What Hospitals Charge in Washington: A Price Transparency Data Analysis

ER Visit Prices Across Washington

Emergency room visits are among the most common — and most dreaded — hospital bills in America. Nearly everyone has been to the ER or knows someone who has, and the bill is almost always a surprise. In Washington, the variation is extreme:

ER Visit Price Ranges by Severity Level

A moderate ER visit (Level 3) — think a bad cut that needs stitches or a possible broken bone — can cost anywhere from $106 to over $8,000 depending on which Washington hospital you walk into. That's a 76x difference for the same level of care.

Even the most critical ER visits (Level 5) show a 37x spread. A patient paying cash at the cheapest facility would pay $264 for a visit that costs $9,819 at the most expensive — a difference of over $9,500.

MRI Prices: Multiple Cash Rates at the Same Hospital

Beyond the ER data, Washington's MRI pricing reveals something we haven't seen as clearly in other states: some hospitals report multiple cash prices for the same scan. Quincy Valley Hospital lists six different cash prices for a brain MRI, ranging from $303 to $3,328. Valley Medical Center reports three tiers ($664, $750, $984). This suggests different discount programs, self-pay tiers, or payer-specific cash rates — meaning "What's your cash price?" doesn't always have a single answer.

MRI Brain (CPT 70551)

Using the lowest reported cash price at each hospital, MRI Brain ranges from $247 (Skyline) to $2,155 (Lincoln) — a 8.7x spread. Using the highest tier at Quincy Valley ($3,328), the spread widens to 13.5x.

All MRI Types — Lowest vs. Highest Cash Price

Skyline Hospital in White Salmon consistently has the lowest MRI prices in our Washington dataset, while Lincoln Hospital in Davenport tends toward the highest. Both are small rural facilities — the difference isn't explained by urban vs. rural economics.

Note: Skyline's $1.70 and $3.45 MRI Knee prices and $20.88 MRI Cervical Spine price have been excluded as clear data errors. Garfield County Memorial's $131 MRI Knee is unusually low but not impossible for a rural critical access hospital.

Beyond ER Visits: Price Variation Across Common Procedures

The price gaps extend well beyond emergency and imaging services. Here are the biggest cash price spreads we found across Washington hospitals, excluding clear data anomalies:

A 120x spread on a knee X-ray ($22 vs. $2,668) is striking. Even basic lab work like a urinalysis ranges 60x ($7 to $432). The low-end prices — $7 for a urinalysis, $12 for a metabolic panel — may reflect legitimate pricing at small rural hospitals with lower overhead. The high-end prices likely reflect chargemaster (list) rates being reported as cash prices.

Cash vs. Negotiated at Arbor Health Morton Hospital

Arbor Health Morton Hospital has the most complete pricing data in our Washington dataset (1,943 records). Comparing their cash prices to negotiated insurance rates reveals an inconsistent pattern — insurance saves you significantly on some procedures but barely anything on others:

The insurance discount at Arbor Health ranges from 45% for X-rays and ER visits down to essentially zero for CT scans and spine MRIs. For a cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal), the negotiated rate is actually slightly higher than the cash price — a rare case where paying cash is the better deal. This kind of inconsistency makes it impossible to assume insurance always gets you a lower price.

What This Means for Patients

1. ER pricing is wildly inconsistent — A moderate ER visit ranges from $106 to $8,117 across Washington hospitals. If you have a choice of where to go for non-life-threatening emergencies, the price difference can be thousands of dollars.
2. "What's your cash price?" may have multiple answers — Some Washington hospitals report several cash price tiers for the same procedure. Ask specifically which discount programs are available and whether you qualify for a lower tier.
3. Insurance doesn't always mean a lower price — At Arbor Health, the insurance discount ranges from 45% to effectively nothing, and for one procedure the cash price is actually lower. Always ask for the cash price even if you have insurance, especially for planned procedures.
4. The data itself is unreliable — More than any other state we've analyzed, Washington's hospital pricing files contain obvious errors ($1.70 MRIs, $4.22 hip replacements). Until hospitals take compliance more seriously, patients can't fully trust these files as shopping tools.

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