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U.S. Health Care Price Index
Updated: March 2024


The U.S. Health Care Price Index documents the cash price of medical appointments for Americans – including primary care, mental health, COVID care and more – state-by-state on a monthly basis.

Access to the full database by state and region, as well as by visit type, is available for analysis below.

At Sesame, we believe that consumers should know what things will cost them - before they buy.

Price transparency - the ability to provide patients with clear information about the cost of services - is non-existent within the traditional U.S. healthcare system.

Instead, patients (whether they’re insured, under-insured or uninsured) are often saddled with marked-up hospital fees, administrative costs and convoluted bills, leading nearly 40% of Americans to delay or forgo medical care due to high costs.

That's why Sesame publishes the U.S. Health Care Price Index (USHPI) - the first-ever national resource to publicly document the price of cash-pay medical care in America.

It features real pricing data for routine medical services in all 50 states – from primary care and mental health to women’s health and more - with additional prices and specialties to be added over time. In addition to regional and state comparisons, the USHPI tracks price variance and market trends on a monthly basis. Just like price databases for commodities like gasoline, air travel and insurance, consumers can view the most recent cash prices for COVID screening visits, primary care and other medical prices in any state or region.

Here's what cash-pay prices looked like in March 2024:

In March, the average cash price of a primary care telehealth appointment in the United States, with a doctor or nurse practitioner, was $46.40. Wyoming was the most affordable state in which to book a visit ($41.38), and Alaska was the most expensive ($60.20). All regions of the country paid below average for primary care appointments.

Mental health visits in March averaged $50.96 across the country. Most affordable mental health consults that month were found in Idaho ($39.00) and New Mexico ($40.25); states paying the highest were Georgia ($64.48) and Missouri ($62.71).

Americans who paid cash for a prescription refill appointment paid an average of $46.40 in March. Patients in Alaska ($38.50) and Nebraska ($41.06) paid the least for an appointment. Highest prices were found in North Dakota ($57.33) and Mississippi ($55.71).

Interested in checking out the full dataset? Fill out the form below to request access.

FAQs

U.S. Health Care Price Index

The U.S. Health Care Price Index (USHPI) is the first national resource to publicly document the price of cash-pay medical care in America.

It features real pricing data for routine medical services in all 50 states – from primary care and mental health to women’s health and more - with additional prices and specialties to be added over time. In addition to regional and state comparisons, the USHPI tracks price variance and market trends on a monthly basis.

Until now, pricing data for healthcare services has been out-of-reach; now, just like price databases for commodities like gasoline, air travel and insurance, there is a database for understanding the recent cash price of a COVID screening visit, urgent care and many other medical prices in any state or region.

Simply put, the cash price is what a doctor or health care provider charges a consumer when a third-party payer - like insurance or a governmental entity - is not involved in the transaction.

This could be because a patient does not have insurance, is underinsured or chooses to pay their provider directly, without involving a middleman.

The data comes from Sesame, one of the largest cash-pay health services marketplaces in the United States. It covers the thousands of health care providers resident in the marketplace that charge cash prices for their services. Sesame analyzed thousands of primary care and specialty care appointments made on its platform, leveraging pricing data for patient appointments that occurred during March 2024.

Media members can reach out to our press team at press@sesamecare.com for questions, comments, interviews or custom data sets.