Every price came from a phone call.
MarketCare doesn't scrape PDFs. We call clinics, ask what cash-pay patients pay, and log the answer with the date and the person who quoted it. This page is the methodology.
THE NUMBERS
A working benchmark — verified and dated.
The directory is only useful if the prices are real. Here's the current state of coverage and our verification cadence.
- 9,481▲
- Verified quotes
- 200+▲
- Procedures
- By phone▲
- Verification method
- ≤ 90 days▲
- Re-verify cadence
THE PROCESS
Five steps. No magic.
The process is boring on purpose. The harder we make verification look, the easier it is to fake.
- 01
We pick a procedure and a clinic
Driven by what Austinites are actually searching for. We start with the high-volume procedures and the highest-traffic clinics, then expand outward.
- 02
We call them — like a patient would
No press credentials, no scraping. Our team calls the clinic's published number and asks the same question a cash-pay patient would: 'How much does X cost if I'm paying myself?'
- 03
We log the answer with provenance
We record who quoted us, when, and exactly what was quoted (e.g. 'MRI knee without contrast, $475 cash, Sarah at the front desk, Apr 12').
- 04
We publish only what's verified
If a clinic won't quote a price, we don't make one up. The listing shows 'price not published' and links to the clinic's contact info. The directory is honest about what we don't know.
- 05
We re-verify on a rolling basis
Healthcare prices drift. We re-call clinics on a 90-day rolling schedule and immediately when a user reports a discrepancy.
THE PRINCIPLES
The four lines we don't cross.
Cash is the price we publish
Insurance-negotiated rates are confidential and vary wildly. The cash price is the only number we can verify and republish without misleading anyone.
Provenance over precision
We'd rather show a verified $475 with a date and a name than a precise-looking $473.50 we can't explain. If you ask us where a number came from, we can tell you.
We don't take money from clinics
We don't accept payment for placement, ranking, or visibility. Listings appear because they exist, not because they paid.
We accept user reports
If you paid a different price, tell us. We log every report, re-verify within a few days, and update the listing if our number was wrong.
QUESTIONS
Common questions.
- Why don't you publish insurance-negotiated rates?
- Negotiated rates are governed by contracts between insurers and clinics. We can't reliably republish them without breaking those contracts or misleading patients about which plan applies. Cash is the universal benchmark.
- Do clinics ever push back?
- Sometimes. The vast majority appreciate having an accurate price published — it cuts down on phone time. The few who don't tend to be the ones whose prices are unusually high.
- How often is a price wrong?
- Rare, but it happens. Most discrepancies come from procedure-name ambiguity (e.g. 'MRI knee' with vs without contrast). When we get a report, we re-call within a few business days.
- Can I trust the price exactly?
- Trust the order of magnitude and the relative comparison. Always confirm the price with the clinic when you book — same as you'd reconfirm a quote from anywhere.
✦HELP US KEEP THIS HONEST
Paid a different price than what we listed?
Reporting takes a minute and is anonymous. Every report makes the directory better for the next person who looks.