The Austin Price Spread Report

Book the same procedure with two different Austin providers, and you can end up paying double for the exact same thing. That is not an edge case — it is the median outcome. MarketCare's Austin dataset holds 4,273 verified cash prices across 755 providers and 537 priced procedures. Restricting that to the 315 procedures with at least three independently verified cash providers — enough competing quotes to call something a market rather than a single provider's sticker price — the median gap between the cheapest and the priciest verified quote is 100%. Half of those 315 procedures spread wider than that; half spread narrower. For a patient who books the first name that comes up instead of comparing, the practical effect is a coin flip on landing on the expensive half of a market that is, on average, exactly twice as expensive at the top as it is at the bottom.

MarketCare verifies cash prices at the source: published self-pay menus, hospital price-transparency disclosures, and direct email or phone confirmation where no menu exists. As of this report, that adds up to 4,273 verified prices across 755 Austin providers and 537 distinct procedures — lab panels, imaging, injections, and surgery alike. A single verified price tells you what one provider charges. It does not tell you what the market charges, and a market needs more than one seller to have a spread at all. This report isolates the 315 procedures that clear a basic bar for measuring a real market: three or more independently verified cash providers in Austin. That is the group large enough for a "cheapest to priciest" comparison to mean something, rather than reflecting one provider's idiosyncratic pricing.

Doubling is not a tail event in this dataset — it is closer to the norm. 160 of the 315 procedures, more than half, at least double in price depending on which Austin provider is called. At the far end, 32 procedures spread five times over or more between the cheapest and priciest verified quote.

• 160 of 315 procedures (over half) at least double from cheapest to priciest verified provider.
• 32 of 315 procedures spread 5x or more between cheapest and priciest.
• Comprehensive metabolic panel: $15–$500, depending on where it's drawn.
• Corticosteroid joint injection: $50–$1,150.
• Coronary calcium score: $125–$640 — a 412% spread across 3 verified providers.

Across 5 verified Austin providers, cataract surgery ranges from $3,020 to $7,300 per eye — a 142% spread. The driver is straightforward: the low end covers a standard monofocal lens implant, and the high end adds premium-lens or laser-assisted upgrades on top of the base procedure. Both ends are legitimate, verified prices for real procedures. The gap only becomes readable once the specific lens and technique are confirmed — "cataract surgery" by itself is not a single price, it is a price for whichever package a given provider quotes. Your surgeon determines which lens and technique fit your eyes; this report only tracks what each package costs.

• Component vs. all-in bundles — some quotes include the facility fee and anesthesia; others price the surgeon's or provider's fee alone and add the rest later.
• Premium add-on upsells — lens implants, laser assistance, and similar upgrades sit on top of a base procedure price.
• DTC-lab vs. office draw — mail-in and walk-in lab pricing consistently undercuts an in-clinic draw bundled with a provider visit.
• Membership and concierge pricing models — some practices price procedures inside a subscription; others price the same procedure standalone.
• Opacity — most Austin providers still don't publish prices at all, so the spreads verified here are a floor on the real market, not a ceiling.

Every price in this report was verified at the source — published cash-pay menus, hospital price-transparency disclosures, or direct email and phone confirmation where no menu exists — and each is dated rather than assumed current. Prices are re-verified on a rolling basis instead of captured once and left stale. Teletherapy shows what a market with enough live quotes looks like: $60 to $700 per session across 8 verified Austin providers, a spread wide enough to matter for anyone paying cash session to session. Full methodology, including how disputed or ambiguous prices get handled and how often each price is re-checked, is published separately, and every procedure page links back to the date a given price was last confirmed.