Hospital prices
Since 2021, every hospital in the US has had to publish its prices online, including the prices it has agreed on with each insurance company. But you can't just look them up. Hospitals publish them as huge technical data files, often millions of lines long, made for computers rather than people.
Here's what we do with them:
- Collect: we download each hospital's file directly from the hospital's own website, never from a third party.
- Pull out the prices for having a baby: vaginal births, C-sections and newborn stays, for each insurance company.
- Check: we compare every price against other prices from the same hospital and against Medicare's price for the same care, and leave out anything that looks wrong or incomplete.
- Review: we spot-check the results against the original files before anything goes on the site.
How current is our data?
| What you see | Dallas–Fort Worth |
|---|---|
| Hospital prices | 2026 45 of 46 hospitals' price files are from March 2026 to October 2026 |
| Doctor prices in the estimator | 2026 |
| NICU and maternal care levels | October 2026 |
| Birthing-Friendly badge and star rating | 2026 |
| Births per year and C-section rate | 2019 the most recent free statewide data |
| National averages | 2025 report 2021–2023 insurance claims |
Each hospital page shows the date of that hospital's own price file. Not yet updated for 2026: Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Frisco (January 2025). We use the hospital's most recent file and will refresh it as soon as a new one is posted.
What "typical price" means
A hospital often has a different price for each insurance plan. The typical price is the one in the middle: half the plans pay more and half pay less. We also show the lowest and highest, and the price for each insurance company.
What our prices include
- Included: the hospital stay for mom, for a vaginal birth or a C-section, and your baby's own hospital stay. We show prices for a smooth birth and for births with complications.
- Not included: your OB, anesthesia and pediatrician bills (the estimator adds typical amounts for these), prenatal tests and ultrasounds, and NICU care.
- Self-pay prices appear only when a hospital publishes one. If it doesn't, we say so.
How the estimator works
We add up the hospital price for your insurance and typical doctor prices in Dallas–Fort Worth. Then we apply your plan: your deductible first, then your share, up to your out-of-pocket max. Your baby counts as a second person. Everything happens on your own device, and nothing you type is sent to us.
Care levels and hospital information
- NICU and maternal care levels come from the Texas Department of State Health Services, which rates every birthing hospital.
- Births per year and C-section rates come from Texas hospital records (2019). The C-section rate counts all births, so hospitals that care for more high-risk moms naturally have higher rates.
- Birthing-Friendly badges and star ratings come from Medicare.
Keeping it up to date
Hospitals update their price data at least once a year, and we refresh ours when they do. Each page shows when it was last updated. Spot something that looks wrong? Email info@birthcost.com and we'll check it against the hospital's original file.
Technical notes for researchers and journalists
- Source links: hospital prices: CMS hospital price transparency rule; doctor prices: Transparency in Coverage rule; care levels: Texas DSHS neonatal and maternal designation lists; Birthing-Friendly and star ratings: Medicare Care Compare; births and C-section share: Texas Inpatient Public Use Data File (2019 is the latest free year; later years are sold under a data use agreement); national averages: KFF Health System Tracker.
- Source files: hospital machine-readable standard charges files (45 CFR Part 180), downloaded from the URL in each hospital's
cms-hpt.txt. - Billing groups: MS-DRG 807/806/805 (vaginal delivery without sterilization/D&C: no CC/MCC, CC, MCC), 788/787/786 (cesarean section without sterilization: no CC/MCC, CC, MCC), 795 (normal newborn).
- Typical price: median of the dollar-denominated negotiated rates posted for commercial plans; range = min to max. Medicare Advantage and Medicaid rows are excluded, as are percentage-of-charge rows without a dollar amount and rates outside 0.2x to 20x of the hospital-specific Medicare IPPS payment for the same DRG. Per diems are multiplied by the Texas commercial average length of stay.
- Self-pay and sticker price: the file's "discounted cash" and "gross charge" fields.
- Doctor fees in the estimator: Aetna Transparency in Coverage negotiated rates, Dallas and Fort Worth Medicare localities, 2026. The 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles across provider groups for CPT 59400 and 59510 (global OB), 01967 (labor epidural) and 01961 (cesarean anesthesia, flat negotiated amounts), and 99460/99462 (newborn care). Applied to all insurers until each insurer's own rates are added.
- Out-of-pocket math: per person, min(out-of-pocket max remaining, copay + min(allowed, deductible remaining) + coinsurance × the rest). The newborn is a second person with its own deductible; the family total is capped at 2× the individual out-of-pocket max.
- Care levels: Texas DSHS neonatal and maternal designation lists, matched to hospitals by hand (no automated name matching). Volumes: Texas Inpatient Public Use Data File 2019, all payers; C-section share is not the risk-adjusted NTSV rate. CMS: Provider Data Catalog, Hospital General Information.