Questions about the tools
Can I compare two surgery markets?
Yes. The market brief combines Medicare-certified ASC inventory, recorded operating rooms, historical counts, operator attribution, same-geography TEAM hospitals and county-linked orthopaedic workforce. Compare two metros or two states. Source dates, missing values and incompatible comparisons remain visible; the data does not establish demand or profitability.
What can I research in Open Payments?
Explore public general-payment aggregates for 2019–2025 across available specialties, plus orthopaedic state, company and payment-category views. Company results cover a published top-company extract. Individual physician searches, research payments and ownership interests are not included in this connection. Payments do not establish misconduct.
Does Price Atlas summarize all matching hospitals?
The range, median and spread summarize matching commercial hospital medians for one code, care setting and geographic scope before pagination. Public results show up to five hospital rows. The catalog is not a complete market census; the summary is not a personal cost estimate or a payer-specific quote.
How can I look up hospital prices in my region?
Open the public Price Atlas preview or use the price_search tool through a custom MCP connection. Give a procedure and a US city, state or supported metro area. You can also name a hospital or supply a supported procedure code. The preview returns up to five matching hospitals, with the selected code, care setting and source details.
Are these prices what I will pay out of pocket?
No. Price Atlas reports hospital commercial median rates and separate Medicare benchmarks. These are not a personal estimate, a binding quote or a guarantee of insurance coverage. Your own cost depends on your plan, benefits and the services billed. Confirm a personal estimate with the hospital and your insurer.
Can I research ambulatory surgery center ownership and competition?
Yes. The ASC market tool finds Medicare-certified ambulatory surgery centers in a city, metro area or state. It returns facility counts, named facilities, operators where identified, and available opening and closure information, with source dates. It does not measure a facility's financial performance or clinical quality.
Does the plugin compare hospital prices with surgery center prices?
The plugin's Price Atlas search currently returns hospital inpatient or hospital outpatient prices. It does not return ASC procedure prices. The separate ASC market tool covers facilities and operators. Visit the full Price Atlas website for its broader hospital and surgery center views.
Where do the data come from?
Hospital prices come from Techy Surgeon's public Price Atlas datasets built from hospital price-transparency files, with separate Medicare benchmarks. ASC market and policy results draw on public CMS data and the Federal Register. Results identify their sources and data dates. A hospital file date is not necessarily a price's contract-effective date; missing records do not establish that care is unavailable.
Is medical coding or RVU search included?
Coding and relative value unit (RVU) search are not connected to this plugin. ClinicianCoWork offers a separate signed-in RVU and coding experience at app.cliniciancowork.com/rvu. A ClinicianCoWork login does not currently enable those tools in Policy Radar.
Do I need a membership or a public-directory listing to try it?
No membership is required for the public Price Atlas preview, which shows up to five matching hospitals per search. Member connection for expanded price results is being configured. The MCP server is available for custom connections in compatible assistant clients; a ChatGPT public-directory listing has not yet been published.