedure, hospital, insurance plan, or state
  • Compare rates for the same service across providers
  • See pricing variation for identical care even in the same city

You can use this data to ask better questions, avoid financial surprises, and make smarter decisions. And when prices are public, providers have to compete.

That’s how we lower costs: through informed choice and fair comparison.

We built the infrastructure the system never did.

Behind the scenes, we’ve been building tools to:

  • Normalize inconsistent file formats
  • Link payer and provider records
  • Identify plan level discrepancies
  • Deliver everything through a clean, searchable interface

The right to understand your healthcare costs shouldn’t require a data science degree.

How we fund the platform

Our platform is free to use, and always will be.

We accept payment only from insurers when a user explicitly asks for help finding coverage. We provide audit and compliance tools to health insurance companies and hospitals so that they can be compliant to consumers and regulators.

That’s how we keep the lights on without compromising our independence.

Transparency Is for Everyone

HealthFees.org is built to help individuals understand the cost of care, but the implications go far beyond personal bills.

  • Employers can benchmark their plan costs against local or national averages.
  • Universities and journalists can uncover regional pricing disparities.
  • Payers and providers can audit their own data and spot inconsistencies.
  • Policymakers can rely on real prices, not estimates, as they evaluate reform.

We also support payers and providers directly.

Transparency is hard. We make it easier.

From remediation to compliance audits, we help hospitals and insurers meet federal mandates, correct file errors, and improve public trust.

When data is structured, searchable, and open, it becomes fuel for accountability, competition, and smarter spending.

What We Stand For

We stand against:

  • Hidden charges
  • Surprise billing
  • Pricing you can’t explain to your spouse

We stand for:

  • Open, actionable data
  • Fair competition, not insider discounts
  • A system where your care depends on your needs, not your ZIP code

We didn’t set out to fight the system.

We just wanted to understand what we owed and why.

If you’ve ever felt the same way, HealthFees.org is for you.

Join the Movement

  • Prices vary wildly for the same care even in the same city.
  • Federal rules require transparency, but the data is unreadable.
  • HealthFees.org makes it usable for free.
  • Everyone who pays for healthcare can benefit from it.
  • You can explore costs, compare providers, and share insights.

Explore real medical prices.