# What a hospital page shows

Lesson 1 of [Read an MRI price listing](https://mriprices.fyi/academy/read-an-mri-price-listing.md), 12 minutes.

MRIPrices lists hospitals in the United States. One listing is one hospital. The list comes from the CMS hospital roster, which lists hospitals that take part in Medicare. The site does not list independent imaging centers.

## The fields on a hospital page

- **Name, address and phone**: from the CMS hospital roster.
- **Cash-price status**: one of three values. They are described below.
- **Scan prices**: a cash price and a list price for each of four MRI scans, when the hospital's file gives them.
- **Hospital price file**: a link to the machine-readable file that the prices came from.
- **Prices read on**: the date (UTC) that the site read that file.
- **Source**: a note that says where the record comes from and when the site read it.

## The three cash-price statuses

- **Published hospital cash prices**: the site read MRI prices from the hospital's own file. Check which scan prices have a value. For some codes a file gives a list price and no cash price.
- **Price unavailable**: the site has no price from the file yet. The source note often gives the reason. For example, no file address is on record, the file could not be downloaded, or the file has no MRI codes in it.
- **Military or veterans hospital, not open to the general public**: a federal facility that does not serve the general public.

## A listing is a record

A hospital page is a record of public data. It is not an endorsement of the hospital, and it does not rate the quality of care. Every hospital is listed for free. A paid plan can add a badge or a place at the top of a city page. A sponsored slot always has a 'sponsored' label. A paid plan does not change the prices that the hospital's file lists.

## Sources

- MRIPrices data sources: CMS hospital roster via cms-hpt-tracker (retrieved 2026-10-03), and each hospital's machine-readable file
- CMS, Hospital Price Transparency (cms.gov/priorities/key-initiatives/hospital-price-transparency)

This course is general information, not medical, legal or financial advice.

Also on the [web page](https://mriprices.fyi/academy/read-an-mri-price-listing/what-a-hospital-page-shows).