How We Build These Numbers
Transparency only counts if you can check our work. Here is exactly where the rates come from, how we aggregate them, and what they can and cannot tell you.
The source
Under the federal Transparency in Coverage rule, health insurers must publish machine-readable files listing the in-network rates they have negotiated with providers. These files are public. They are also enormous, often tens of gigabytes each, which is why almost no practice ever opens the file that contains its own contract. We download a payer plan file, stream through it, and pull out the negotiated rates for the codes independent practices bill most.
Exactly what is in this release
We believe in showing our work down to the file. The current numbers come from UnitedHealthcare's Options network in-network-rates file for the July 2026 reporting period. It is one network, not every UnitedHealthcare contract, and it is one payer, not the whole market. We resolve each rate to a state using the provider's address in the national NPPES registry. We are adding more payers and networks over time, and every page names its source. If a number here does not match your contract, that is the point: it tells you where your rate sits against the market.
Place of service
We report office place of service, POS 11, so every number describes the same setting: a service delivered in a physician office. Facility and outpatient-hospital rates are different animals, and mixing them would produce a meaningless average. When we expand to other settings we will label them separately.
How we aggregate
A single code in a single state has many negotiated rates, because a payer contracts with many provider groups. We report the median, the 25th percentile, and the 75th percentile, plus the observed minimum and maximum, and the count of rates behind each figure. The median is the middle of the market, and the spread between the 25th and 75th percentile tells you how much room the payer has to pay differently for the same work.
The Medicare anchor
Every rate is shown against the Medicare non-facility allowed amount for that code and state. A dollar figure alone is hard to judge. Knowing a payer pays 108 percent of Medicare, or 82 percent, tells you immediately whether the rate is strong or weak for your market.
What these numbers are not
They are not a guarantee of what you will be paid. Your rate depends on your specific contract, your specialty, your group size, and your negotiating power. They are not your contract. They are a benchmark: what the payer pays across the market, so you can tell whether your own rate is competitive or whether it is quietly below where most practices sit. If it is below, that is a conversation worth having with the payer, and one we have on behalf of practices every week.
See How Your Rates Compare
We benchmark your fee schedules against what payers publish and renegotiate the ones that fall short.
Aggregated from UnitedHealthcare's own federal Transparency in Coverage machine-readable files (reporting period July 2026). Office place-of-service professional rates. Ranges, not a guarantee of your rate.