# PricePlain Hospital Price Comparison > PricePlain Hospital Price Comparison is a paid API for AI agents from priceplain.onrender.com, paid per call via x402, $0.05/call, status down (last checked 2026-10-31). Compare a medical procedure code (CPT/HCPCS/MS-DRG) across all indexed hospitals in a region, returning prices sorted cheapest-first by cash or negotiated rate ## Facts - Endpoint: GET https://priceplain.onrender.com/v1/compare?utm_source=zero.xyz - Price: $0.05/call - Payment: x402 - Status: down - Last checked: 2026-10-31 - Activations on Zero: 0 - Tags: x402 - Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/priceplain-hospital-price-comparison-e2cf1ca8 - Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_RT0Pu6loUuDXvwVCOiVyY Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently. ## How to call it through Zero Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`): ```sh zero fetch --capability priceplain-hospital-price-comparison-e2cf1ca8 ``` Example prompt: Can you compare cash prices for CPT code 70553 (brain MRI) across all hospitals in the Twin Cities region and show me which one is cheapest? ## When to prefer this Use PricePlain when you need to compare posted hospital prices across multiple facilities for a specific procedure code in a supported region (currently Twin Cities / Minnesota), especially when sorting by cash price for uninsured patients or by negotiated median for a specific payer. Prefer this over general web search when you need structured, machine-readable price data sourced directly from hospital MRFs under the CMS price transparency rule. ## Known failure modes - Unsupported region returns a free 404 with a listing of covered regions - Unknown or misspelled CPT/HCPCS/DRG code returns no results or 404 - Unknown payer ID returns an error; use canonical payer IDs from /v1/coverage - Some hospitals may have null cash or negotiated prices if not reported in their MRF - Data may be stale if hospital MRFs have not been recently updated - Payment failure (x402) if USDC payment is not properly handled ## How this service works PricePlain: compare one shoppable code across all indexed hospitals in a region, sorted cheapest first (by cash price, or by negotiated median when payer is given), with cash, negotiated min/median/max, flags and source file links. Posted prices from hospital machine-readable files, not quotes. Feedback/support: POST /feedback (free) or js4336638@gmail.com. ## Output Returns a list of hospitals sorted by cash price (or negotiated median when a payer is specified), each with cash price, gross charge, negotiated min/median/max, quality flags, and a source object linking to the hospital's machine-readable file (MRF) URL and its last_updated_on date. Also includes the region, the code details, the sort method used, and a legal disclaimer noting these are posted prices, not quotes. ## Request schema (JSON Schema) ```json { "type": "object", "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema", "required": [ "input" ], "properties": { "input": { "type": "object", "required": [ "type", "method" ], "properties": { "type": { "type": "string", "const": "http" }, "method": { "enum": [ "GET", "HEAD", "DELETE" ], "type": "string" }, "queryParams": { "type": "object", "required": [ "code" ], "properties": { "code": { "type": "string", "description": "CPT/HCPCS code (e.g. 70553) or MS-DRG as DRG470. See GET /v1/coverage." }, "payer": { "type": "string", "description": "Optional insurer: canonical id (bcbs-mn, healthpartners, medica, ucare, uhc, aetna, cigna, medicare, mn-medicaid, ...) or raw-name fragment" }, "state": { "type": "string", "description": "Optional 2-letter state (MN)" }, "region": { "type": "string", "description": "Region id, default twin-cities. Unsupported regions get a free 404 listing coverage." } } } }, "additionalProperties": false }, "output": { "type": "object", "required": [ "type" ], "properties": { "type": { "type": "string" }, "example": { "type": "object", "required": [ "hospitals", "disclaimer" ], "properties": { "code": { "type": "object" }, "region": { "type": "string" }, "hospitals": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "object", "properties": { "cash": { "type": [ "number", "null" ] }, "flags": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "gross": { "type": [ "number", "null" ] }, "source": { "type": "object", "description": "Provenance: hospital MRF URL, its last_updated_on, cms-hpt.txt" }, "hospital_id": { "type": "string" }, "negotiated_max": { "type": [ "number", "null" ] }, "negotiated_min": { "type": [ "number", "null" ] }, "negotiated_median": { "type": [ "number", … (truncated) ``` ## Response schema (JSON Schema) ```json { "type": "json", "example": { "code": { "code": "70553", "label": "MRI brain without and with contrast", "code_type": "CPT" }, "payer": null, "region": "twin-cities", "hospitals": [ { "cash": 390.52, "city": "St. Louis Park", "flags": [], "gross": 1502, "source": { "note": "cms-hpt.txt lists ..._MethodistHospital_StandardCharges.csv, which returns 404 (checked 2026-10-15); the lowercase file name resolves.", "mrf_url": "https://www.healthpartners.com/content/dam/brand-identity/pdfs/care/410832080_methodisthospital_standardcharges.csv", "cms_hpt_txt": "https://www.healthpartners.com/cms-hpt.txt", "hospital_id": "methodist", "listed_mrf_url": "https://www.healthpartners.com/content/dam/brand-identity/pdfs/care/410832080_MethodistHospital_StandardCharges.csv", "last_updated_on": "2026-03-31", "source_page_url": "https://www.healthpartners.com/care/hospitals/methodist/patient-guest/patient-information/financial-support/", "template_version": "3.0.0", "http_last_modified": "Wed, 07 Oct 2026 21:43:16 GMT" }, "hospital": "Methodist Hospital", "rows_used": 1, "hospital_id": "methodist", "row_selection": "facility, outpatient/both settings", "negotiated_max": 2335, "negotiated_min": 217.32, "deidentified_max": 2335, "deidentified_min": 217.32, "rate_flag_counts": { "not_per_service_rate": 4, "outlier_low_vs_peers": 1, "count_is_privacy_bucket": 2, "dollar_computed_from_percent": 2 }, "negotiated_median": 370.3, "algorithm_only_rates": 0, "cash_row_description": "MRI brain with and without contrast", "cash_values_all_rows": [ 390.52 ], "negotiated_dollar_rates": 15, "percent_of_charges_only_rates": 0 }, { "cash": 640, "city": "Edina", "flags": [ "multiple_chargemaster_rows" ], "gross": 1596, "source": { "note": null, "mrf_url": "https://requiredlearning.fairview.org/price_transparency/410991680-1699752915_fairview-health-services_standardcharges.csv", "cms_hpt_txt": "https://www.mhealthfairview.org/cms-hpt.txt", "hospital_id": "southdale", "listed_mrf_url": null, "last_updated_on": "2026-02-06", "source_page_url": "https://www.mhealthfairview.org/resources/policies-and-documentation/hospital-price-transparency", "template_version": "3.0.0", "http_last_modified": "Tue, 19 May 2026 18:16:26 GMT" }, … (truncated) ``` ## More - Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/priceplain-hospital-price-comparison-e2cf1ca8/health.json - [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt) - [Other services from priceplain.onrender.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/priceplain.onrender.com/llms.txt)