How to ask for the cash price

Before you call

Get two facts from the ordering clinician's office: the CPT code that was ordered and whether anything is expected to be added on the day (contrast, tomosynthesis, biopsy, additional views). A price for the wrong code is not a price for your procedure. The procedure pages on this site list the common code variants for each of the 30 procedures.

The exact ask

Use the same sentence at every facility so the answers are comparable:

"What is the all-in cash price for CPT [code] performed in [setting], including the professional fee, the facility fee, anesthesia, and pathology if they apply? Please list what is included and what would bill separately."

Then ask the follow-ups:

1. "Is that a global price, or will the radiologist, cardiologist, or endoscopist bill separately?"
2. "If the plan changes on the day - for example a diagnostic colonoscopy becomes a biopsy colonoscopy - what code will be billed and what will the price be?"
3. "Do you offer a self-pay or prompt-pay price that is different from the standard cash price?"
4. "Can you send that in writing with the CPT code, setting, and inclusions?"

What a complete quote includes

Element	What to write down
CPT code and descriptor	The exact 5-character code and whether modifiers apply
Setting	Hospital outpatient, ASC, imaging center, or office, with the facility name and address
Professional fee	Included, amount, or billed separately by whom
Facility fee	Included, amount, or not applicable
Anesthesia / pathology	Included, likely, or billed separately, with the group name if known
Day-of-change rule	What code and price apply if the procedure changes
Validity	How long the quote is valid and who provided it, with date

How to compare two quotes

Compare all-in to all-in for the same CPT code. A hospital facility-only quote will look lower than an imaging-center global quote until the professional fee arrives. Add the layers before you decide the hospital is cheaper or the center is more expensive. The Price Anchor Explorer shows the Medicare version of the same split.

If the facility will not quote a cash price

Ask for the billing office or patient financial services and repeat the CPT-specific ask. If you are uninsured or choosing self-pay, ask for a Good Faith Estimate (see the Good Faith Estimate guide). If the service is shoppable and scheduled in advance, you are allowed to ask another facility for the same code. Get every competing quote in writing. Anesthesia is easy to leave out of that ask, and the anesthesia billing guide explains what to request for it. If you have insurance and want to compare, build the plan-side figure first with the insured cost worksheet.

What not to rely on

Do not rely on a hospital chargemaster list price as your price. List prices in machine-readable files are not what most patients pay and are not presented on this site as patient prices. Do not rely on a quote for a different code, a different setting, or a quote that leaves anesthesia and pathology unstated for an endoscopy. When in doubt, ask again and get it in writing.

A worked comparison using anchors already on this site

Take brain MRI without contrast, CPT 70551. On this site the verified Physician Fee Schedule global anchor is $192.65 - $69.04 professional plus $123.61 technical - when one entity bills both parts, as an imaging center usually does. In a hospital outpatient department, a single 70551 billed alone maps to OPPS APC 5523, a facility anchor of $243.77 (CY2026, national unadjusted), and the professional fee bills on top of it. The MRI composite of $537.85 applies only when several qualifying MRI studies are on one claim (multi-study only, national unadjusted). Those are Medicare anchors, not cash prices, and they come from the sources printed on the MRI without contrast procedure page.

The lesson is in the structure, not the exact dollars. At the imaging center there is one number to ask for: the global cash price. At the hospital there are at least two layers, and a facility-only answer will understate the total. Ask each setting the same sentence from this guide, write down each layer, and only then compare. The facility-type pages explain why the payment system, not the scanner, creates most of that gap.

For a therapy clinic the cash price is a list of codes and 15-minute units, and the physical therapy cost guide turns that list into a table of questions and Medicare anchors to hold it against. For a bill that has already arrived, the guide on payment plans and medical credit cards covers what to settle before borrowing to pay it.

When the bill arrives higher than the written estimate

The written price earns its keep after service, when the bill lands. Put the bill beside the quote or the Good Faith Estimate and compare them the way you built the quote: same CPT code, same setting, each layer named. A different code, an added layer nobody mentioned, or a facility fee that was quoted as included are the three mismatches worth a call. Start with the provider or facility itself: show the written estimate, name the line that moved, and ask for a corrected bill or a negotiated one. That call resolves clerical errors, and it costs nothing. For the full line by line check, including duplicates, quantities, and dates, use How to check an itemized medical bill for errors before you pay.

If you were uninsured or chose to pay for yourself, and the gap survives that call, there is a formal federal step. Under the patient-provider dispute resolution process run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, you can dispute a bill when you did not use insurance, the care was on or after January 1, 2022, you received a Good Faith Estimate before care, your initial bill is dated within the last 120 calendar days, and one provider or facility charged at least $400 more than its estimate. Starting the dispute costs a $25 administrative fee, which is deducted from what you owe if the dispute is decided in your favor. You will need a copy of the estimate and a copy of the bill. Disputing does not raise your costs: the reviewer either leaves the bill as it stands, where added services could not reasonably have been anticipated, or requires the provider to reduce it where the extra charges should have been in the estimate. These rules follow the CMS patient guidance on disputing a medical bill, checked October 13, 2026.

Two habits protect that option. Keep the estimate with the bill, not in a separate inbox you will search later. And watch the 120 day clock from the date on the initial bill, not from the day you opened the envelope. A written cash quote that is not a Good Faith Estimate does not carry this dispute right, which is one more reason the Good Faith Estimate guide matters for self-pay care scheduled in advance.

If even the cash price is out of reach: ask about the financial assistance policy

There is one more ask after the cash price, and it belongs in the same call. If the facility is a nonprofit hospital, federal tax rules require it to keep a written financial assistance policy. The Internal Revenue Service summary of section 501(r), checked October 19, 2026, states the requirements plainly: the hospital must establish a written financial assistance policy and a written emergency medical care policy; for emergency or other medically necessary care, it must limit what a patient eligible under that policy is charged to not more than the amounts generally billed to patients who have insurance, and it may not use gross charges for those patients; and it must make reasonable efforts to determine whether a patient is eligible for assistance before it uses extraordinary collection actions.

Ask for the policy by name: "Please send me your financial assistance policy and the plain language summary, and tell me how to apply." The policy, not a phone agent, states the eligibility criteria, whether assistance is free or discounted care, and the basis for calculating what an eligible patient is charged. Ask whether applying pauses collection on the account while the application is decided, and write down the name of the person who tells you. This is a hospital rule, so it does not apply to an independent imaging center or a physician office, and a for-profit hospital is not under this federal requirement. Where it does apply, eligibility is decided by the hospital under its own policy. This site cannot tell you whether you qualify, and no cash price conversation should skip the question when the setting is a nonprofit hospital.

Why two quotes often cannot be compared

• Comparing a hospital facility-only quote with an imaging-center global quote and calling the hospital cheaper.
• Accepting a quote for a nearby code - with contrast instead of without, or a diagnostic code when a biopsy code is likely - and discovering the change on the bill.
• Forgetting anesthesia and pathology on an endoscopy quote, where both commonly bill as separate layers.
• Keeping no written record of who quoted the price, on what date, and how long it stays valid.

Each mistake is fixed by the same habit: exact code, exact setting, every layer named, price in writing. Our methodology explains why we publish the Medicare anchor and facility education instead of inventing a self-pay range to fill the gap.

Two related questions have their own pages. Lab work is quoted code by code, with the draw as a separate line, in the lab fee schedule guide, and whether a cash payment helps or hurts your deductible over a whole year is worked in paying cash and your deductible.

Cash price questions