Frequently Asked Questions

Taven Health is a free healthcare pricing platform that helps Americans understand, compare, and control their healthcare costs. We aggregate government-mandated price transparency data from 11,322 sites of care (hospitals & surgery centers) across all 50 states, giving you access to 3 million+ negotiated rates for 860+ procedures.

Our tools include hospital price comparison, medical bill review, cost estimation, insurance appeal letter generation, and educational guides — all designed to put pricing power back in patients' hands.

Yes. All of our core consumer tools are completely free — including hospital price comparison, bill review (Quick Analysis), cost estimation, and educational guides. We believe healthcare pricing information should be accessible to everyone.

We offer premium features like Deep Analysis for detailed bill review, and we provide data access for partners, employers, and healthcare organizations through our partner program.

We aggregate from 80+ verified government and hospital sources including CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), hospital Machine-Readable Files (MRFs) required under the Hospital Price Transparency Rule, and state databases.

All hospitals are federally required to publish their pricing data, and we collect, validate, and standardize this information to make it searchable and comparable.

Our data maintains a 99% quality pass rate. Every pricing record goes through our validation pipeline, which includes outlier detection, cross-referencing against multiple sources, and standardization checks.

However, prices shown are estimates based on publicly available data — your actual costs depend on your insurance plan, network status, and specific services received. Always confirm final costs with your provider.

We update our data regularly as hospitals publish new pricing files and CMS releases updated datasets. Hospitals are required to update their Machine-Readable Files at least annually, and many update more frequently.

Our data pipeline continuously monitors for new publications and incorporates updates as they become available.

Upload a photo or PDF of your medical bill to our Bill Review tool. Our Bill Intelligence Engine analyzes each line item, identifies the procedures by CPT code, and compares your charges against our database of 3 million+ negotiated rates from similar hospitals and surgery centers in your area.

You'll see whether each charge is within the typical range, above average, or significantly higher than comparable facilities — along with specific savings opportunities.

Yes. We take data security seriously. Bill images and data are processed securely, and we don't sell or share your personal medical billing information with third parties.

Our Quick Analysis processes bills in-browser without storing them on our servers. For logged-in users, bill history is encrypted and tied to your account.

If our analysis shows your charges are above the typical range, you have several options:

1. Request an itemized bill from the hospital to verify each charge
2. Use our comparison data as evidence to negotiate directly with the billing department
3. Generate an appeal or dispute letter using our Letters tool
4. Ask about financial assistance programs — most hospitals are required to offer them
5. Check if the No Surprises Act applies to any of your charges

Taven does not directly negotiate bills on your behalf. We're a data and tools platform — we give you the information and resources you need to negotiate effectively yourself.

Our tools show you comparable prices at nearby hospitals, generate dispute letters, and guide you through the appeals process. We believe empowering patients with data is more effective and scalable than one-off negotiations.

Quick Analysis is our free, instant bill review that identifies your procedures and provides a basic comparison against regional pricing data.

Deep Analysis is a more comprehensive review that includes detailed line-item comparison across multiple hospitals, confidence scoring, savings estimates, actionable recommendations, and suggested next steps — including draft language for negotiation or disputes.

Use our Provider Compare tool to search for any procedure by name or CPT code. Select your location, and we'll show you prices across nearby hospitals — including gross charges, negotiated rates, and cash prices.

You can filter by distance, sort by price, and see how each hospital compares to the regional average. Each hospital page also includes quality ratings and additional pricing details.

Hospital grades (A through F) are our composite assessment combining pricing competitiveness, data transparency, and quality metrics.

An "A" grade indicates a hospital with competitive pricing, good transparency compliance, and strong quality scores. Grades factor in how a hospital's prices compare to regional averages, whether they fully publish required pricing data, and their CMS quality ratings.

These grades help you quickly identify hospitals that offer both fair pricing and quality care.

Hospital pricing variation is one of the biggest problems in American healthcare. Prices vary due to several factors:

• Chargemaster differences — each hospital sets its own list prices independently
• Negotiating power — larger hospital systems can charge more
• Location — urban vs. rural, high vs. low cost-of-living areas
• Payer mix — hospitals with more uninsured patients may shift costs
• Teaching hospital status — academic medical centers often charge more
• Market competition — less competition typically means higher prices

Our data shows the same procedure can vary by 10x or more between hospitals in the same city.

A cost-to-charge ratio (CCR) compares what it actually costs a hospital to provide a service versus what they charge for it. For example, a CCR of 0.25 means the hospital charges roughly 4 times its actual cost.

Lower CCRs indicate larger markups. CMS publishes hospital-level CCRs, and we include them in our hospital profiles. This metric helps you understand how much markup is built into a hospital's prices — useful context when negotiating or choosing where to receive care.

CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings (1–5 stars) are calculated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services using data from several quality measurement programs. They factor in:

• Mortality rates
• Safety of care (infections, complications)
• Readmission rates
• Patient experience (HCAHPS survey scores)
• Timely & effective care measures

The ratings are updated periodically and help patients compare hospital quality alongside pricing data. We display these ratings on each hospital's profile page.

If your insurance denies a claim, you have the right to appeal. Here's the general process:

1. Request the denial in writing with specific reasons
2. Review your plan's appeal procedures and deadlines — you typically have 180 days
3. Gather supporting documentation including medical records and your doctor's recommendation
4. Write a formal appeal letter — our Letters tool can help generate one
5. Submit the internal appeal to your insurance company
6. If denied again, request an external review by an independent third party

Many denials are overturned on appeal — it's worth the effort.

The No Surprises Act is a federal law (effective January 2022) that protects patients from unexpected medical bills in certain situations:

• Emergency services — you can't be billed at out-of-network rates for ER visits
• Out-of-network providers at in-network facilities — if an anesthesiologist or radiologist is out-of-network at your in-network hospital, you're protected
• Air ambulance services from out-of-network providers

Under the law, you only owe your in-network cost-sharing amount. The law also requires providers to give you a Good Faith Estimate before scheduled services if you're uninsured or self-paying.

If you're uninsured, you have several options:

1. Ask for the cash price — hospitals are required to publish cash rates, which are often significantly lower than billed charges
2. Request a Good Faith Estimate before any scheduled service (required under the No Surprises Act)
3. Apply for financial assistance — non-profit hospitals are required to have charity care programs
4. Use our Price Compare tool to find the most affordable hospital for your procedure
5. Negotiate — hospitals are often willing to offer significant discounts for upfront cash payment
6. Ask about payment plans

Our tools show cash prices specifically to help uninsured patients find the best rates.

Most non-profit hospitals are required to offer financial assistance (charity care) programs. To apply:

1. Ask the hospital's billing department for their financial assistance application
2. You'll typically need to provide proof of income (tax returns, pay stubs)
3. Each hospital sets its own eligibility criteria — many cover patients earning up to 200–400% of the federal poverty level
4. Apply even if you think you won't qualify — many patients are surprised by the generous thresholds
5. You can apply after receiving a bill, not just before treatment

Our hospital profiles indicate which facilities are non-profit and likely to have financial assistance programs.

Yes, and you should. You can negotiate with your insurance company in several ways:

1. Appeal denied claims — many denials are overturned
2. Request a re-review with additional documentation from your doctor
3. Ask about exceptions for out-of-network providers if comparable in-network options aren't available
4. File a complaint with your state insurance commissioner if you believe your claim was wrongly denied
5. Request an external review

Use Taven's pricing data to show that your costs are reasonable compared to what other providers charge for the same service.

A Machine-Readable File (MRF) is a digital file that hospitals are federally required to publish containing their pricing information in a standardized, computer-processable format (typically JSON or CSV).

Under the Hospital Price Transparency Rule (effective January 2021), every hospital must publish an MRF containing: gross charges, negotiated rates with each payer, discounted cash prices, and de-identified minimum and maximum negotiated rates.

These files are the primary source of the pricing data we collect and standardize at Taven Health.

We currently cover 716 of the most common medical procedures identified by CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) codes. This includes common lab tests (CBC, metabolic panels, A1C), imaging (X-rays, CT scans, MRIs), surgical procedures, office visits, and emergency services.

We're continuously expanding our coverage. If you're looking for a specific CPT code and don't find it, it may be available through our partner data portal or added in a future update.

We currently cover 11,322 sites of care (hospitals & surgery centers) across all 50 states — one of the largest healthcare pricing databases available. This includes most major hospital systems, teaching hospitals, and community hospitals.

Some smaller facilities, specialty hospitals, or those not compliant with federal transparency requirements may not be included. We're continuously expanding our coverage as more hospitals publish their pricing data in compliant formats.

Our confidence score (displayed as a percentage on pricing comparisons) reflects how reliable we believe a particular price point is. It factors in:

1. Data recency — how recently the pricing file was published
2. Source quality — whether the data comes from a verified MRF, CMS, or secondary source
3. Completeness — whether all expected fields (gross charge, negotiated rate, cash price) are present
4. Consistency — whether the price aligns with historical data and comparable facilities
5. Cross-validation — whether multiple sources confirm similar pricing

Higher confidence scores indicate more reliable price estimates.

The Bill Intelligence Engine is Taven's core analysis technology that powers our bill review tools. When you upload a medical bill, the engine:

1. Extracts and identifies each line item and CPT code
2. Matches charges against our database of 3 million+ negotiated rates
3. Compares your charges to regional averages and nearby hospitals
4. Calculates a fairness score for each charge
5. Identifies potential issues — overcharges, duplicate billing, and unbundling
6. Generates recommendations including estimated savings

It combines pricing data, billing pattern analysis, and healthcare domain knowledge to give you a comprehensive picture of whether your bill is fair.