Open Mayo Clinic Standard Charges File
The Mayo Clinic Standard Charges file is a publicly available data file that lists the Mayo Clinic prices charged for all items and services. It also breaks down the differences in negotiated prices across health plans and payers.
U.S. hospitals are required to publish hospital standard charges files each year in a standard format, but given the size and complexity of the files, they can't be opened in a traditional spreadsheet like Excel. Row Zero is a next-gen spreadsheet built for big data that makes it easy to open and analyze very large files in an easy-to-use spreadsheet. Simply click the link to open Mayo Clinic standard charges. We've already uploaded and formatted the file and have done a basic analysis.
In this post we'll show how to access and open the Mayo Clinic standard charges files in a spreadsheet and analyze the data. We'll also share some interesting findings.
- How to Open the Mayo Clinic Standard Charges File
- Analyzing Mayo Clinic Standard Charges
- Prices for Common Medications
- Prices for Common Procedures
- Look Up and Chart Any Item
- Mayo Clinic vs Other Hospitals
- Conclusion
How to Open the Mayo Clinic Standard Charges File
You can open and view the Mayo Clinic Standard Charges file here in a Row Zero spreadsheet and also explore our ready-made analysis. The file is too large to open in Excel or Google Sheets so Row Zero is your best option to open and analyze the Mayo Clinic chargemaster file.
Here's a breakdown of how we opened the file in Row Zero:
Access the latest file on the CMS price transparency page at MayoClinic.org. Scroll down and click on the link CMS Price Transparency Machine Readable File. The file will download as a CSV onto your computer.
Open up a Row Zero workbook: Login or sign up for free and open a workbook.
Import the CSV file: Click Data in the top navigation to import a file and then select the CSV you downloaded and click Import.
The first two rows of the file are descriptors of the file. After viewing them, you can delete them to clean up the file.
To analyze the Mayo Clinic price data, a good first step is to add filters and freeze the first row and column to make it easier to drill down into the chargemaster data. To add filters, select the data (or hit Ctrl + A) and go to Data, Filter.
Analyzing Mayo Clinic Standard Charges
Now that we have the Mayo Clinic standard charges data in our spreadsheet and ready to filter, we can start exploring the data. The Mayo Clinic chargemaster data contains one row for every combination of 1) item/procedure 2) payer and 3) plan and lists the Negotiated Price that each payer/plan has negotiated along with some additional info. The Negotiated Price is highlighted in green.
Definition of key fields:
- description - The descriptive name for each item or procedure
- code|1 - While there are 3 code columns, the first is consistently filled and typically has a standard code for that item that is comparable across hospitals. Note, the same "description" can have multiple codes.
- code|1|type - Code type refers to the category the code represents. For example NDC is National Drug Code and is used for medications. Here's a breakdown of code types
- setting - This can be inpatient, outpatient, or both. Note that prices for anything can vary by setting, even something as simple as Acetaminophen (Tylenol).
- standard_charge|gross - The list price before any discounts
- standard_charge|discounted_cash - The discounted price for paying out-of-pocket without insurance
- payer_name - Typically the insurance company that has negotiated the price with the hospital (e.g. Aetna)
- plan_name - The insurance plan, which can be commercial insurance or government programs like Medicare and Medicaid
- Negotiated Price - The price negotiated by a specific payer and plan. Note, there are a number of variables that can impact this including the charge methodology, payment models, and prices negotiated for other services.
- standard_charge|min - Lowest charge negotiated for the item
- standard_charge|max - Maximum charge for the item across plans
- count_of_compared_rates - Count of different negotiated rates for the item
- standard_charge|methodology - The pricing methodology for the item. View a breakdown of these methodologies
Filtering to a specific item
Filter the "description" column to narrow down to a specific item. For example, filter to Acetaminophen 325 MG Oral Tablet (Tylenol) to see the range of prices the Mayo Clinic charges by health plan. 
The prices charged range from $0.20 to $0.50 per pill with a median price of $0.47. This simple example demonstrates the wide disparity in prices and the significant markup that hospitals charge for medications. For example, you can buy Acetaminophen 325 MG tablets at any grocery store, pharmacy, Amazon, etc. and the price is often less than $0.10 per pill and is $0.02 per pill at Walmart. The Mayo Clinic can buy in bulk so at $0.47 per pill the Mayo Clinic upcharge appears to be 2250% vs the $0.02 per pill at Walmart. Even the lowest price charged of $0.20 per pill is a 1000% upcharge. And this isn't an outlier. Many hospitals markup drugs and medical supplies significantly above retail and wholesale prices.
