FAQs

Medifees.com was founded in 2013 by Dr. Gail Tasch and Hugo Gallegos.

Medifees.com is a subsidiary of MediVerity Inc. 

Providers and medical facilities are listed for free in our database. Payments aren’t accepted for the same. 

Information on procedure and treatment cost is aggregated from federal and state agencies, medical facilities, the private sector, and patients.

Currently, over 14,000 hospitals and medical facilities in the USA are included in the data set that we use. 

A Chargemaster is a listing of each item that could be billed to a patient, payers or other health care providers. Each medical facility is equipped with a Chargemaster. We at Medifees.com do not use any Chargemasters.

We don’t presently, our services are free.

Medical providers included in our database are as follows:

• MD → Medical Doctor
• DPM → Doctor of Podiatry
• DDS/DMD → Dentist
• DC → Chiropractor
• DO → Osteopathy Doctor
• PA → Physician Assistant
• NP → Nurse Practitioner
• OD → Optometrist
• RN → Registered Nurse
• CRNA → Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists
• LMSW → Licensed Master Social Worker
• DPT → Doctor of Physical Therapy
• CNP → Certified Nurse Practitioner
• MPT → Master of Physical Therapy
• FNP → Family Nurse Practitioner
• Au.D. → Doctor of Audiology
• P.T → Physical Therapists
• O.T → Occupational Therapists
• ASC → Ambulatory Surgical Centers
• Hosp → Hospitals

No, our medical provider cost data is aggregated from several sources. Currently, our largest implementation of data sets are Medicare 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 released by The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. When using our database to compare cost on a medical procedure you will see the source (i.g Medicare 2015) of data listed with each search result towards the middle of the page. Other included data is submitted by patients using our medical bill submission form.  

Payer claims data are large data sets in databases that usually include medical claims, dental claims, pharmacy claims, and provider information from private and public payers.  
 

Yes, registered users can view all procedure cost information and volumes performed by medical providers. And registered users have the option to view all data in a visualization format.    
 

The Center for Medicare & Medicare uses the term provider utilization and payment data as a name for one of their many data sets included in their data vault. This data, which is Physician and Other Supplier Public Use File (Physician and Other Supplier PUF) provides information on services and procedures provided to Medicare beneficiaries by physicians and other healthcare professionals.

Yes, if you have private insurance you can still lookup costs on any medical procedure. Though, the billed amounts and costs currently only pertain to Medicare recipients, even if you have private insurance searching through our database will give you an insight of procedure costs and variations throughout what medical providers charge, and perhaps give you negotiating power when it comes to your medical bill.      

Currently, the most recent data release is 2015 for Medicare and released by The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. However, we're are currently using the 2014 Medicare data set because of the quality in data with less limitations comparisons with the newest release, therefore benefiting the Medicare beneficiary. Also, when using the search function the results page towards the bottom right corner will display the data set being used at Medifees.com.

We don't think so. The sole purpose of Medifees.com was simplicity and user-friendlyness when it comes to comparing and seeing insights on medical procedure costs and on provider volumes of procedures and treatments. There are huge cost disparities in Medicare that most Medicare beneficiaries are unaware of. Our goal is to simplify the process and tell the story using different technologies and formats so that you the healthcare consumer can make better informed health care decisions. 

Yes, these are actual billed amounts and not procedure cost estimates. This data tells the story on what patients have paid out of pocket, what the provider billed Medicare, and the allowed amount for procedure or treatment.     

Volume is short for “Total Daily Performed” and/or “Distinct Daily Performed” as described on search results. Each field has it’s own explanation and can be viewed by clicking on the “?” icon next to the field when reviewing search results. These two fields are associated with the number of procedures and/or treatments that a medical provider has treated based on data submitted by medical providers to The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

This depends on several factors such as what type of health insurance you have, the medical facility/provider, the type of surgical procedure, the geo-location and other such factors. Even with Medicare there is not a set cost for the same procedures. And, on the same insurance, undergoing the same medical procedure, you may pay $1,000 out of your pocket with one provider and $2,500 out of pocket with another provider.  

At this time procedue cost data is only searchable within the U.S.     

When you register for FREE, the data will be presented in a pictorial and graphical format. This enables users to better grasp the medical cost disparities throughout and identify other patterns. After all, nobody wants to browse through endless rows of data like you would otherwise see when visiting sites like cms.gov. 

GoMedi Score℠ is a proprietary volume metric scoring algorithm developed by Medifees.com.  The GoMedi Score algorithm pertains to the Medicare dataset of 2014 only. Therefore, if a medical provider has a low star rating, it could be because most of his/her patients are not medicare patients regarding a specific procedure or treatment. And if a medical provider has a five star rating it's because that particular provider treats a very high volume of Medicare patients for that specific treatment/procedure compared to other healthcare providers.

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