A Bloomington resident independently launched an online hospital price tool for patients to shop for more affordable healthcare.
Hospitals have been federally required to publish a standard list of charges since 2019, and recent noncompliance warnings issued by the Trump administration were given to 34 Indiana medical facilities — the third highest number of facilities per state.
Alex Leykin, Bloomington resident and computer scientist, said he coded the site in his spare time after he realized machine-readable files are not accessible to the average consumer. The site uses data from those files to aggregate price information.
“…These giant files, these giant spreadsheets, where you have millions of codes, and then pricing for different insurances,” he said. “So, I thought, ‘why don't I use my computer science background just to kind of put it in a more user-friendly format?’”
The tool allows consumers to search by hospital, procedure name and code, insurance plan and general location. Leykin said the site uses artificial intelligence to describe medical jargon in layman’s terms, and the site also provides estimates for other items typically billed with a procedure.
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Leykin said finding the most accurate figure can sometimes prove difficult with price variations between hospitals and insurance plans.
“It could be just like an hour or a 90-minute drive,” he said, “and you can save a thousand bucks.”
Leykin’s tool is not the first to try and make healthcare prices more accessible for Hoosiers.
Patient Rights Advocate, a nonprofit focused on improving hospital price transparency, released a similar tool geared toward Indiana hospitals. PRA launched the Indiana Hospital Price Finder with Governor Mike Braun in May.
PRA Director of Research Ilaria Santangelo said the emergence of independently made hospital price finder tools showcases patients’ demand for knowing exactly what could show up on a medical bill.
“There’s no reason a patient can’t walk into the hospital and know the actual cost of their MRI upfront,” she said.
PRA also offers price finder tools for Colorado, Nevada, New York City, Ohio and Oklahoma.
“In order to create a healthier America, we have to give patients access to prices up front, so they can get the care that they need at prices they know they can afford,” Santangelo said.
Leykin plans to expand his tool to all 50 states and hopes to include price information for independent medical facilities and standalone surgery centers, which he said are often cheaper than hospitals.
The code for Leykin's site is open-source and available on GitHub for others to contribute, collaborate or make tools of their own.
