What Hospitals Charge in Oregon: A Price Transparency Data Analysis

The Same Hospital, Wildly Different Prices

The most striking finding in Oregon's data isn't the variation between hospitals — it's the variation within them. Coquille Valley Hospital District, a small facility on Oregon's southern coast, reports multiple cash prices for the same procedures that differ by enormous margins:

All prices shown are from Coquille Valley Hospital District's own published pricing file. These are all labeled as "cash" prices for the same CPT code.

When a single hospital lists its MRI Knee cash price as both $141 and $4,141, at least one of those numbers is wrong — and it's impossible for a patient to know which one they'd actually be charged. This pattern, where hospitals report multiple conflicting cash prices for identical procedures, undermines the entire purpose of the transparency rule.

Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center in Bandon shows the same problem. Its Lipid Panel cash prices range from $24.85 to $711.23 (a 28.6x spread), and its MRI Knee prices span $283 to $3,167 (11.2x). Even Adventist Health Portland, the largest facility in our Oregon dataset, lists CBC prices as low as $3.20 alongside more typical charges.

Comparing Across Hospitals: What Procedures Actually Cost

Setting aside the within-hospital chaos and using each hospital's highest reported cash price (which likely reflects the actual charge), here are the biggest price spreads we found across Oregon hospitals:

The spreads here are enormous — even by the standards of our national analysis. A CT scan of the abdomen with contrast costs $190 at Coquille Valley and $4,876 at Southern Coos Hospital, both located on Oregon's southern coast about 25 miles apart. An upper endoscopy at Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande costs $353, while Coquille Valley charges up to $6,748 for the identical procedure.

Note: Some low-end prices (e.g., $3 for CBC at Adventist Health Portland) may represent component fees rather than total charges. Even excluding these, the cross-hospital variation is substantial.

MRI Prices Across Oregon

MRI scans are among the most commonly shopped procedures. Oregon's MRI pricing data is particularly messy, but using the most plausible cash price from each hospital, here's what patients face:

MRI Brain (CPT 70551)

A patient at Southern Coos would pay 2.6x more for the same brain MRI than a patient at Adventist Health Portland — a $1,687 difference. Grande Ronde also reports a $3.53 price for this scan, which is clearly not a dollar amount and has been excluded.

MRI Knee (CPT 73721)

Note that Coquille Valley appears twice — they report both $2,070 and $4,141 as cash prices for the same knee MRI. Using the lower figure, the cheapest knee MRI ($900 at Adventist) costs less than half the most expensive ($2,249 at Lake District) — a 2.5x spread.

All MRI Types — Lowest vs. Highest Cash Price

The extreme spreads on MRI Knee (29.4x) and MRI Shoulder (28.0x) are driven by Coquille Valley's internal price contradictions — both the lowest and highest prices come from the same hospital. Excluding those anomalies, MRI Brain with Contrast still shows a meaningful 20x spread driven by Coquille Valley's $237 low-end price versus Southern Coos's $4,772.

Cash vs. Negotiated: The Uninsured Penalty

Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center in Bandon has the most complete negotiated rate data in our Oregon dataset (1,734 negotiated price records). Comparing their cash prices to what insurance companies negotiate reveals a steep penalty for uninsured patients:

At Southern Coos, insured patients pay 34-50% less than cash-pay patients for the same procedures. For an MRI Knee, that's a $1,590 difference. For a CT scan of the abdomen with contrast, it's $2,206. These gaps are among the steepest we've seen in any state — significantly worse than Colorado's 8-27% penalty and even steeper than Nebraska's 26-44%.

What This Means for Patients

1. Oregon's pricing data is deeply inconsistent — When a hospital reports its own MRI Knee price as both $141 and $4,141, the transparency rule isn't delivering transparency. Multiple Oregon hospitals publish contradictory cash prices for identical procedures, making it impossible for patients to know what they'll actually be charged.
2. Rural Oregon hospitals show the widest gaps — The coastal hospitals (Coquille Valley and Southern Coos, separated by just 25 miles) report dramatically different prices. A CT scan with contrast is $190 at one and $4,876 at the other. For patients in rural Oregon with limited options, these differences are especially consequential.
3. The uninsured penalty is severe — At Southern Coos, cash patients pay 34-50% more than negotiated insurance rates. For imaging and surgical procedures, that penalty translates to $1,500-$2,200 per service.
4. Portland offers the lowest prices for many procedures — Adventist Health Portland consistently reports lower cash prices than rural facilities: $900 for an MRI Knee versus $2,000+ at coastal and eastern Oregon hospitals. Patients willing to travel may save substantially.

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