The Austin Cash-Pay
Price Index.
What healthcare actually costs in Austin when you pay cash — from 4,477 prices we verified by phone across 954 providers. Every figure is dated, sourced, and links to the provider you'd call. Free to cite.
40% lower
Across the 189 Austin procedures where we have both a verified cash price and a hospital's posted price, the cash price is a median 40% lower than the lowest CMS price-transparency rate an Austin hospital posts for it — ranging from 14% to 77% at the 10th–90th percentile.
120 of the procedures we priced have a cash option under $100.
Biggest verified gaps
3+ verified quotes each| Procedure | Cash from | Hospital | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varicose Vein Ablation (Laser/Radiofrequency)3 quotes | $2,000 | $4,000 | $2,00050% |
| Heel Spur Excision3 quotes | $1,900 | $3,550 | $1,65046% |
| Ganglion Cyst Removal4 quotes | $450 | $2,050 | $1,60078% |
| MRI (Brain with Contrast)3 quotes | $450 | $1,612 | $1,16272% |
| Carpal Tunnel Release6 quotes | $1,500 | $2,500 | $1,00040% |
| Trigger Finger Release5 quotes | $1,200 | $2,050 | $85041% |
| Capsule Endoscopy6 quotes | $1,000 | $1,750 | $75043% |
| Cataract Surgery (Per Eye)5 quotes | $2,200 | $2,900 | $70024% |
| Stress Test (Treadmill)6 quotes | $200 | $876 | $67677% |
| Hemorrhoid Banding (Rubber Band Ligation)5 quotes | $500 | $1,150 | $65057% |
| Ankle Arthroscopy5 quotes | $3,500 | $4,100 | $60015% |
| Colonoscopy with Biopsy3 quotes | $950 | $1,500 | $55037% |
Savings = cheapest verified cash price vs the lowest CMS price-transparency rate an Austin hospital posts for the same procedure. Conservative by design — compared against the lowest-posting hospital, not the highest.
Cash prices for the procedures people get most.
How the index is built.
Transparent by design. Here's exactly what's in the dataset, what's not, and how to check any figure.
- How are these prices collected?
- Every price is a real cash-pay quote captured by phone or from a provider's published cash menu, then recorded with the provider, procedure, CPT code, and date. As of the latest update the dataset holds 4,477 verified quotes across 954 Austin-area providers and 538 priced procedures.
- What does the savings figure compare?
- The cheapest verified cash price for a procedure against the lowest CMS price-transparency rate an Austin hospital posts for that same procedure. Hospital figures come from the hospitals' own CMS-mandated price-transparency disclosures, not third-party estimates. It is deliberately conservative — compared against the lowest-posting hospital.
- What's excluded?
- Partial quotes (a facility-only or surgeon-only component rather than the full procedure) and hospital drug-administration codes (per-milligram admin fees that aren't a real course of care) are filtered out so they never distort a range.
- How current is it?
- The most recent verification in this dataset is dated August 2026. Prices are re-verified on a rolling basis and the index updates as new quotes land.
- Can I cite these numbers?
- Yes. This page is free to cite and link. For a specific figure, link to the procedure page it comes from — every number here resolves to a provider-level breakdown you can verify.