Medical Cost Data Sources: Where the Numbers on This Site Actually Come From | The Itemized

Bottom line up front: A medical cost figure is only as good as three things you can check: who produced it, what exactly it measures, and when. Government fee schedules, research on negotiated prices, peer-reviewed cost studies, published package prices and provider quotes all measure different things. This page explains how each type of source works, how the guides here cite them, and how to audit any cost number you meet, here or anywhere else.

The standard: every number carries its source, year and currency

In medicalcosts.co's updated guides, a specific price, rate or statistic is linked inline to the source it came from, with the year and, for prices, the currency. Where we could not find a reputable, dated source for a figure, the guide explains the cost qualitatively instead of printing a range. You will also see clearly labeled hypothetical examples; those exist to show arithmetic, not to suggest what anyone will charge you.

That approach produces fewer numbers than many cost sites publish. It is deliberate. An unsourced range for a procedure in a particular country looks precise, but there is no way for you to check what it includes, when it was collected or whether it was ever a real price.

Five kinds of source, and what each one can tell you

1. Government payment schedules

These are published rates that a public payer uses. In the US, the most important is Medicare. For example, the CMS fact sheet on the 2026 physician fee schedule (October 2025) sets the 2026 conversion factor at $33.40, or $33.57 for qualifying alternative payment model participants. The 2026 dialysis payment rule (November 2025) sets a base rate of $281.71 per treatment.

Strengths: public, national, updated every year, with a clear methodology. Limits: they are what one payer pays, adjusted by location and other factors. They are not cash prices and not what a private insurer pays. Our guide to the Medicare rate benchmark shows how to use them as a yardstick.

2. Research on negotiated prices

Independent studies analyze large sets of insurance claims to show what private plans actually pay. The RAND Corporation's hospital price study (published December 2024), for instance, found that employers and private insurers paid on average 254% of what Medicare would have paid for the same hospital services in 2022.

Strengths: real transaction data at scale. Limits: results are averages across many hospitals and services, they describe the past (here, claims from 2020 to 2022), and they do not tell you what a specific hospital will charge you.

3. Peer-reviewed cost studies

Academic studies compare the costs of treatments or approaches. A frequently cited example is Rosero et al. (Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2013), which found a median hospital cost of $9,788 for robotic versus $7,299 for laparoscopic hysterectomy using 2009 to 2010 data.

Strengths: careful methods and peer review. Limits: they are often several years old, may express results in an earlier year's dollars, and frequently measure hospital cost rather than the price a patient pays. That study, for example, converted charges to estimated costs and reported them in 2010 dollars.

4. Published package-price data

Some organizations publish prices that providers advertise to self-pay patients. In the UK, the Private Healthcare Information Network lists average self-pay package prices from publicly available data collected in March 2026, such as £15,712 for a hip replacement in London. It notes that packages usually cover the surgeon, anesthetist and hospital, may not include the first consultation or extras such as physiotherapy, and that the figures are a guide only.

Strengths: close to what a self-pay patient is actually offered. Limits: coverage is limited to certain procedures and places, and "package" definitions vary between providers.

5. Provider quotes and estimates

A written quote from the hospital or clinic that would treat you is the only figure that describes your own case. In the US, uninsured and self-pay patients have a legal right to a Good Faith Estimate for scheduled care, and may be able to dispute a bill that comes in at least $400 above it, according to CMS guidance (2021).

Strengths: specific to you. Limits: it reflects only what the provider has chosen to include, and quotes from different providers are rarely built the same way.

Cost, charge and price are different numbers

Many disagreements about medical prices come from mixing three different measurements. A cost is what it takes a hospital or lab to deliver a service: staff, supplies, equipment and overhead. A charge is the list price a provider puts on a bill before any discount or negotiation. A price is what someone actually pays, whether an insurer, a public program or a patient.

Sources often measure only one of these. NHGRI's genome-sequencing figures are production costs, and the agency itself notes that commercial prices may sit above or below them. The hysterectomy study cited above converted charges into estimated costs because charges usually overstate what care costs to deliver. A cash quote from a clinic is a price. Before you compare two numbers, make sure they are the same kind of number.

What these sources are not used for

Some popular kinds of cost content do not meet the standard above, and you should treat them carefully wherever you see them:

Undated "typical ranges" by country with no named source for each figure.
Marketing pages from clinics or facilitators that advertise "from" prices without an itemized scope.
Percentage-savings headlines that do not say which two prices are being compared.
Aggregated averages whose underlying data cannot be inspected.

None of these is necessarily wrong. The problem is that you cannot tell whether it is right.

Publication year is not data year

One of the easiest mistakes in reading cost data is treating the date a source was published as the date its prices describe. RAND's report was published in 2024 but describes claims from 2020 to 2022. The hysterectomy study was published in 2013 but uses 2009 to 2010 data expressed in 2010 dollars. PHIN's March 2026 data were collected in one month and, as PHIN itself notes, prices may have changed since.

When a guide here cites a figure, it gives the year the source attaches to it. When you see a number elsewhere, look for the same thing. If you cannot tell which year a price describes, you cannot tell how much it has moved. Our date audit for cost articles and quotes goes deeper into spotting stale prices.

Currency and conversion

Every price in these guides is shown in the currency the source used. When a comparison involves more than one currency, convert on a single stated date and say which date. A price quoted in Colombian pesos and converted at last year's exchange rate is not the same price today, even if the clinic has not changed it.

A five-question audit for any medical cost figure

Who produced it? A government payer, a research organization, a peer-reviewed journal, a price-reporting body, a provider, or someone selling something?
What does it measure? A charge, a negotiated rate, a public payment rate, a hospital cost or a cash price?
What does it include? Facility only, or surgeon, anesthesia, implants, nights and follow-up too?
When and where? The data year, the country or city, and the currency.
Can you check it? Is there a link to the original, and does the original say what the citation claims?

If a figure fails two or more of these questions, use it only as a rough sense of scale. For US hospital prices you can often go to the primary source yourself; our guide to pulling a cash price from a hospital's price transparency file shows how. And for online calculators and comparison sites, see how to use cost comparison tools wisely.

The Takeaway

Trust a medical cost figure in proportion to how easily you can trace it. Public fee schedules and research tell you about scale and patterns; only a written, itemized quote tells you about your own care.

Frequently asked questions

Why don't some guides show a price range for every country?

Where no reputable, dated source can be found for a figure, the guide explains the cost qualitatively instead. An untraceable range looks precise, but there is no way to check what it includes or when it was collected.

What is the difference between a charge, a negotiated rate and a cash price?

A charge is a provider's list price, a negotiated rate is what an insurer has agreed to pay, and a cash price is what a self-pay patient is offered. RAND found private plans paid on average 254% of Medicare for hospital services in 2022, which shows how far these can sit from public rates.

Why cite Medicare rates if I do not have Medicare?

Because they are public, national, updated every year and built from a documented formula. That makes them a stable yardstick for expressing any quote as a multiple of a known benchmark.

How old can a cost figure be and still be useful?

It depends on the use. Check the year the data describe, not just the publication date, and treat older figures as a sense of scale rather than a current price. For decisions, rely on a current written quote.

What are the hypothetical examples for?

They show the arithmetic of a comparison, such as adding travel nights or counting unknown rows. They are labeled illustrative and are not prices any provider charges.