I don't know if other states do this, but at least in California hospitals report their prices (known as a chargemaster or master charge description file) onlin

I don't know if other states do this, but at least in California hospitals report their prices (known as a chargemaster or master charge description file) online at OSHPD (http://www.oshpd.ca.gov/chargemaster/ http://www.oshpd.ca.gov/chargemaster/). Even looking through these you'd be surprised what prices there are. This isn't a new controversy, but still quite problematic - for some fun try Googling "usual, customary and reasonable" (UCR charges).