Every published price

Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital

for Lower back X-ray · Palos Heights 60463

Paying with

Any insurance Cash / no insurance Aetna Aetna Better Health of Illinois (Medicaid) Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois Blue Cross Community Health Plans (Medicaid) Cigna CountyCare (Cook County Health Medicaid) Humana Illinois Medicaid (fee-for-service) Medicare (fee-for-service) Meridian (Medicaid) Molina Healthcare (Medicaid) UnitedHealthcare

You told us you are paying without insurance, so the cash price below is the figure that applies to you.

Which of these is yours you said: paying cash

List price

The "gross charge" — the sticker price almost nobody actually pays.

$1,299

Cash price Yours

What this hospital says it charges someone paying without insurance — you. Ask for it by this name.

$909.30

Negotiated rates

30 rates across 17 insurers. What each one actually pays. None of them is your price if you pay cash.

$207.84 – $1,299

The same procedure, at this one hospital, ranges from $207.84 to $1,299. That is not an error, and it is not our arithmetic — it is what the hospital published.

The difference is between insurers and plans. Each negotiates its own rate, so which figure applies to you depends on the card in your wallet.

Rate by insurer, plan and line item

What each insurer pays

Sorted cheapest first, grouped by plan and then by the hospital's own line item. Plan names and line items are written exactly as the hospital wrote them. A plan that carries more than one price gets one row per price; line items the hospital priced the same are listed together once, because the file gives no reason to show one price as several.

BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD [1401] $207.84 – $1,299 6.3×

Plans, line items and rates for BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD [1401]
PH BCBS BLUECHOICE OPTIONS HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$207.84
PH BCBS BLUECHOICE OPTIONS SELECT HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$207.84
PH BCBS BLUECHOICE PREFERRED HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$207.84
PH BCBS PPO HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$249.41
PH BCBS HMO HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$508.30
PH BCBS PAR/INDEMNITY ADP HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,299

ALTERNATE BLUE CROSS [1402] $249.41 – $508.30 2×

Plans, line items and rates for ALTERNATE BLUE CROSS [1402]
PH BCBS PPO HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$249.41
PH BCBS HMO HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$508.30

AETNA HEALTH PLAN [171] $279.29 – $1,299 4.7×

Plans, line items and rates for AETNA HEALTH PLAN [171]
PH AETNA NM EMPLOYEES HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$279.29
PH AETNA IL PREFERRED HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$440.36
PH AETNA HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$737.83
PH NON-CONTRACTED PAYORS HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,299

HEALTHLINK [125] $649.50 – $1,299 2×

Plans, line items and rates for HEALTHLINK [125]
PH SEIU HEALTHLINK HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$649.50
PH NON-CONTRACTED PAYORS HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,299

CARELON BEHAVIORAL HEALTH [159] $649.50

Plans, line items and rates for CARELON BEHAVIORAL HEALTH [159]
PH VALUE OPTIONS BHO HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$649.50

FIRST HEALTH PLAN [6034] $737.83 – $974.25

Plans, line items and rates for FIRST HEALTH PLAN [6034]
PH AETNA HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$737.83
PH FIRST HEALTH HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$974.25

MAGELLAN BEHAVIORAL HLTH [136] $779.40

Plans, line items and rates for MAGELLAN BEHAVIORAL HLTH [136]
PH MAGELLAN BHS HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$779.40

THE ALLIANCE [1703] $834.35

Plans, line items and rates for THE ALLIANCE [1703]
PH THE ALLIANCE HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$834.35

COMPSYCH [112] $974.25

Plans, line items and rates for COMPSYCH [112]
PH COMPSYCH HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$974.25

BEECHSTREET [176] $1,039.20

Plans, line items and rates for BEECHSTREET [176]
PH BEECHSTREET HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,039.20

CIGNA HEALTH PLAN [178] $1,039.20 – $1,299

Plans, line items and rates for CIGNA HEALTH PLAN [178]
PH CIGNA BEHAVIORAL BHS HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,039.20
PH NON-CONTRACTED PAYORS HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,299

HEALTH'S FINEST NETWORK [126] $1,104.15

Plans, line items and rates for HEALTH'S FINEST NETWORK [126]
PH HFN HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,104.15

MULTIPLAN/PHCS [142] $1,299

Plans, line items and rates for MULTIPLAN/PHCS [142]
PH NON-CONTRACTED PAYORS HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,299

HEALTH ALLIANCE [181] $1,299

Plans, line items and rates for HEALTH ALLIANCE [181]
PH NON-CONTRACTED PAYORS HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,299

GLOBAL EXCEL [1712] $1,299

Plans, line items and rates for GLOBAL EXCEL [1712]
PH NON-CONTRACTED PAYORS HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,299

GALAXY HEALTH NETWORK [220] $1,299

Plans, line items and rates for GALAXY HEALTH NETWORK [220]
PH NON-CONTRACTED PAYORS HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,299

UNITED HEALTHCARE [158] $1,299

Plans, line items and rates for UNITED HEALTHCARE [158]
PH NON-CONTRACTED PAYORS HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,299
PH UHC NON-CONTRACTED OON - ED ONLY HB X-Ray Exam L-2 Spine 4/>Vws	$1,299

How complete the paperwork is

What Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital published — and what it left out

Federal law tells hospitals what to publish. This score is our reading of how much of that Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital actually did publish. It is a measure of their paperwork, not their care. We hold no clinical, safety, or outcome data about any hospital, and nothing here should be read as a comment on the medicine.

0.89/ 1.00

At or above our 0.50 threshold, so this hospital appears in comparisons. A passing score means the file is complete enough to compare, not that it is complete.

0.00 Publishing threshold 0.50 1.00

The four parts of Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital's disclosure-completeness score, each with its weight, its value, and what was counted.
What we checked	Weight	Scored	Added
How many common services carry a price Near full credit 57 of 70 CMS shoppable services have an unflagged gross or cash dollar amount.	0.40	0.81	0.33
How often the price is a dollar amount Near full credit 4461271 of 4960391 negotiated rates are dollar amounts rather than formulas.	0.25	0.90	0.23
How recently the file was updated Full credit Current: file states last_updated_on 2026-04-01 (196 days old).	0.20	1.00	0.20
How many rows are usable figures Near full credit 499120 of 5277261 rows are quality-flagged (placeholder, zero, blank, or algorithm-only).	0.15	0.91	0.14
Total			0.89

Each part is scored from 0 to 1 and multiplied by its weight; the four add up to the total above. Every count in the right-hand column came from the hospital's own file — we did not estimate, impute, or fill a gap on their behalf. Where the file is thin, the score is thin, and the gap belongs to the publisher.

Where these numbers came from

Provenance

Every figure above was read from a file this hospital publishes because federal law requires it. Nothing here is estimated, modelled, or supplied by us.

https://www.nm.org/site_data/362169179_palos-community-hospital_standardcharges.json

Hospital states last updated 1 Apr 2026 We fetched it 6 Aug 2026

Open file

These are published prices, not a quote and not a bill. What you owe depends on your own plan, your deductible, and what actually happens during your care.