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Sample report: Los Angeles employer benchmark

This is a sample of the kind of regional benchmark report we build for employers and benefits consultants. It is built from the live dataset, not a mock-up — every number below was queried from the same database that powers this site, on November 13, 2026.

What this metro covers, and why Los Angeles

Los Angeles is our home market, and it has deep coverage: 17 hospitals within 50 miles of downtown Los Angeles, 6,830 published prices, 476 procedures in total, 464 of them published by 5 or more hospitals here. That depth is what makes a local comparison worth doing — most procedures below have a dozen or more hospitals behind them.

How "Los Angeles" is defined here: hospitals with coordinates on file within 50 miles of downtown Los Angeles (34.05, -118.24). Two honest limits follow from that. First, hospitals without coordinates on file are left out of the radius, so this is not every hospital in the county. Second, most hospital files carry no city, so a county line cannot be drawn from the data — the radius is the definition, and it is stated here so you can judge it.

The comparison: 12 common procedures

Each row is one procedure across the Los Angeles hospitals that publish it. "Cash median" is the middle cash price across those hospitals; "negotiated median" is the middle of each hospital's own negotiated median (which blends all payers in that hospital's file). Ranges are the lowest and highest hospital values. All figures are whole dollars as published.

ProcedureHospitalsCash median Cash rangeNegotiated medianNegotiated range Hospitals publishing cash
Colonoscopy12$1,251$99 – $4,878$3,478$207 – $18,05610
Colonoscopy with biopsy12$3,438$108 – $4,878$3,479$224 – $18,0565
Knee MRI without contrast16$3,556$63 – $6,531$568$183 – $3,77213
MRI brain with and without contrast16$4,021$70 – $10,021$772$311 – $5,77013
MRI lower back without contrast16$3,847$46 – $8,332$568$186 – $3,31513
CT abdomen and pelvis with contrast17$2,703$56 – $11,088$673$282 – $4,33114
CT head without contrast17$1,428$26 – $4,337$249$102 – $1,40814
Chest X-ray, frontal, 1 view17$364$5 – $874$120$23 – $30814
Abdominal ultrasound17$1,088$25 – $2,721$249$83 – $1,09914
EKG13$835$12 – $1,657$209$29 – $6392
Blood draw17$22$6 – $1,500$21$3 – $80014
Knee X-ray, 3 views17$310$126 – $1,144$130$50 – $39014

Display names are shortened for readability; codes match the dataset. Three published names carry a hospital charge-master prefix verbatim: knee MRI is "HCHG RAD MRI JOINT LOWER EXTREMITY WO", chest X-ray is "HCHG RAD XRAY CHEST FRONTAL 1 VIEW", and knee X-ray is "HCHG RAD XRAY KNEE 3 VIEWS". See the data-quality notes below.

What an employer should take from this

The same procedure, wildly different prices. A CT of the abdomen and pelvis with contrast runs from $56 to $11,088 cash across this metro. A colonoscopy runs from $99 to $4,878 cash. Even a blood draw runs from $6 to $1,500. That spread — not any single price — is the steerage opportunity: pointing people to lower-priced hospitals for planned, shoppable care.

Cash is not always cheaper. In this metro, imaging usually runs the other way: a knee MRI's cash median is $3,556 while its negotiated median is $568. Colonoscopy runs the opposite way: cash median $1,251 against a negotiated median of $3,478. Compare both columns, procedure by procedure — never assume one is the deal.

One outlier to check before you use it. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's published negotiated median for colonoscopy is $18,056 — far above every other hospital in the metro. It may bundle differently in that hospital's file. We show it, because hiding it would be worse, but verify it before putting it in front of employees.

Lowest and highest in the metro

ProcedurePrice typeLowestPrice HighestPrice
ColonoscopyCash priceGlendale Adventist Medical Center (91206)$99Cedars Sinai Medical Center (90048)$4,878
ColonoscopyNegotiated medianGlendale Adventist Medical Center (91206)$207Cedars Sinai Medical Center (90048)$18,056
Knee MRI without contrastCash priceGlendale Adventist Medical Center (91206)$63Emanate Health Foothill Presbyterian Hospital (91740)$6,531
Knee MRI without contrastNegotiated medianGlendale Adventist Medical Center (91206)$183Providence Cedars Sinai Tarzana Medical Center (91356)$3,772
CT abdomen and pelvis with contrastCash priceGlendale Adventist Medical Center (91206)$56Cedars Sinai Medical Center (90048)$11,088
CT abdomen and pelvis with contrastNegotiated medianGlendale Adventist Medical Center (91206)$282Providence Cedars Sinai Tarzana Medical Center (91356)$4,331

Financial-assistance benchmarks

15 of the 17 hospitals in this sample publish a financial-assistance guide with us. Among the guides that state a free-care income limit in plain words, most sit at 200% of the federal poverty level or higher. Those guides say:

Hospitals in this sample without a published guide: Catalina Island Medical Center, Palmdale Regional Medical Center. The remaining guides describe their terms in their own words — read the hospital's own guide before quoting a number. Screening is preliminary only: only the hospital decides who qualifies. Try the financial-assistance screening tool to check a household against these limits.

Data-quality notes

Methodology

Source: machine-readable price files hospitals must publish under federal law, collected and translated by Patients Price. Cash price is the hospital's published self-pay price. Negotiated median is the median negotiated rate across payers in that hospital's file; the report's medians are medians across the hospitals publishing that value. Gross charges are list prices and are not used in the comparisons above. Metro: hospitals with coordinates within 50 miles of downtown Los Angeles. Figures queried live on November 13, 2026; the dataset grows as new files are added, so a rerun will differ.

What a custom report adds

This sample is one metro and 12 procedures. A custom report uses your markets, your procedure basket, and a refresh schedule you choose — and adds payer detail where the files allow it. Start at the contact page and tell us your company, which markets you need, and roughly how much data you expect to use.

Hospitals in this sample

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