To dig deeper, we've created a pivot table in the Analysis of Mayo Clinic tab that shows the Mayo Clinic price ranges for each procedure, medication, and medical supply. This lets us quickly filter to one item and analyze its price disparity.
Prices for Common Medications at Mayo Clinic
In our Analysis tab, filtering down to some common medications reveals a wide range of drug prices across plans and significant markup from what you'd pay at your local pharmacy. 
Prices for Common Procedures at Mayo Clinic
Similarly, filtering down to a few common medical procedures reveals a wide range of prices charged across health plans. 
Note that this is just the price for the specific procedure. You'll likely also be charged for supplies used, medication provided, and will incur significant costs for overnight stays.
For example, the standard charges file lists a Vaginal Delivery (childbirth) as $2.8K to $6.7K across insurance plans and uninsured patients, but the estimate of the total cost of a vaginal delivery at Mayo Clinic is nearly $29K without insurance, according to the Mayo Clinic's Cost Estimator Tool. 
As you can see, the standard charge range of $2.8k to $6.7k likely just corresponds to the "Professional Charges" line item after discounts. "Professional Charges" is the service offered by the doctors whereas the majority of the total cost is made up of "Facility Charges" which includes everything else - the room, the supplies, the medication, etc. This is where price overcharging for basic items like Tylenol and IV bags can have a widespread impact.
Lookup and chart any item
Using our template analysis tool, you can look up the negotiated price distribution of any item at the Mayo Clinic. Here's an example for Ondansetron 8 MG Tablets, also known as Zofran which is commonly used for nausea in hospitals. 
Just like the examples above, there is a wide variety of prices paid for Ondansetron and a massive upcharge over what you would pay at your local pharmacy or from a discount prescription drug company like Cost Plus Drug Company, which lists 8 MG Ondansetron tablets at $14.90 for 90 pills or $0.17 per pill. Using our simple Upcharge Calculator shows a 3329% upcharge for Ondansetron at the median price charged of $5.83. 
This represents an even larger upcharge than the 2250% upcharge for Tylenol.
Compare Mayo Clinic vs Other Hospitals
Are these big upcharges and price ranges unique to Mayo Clinic or typical across all hospitals? Since each hospital is required to publish a hospital standard charges file we can easily use Row Zero to open and compare standard charges files at any hospital. Let's compare Mayo Clinic vs Cleveland Clinic and UCLA Health across the same common medications and procedures analyzed above.
Compare Standard Charges for Common Medications
When we compare drug prices at hospitals we can see a wide disparity in the median prices charged for common medications and in most cases, a significant upcharge versus retail options like Cost Plus Drugs, Amazon Pharmacy, or Walmart. 
Compare Standard Charges for Common Procedures
We see a similar dynamic when we compare prices at each hospital for common medical procedures. 
The same procedure may be two or three times more expensive at a given hospital. However, keep in mind that this may be just a fraction of the total cost of your visit. For something like a childbirth that requires multiple nights stay in a hospital, and significant supplies and medication, the total costs will be much higher and the least expensive option for the procedure could be a more expensive option for total cost.
Disclaimer: Discrepancies and Errors in Hospital Standard Charge Files
While hospital standard charges files give a powerful level of transparency into healthcare pricing, it's important to note some caveats. First of all, these files are complicated, have millions of rows, and the data was likely manually input into a system at some point, so it's susceptible to human error. In reviewing the files, several input errors were identified. There are also often several line items for very similar items with different price ranges and it's not clear which particular item is the one most frequently used at a given hospital. While the standard charge files use standard codes for items, there can be several potential codes for a given item so comparing items across hospitals isn't always easy or necessarily an exact, accurate comparison. As a result, these files should be used as a starting point for analysis and exploration and you should contact the hospital directly before making any definitive conclusions about the data or to inquire about noteworthy findings.
Conclusion
Hospital standard charges files provide detailed transparency into the prices charged for all items and services at a hospital. Historically these files have been much too large to open in a spreadsheet like Excel or Google Sheets because of those spreadsheet's data limits. Row Zero is a powerful spreadsheet built for big data that lets you open and analyze hospital standard charge files and compare across hospitals. To make it easy, we've already opened the Mayo Clinic standard charges file in Row Zero and set up a template with pivot tables and charts to analyze Mayo Clinic standard charges. The data reveals signficant upcharging for medical supplies and medications and a wide range of prices charged across health plans and payers. You can try Row Zero for free to analyze Mayo Clinic price data or open and analyze hospital standard charges for any hospital in the U.S.
Analyze Mayo Clinic Standard Charges in Row Zero