Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Price Transparency Information

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requires that hospitals make available their standard charges and pricing in a machine-readable format. The files do not contain information associated with a patient’s expected out-of-pocket expenses such as copayments, deductibles, or coinsurance amounts. To obtain this information patients should use the good faith price estimate tool or call our Central Pricing Office at (832) 658-6455.

Patients may not find the CMS price transparency information helpful because it is a list of itemized charges that use specific technical language and medical descriptions. For this reason, Memorial Hermann created the Pricing Estimates and Information section to assist our patients.

The Standard Charge files are designed to comply with the CMS price transparency requirements. The information in the files come from the hospitals charge master and third-party payer contracts and does not reflect a patient’s out-of-pocket expenses. If you have insurance, we encourage you to use our good faith price estimate tool or directly contact your insurance company. If you do not have insurance, you can use the price estimate tool to see what your out-of-pocket expenses will be based on our uninsured discount policy.

Good Faith Price Estimation Tool

Disclaimer

• The files do not contain information associated with a patient’s expected out-of-pocket expenses such as copayments, deductibles, or coinsurance amounts. To obtain this information patients should use the good faith price estimate tool or call our Central Pricing Office at (832) 658-6455.
• The files do not contain information concerning financial assistance or discounts that may be available to eligible patients.
• Negotiated rates are based on specific circumstances and the clinical condition of the individual patient. This can include but, is not limited to: 1) the length of stay in the hospital, 2) the severity of the patient’s illness, 3) items or services required to care for the patient (i.e., drugs, implants, other supplies, etc.), and overall cost of the hospital stay.
• The price and negotiated rates in the file reflect a single unit of care and do not consider the complexity of health care reimbursement methodology such as case rates, per diem, bundled services, cost outliers, etc. Therefore, a comparison of rates in the file do not reflect differences in prices due to variations in care or the rate of reimbursement.
• The minimum and maximum results in the file represent the high and low dollar value by service description without regard to variation in coding for the same service (co-morbidities and complications), differences in payers and reflect pricing in effect for the period the publication date. For an accurate estimate based on your insurance status, please use the good faith price estimate tool or call our Central Pricing Office at (832)-658-6455.
• The files do not include charges for physician or other professional services that may be provided during a patient’s hospital stay/treatment.