Ed Bennet, a hospital web manager, has developed a public hospital search tool using the Google Custom Search engine.  The search tool allows you to search more than 2800 hospital websites in a single search query.  The hospital websites included in the search results, provide much more information than just prices for services.  This tool this can be useful to find/access hospital price data that is hard to find using the standard Google search engine, and elminiates the need to individually search each hospital.  

For example, using his hospital search engine, if you type in:

MRI price (results returned = 86)

price x-ray  (results returned = 197)

emergency room price (results returned = 91)

Unfortunately, most hospitals publish their “list price” for services, rather than the true out-of-pocket price for their services.  The list price often has nothing to do with the actual price you are expected to pay for services.  If you pay cash and are uninsured, you should expect (and demand) that you receive a discount from the list price so make sure you inquire about a discounted price.  If you are insured, you will pay a lower, contracted rate that your insurer has negotiated with the hospital provider.