OpenDoc Price Index
The OpenDoc Price Index publishes what healthcare actually costs when you pay cash — resolved to one canonical service in one market at a time. It currently covers 4 published cells across 4 markets, 2 of which meet the citation threshold.
Two kinds of number, never mixed
A committed price is one a provider has posted and is bound by: escrow-backed, bookable, and final — the price shown is the price paid. A labeled estimate is a dated range that is explicitly not a price and not bookable: either what an office reported to our agent on a recorded call, or the published Medicare fee-schedule benchmark. Estimates are always labeled with their basis and date, they never appear in price markup, and they are never presented as our number.
How a cell is published
- Three or more providers posting a committed price: the cell publishes. Below that we say nothing rather than publish one office's price as a market range.
- Five or more providers: the cell reaches the citation threshold and enters our sitemap and citation panel — the point at which a median stops swinging on a single provider's edit.
- Settlement evidence: we do not describe the Index as the reference for a market until completed, escrow-settled transactions back a meaningful share of it.
Integrity rules
- Settlement weighting. A price gains weight from completed transactions — evidence that cannot be asserted, only transacted into existence.
- Freshness. Every committed-price change is captured in an append-only ledger; prices that go stale without refresh lose prominence.
- Nothing is for sale. Ordering inputs are price, settlement evidence, and freshness. There is no sponsored placement and no field in the ranking a provider could buy.
- Dispersion monitoring. We track price dispersion per market and publish the trend, because transparency in a concentrated market can help sellers converge upward. The Index weights transacted prices and keeps booking one tap away, which advantages whoever undercuts a price umbrella.
- Honest absence. An empty cell shows as empty. We never fabricate a range to fill a gap.
Coverage is published too
Our own coverage number — the share of the service panel resolved by a committed price in each market — is public at api.opendoc.com/registry/summary. The denominator is a versioned, reviewed service list, so coverage cannot be improved by quietly narrowing what we count.
For machines
The Index is free to consult and free to cite. Query cells directly at api.opendoc.com/registry/prices, read coverage at /registry/summary, or connect the OpenDoc MCP server so an AI assistant can resolve live committed prices without crawling. See OpenDoc for AI.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Price Index cell?
One canonical service in one market — for example, an MRI of the brain in Atlanta. A cell publishes only when at least three providers post a committed price for it, because below that a range is really one office's price.
What is the difference between a committed price and an estimate?
A committed price is one a provider has posted and is bound by: it is escrow-backed, bookable, and final. An estimate is a labeled, dated range that is not a price and is not bookable — either what an office told our agent by phone, or a published Medicare benchmark. The two never share a field, and estimates never receive price markup.
Why do settled transactions matter?
Quote-backed benchmarks get gamed; transaction-backed benchmarks survive. A price carries more weight in the Index as real, completed, escrow-settled bookings accumulate behind it, and a posted price that is never booked decays in prominence.
Can I cite or reuse the Index?
Yes, freely — no key, no login, no licence. Attribution is requested, not required. There is also a machine-readable feed at api.opendoc.com/registry/prices and an MCP server for AI agents.