Fergus Falls Area Hospital Prices
Cash and insurance-negotiated prices at hospitals in and around Fergus Falls, MN. Part of all Minnesota hospital prices.
Typical commercial prices here are 38% below the fair benchmark (0.62×) after accounting for local nurse/doctor wages and patient complexity.
Most affordable Minnesota hospital: Astera Health (Wadena) at 0.62× the fair price (38% below benchmark).
Loss-Leader / Captive Ancillary Cross-Subsidizer
Astera Health prices routine shoppable procedures near 0.8× Medicare (p50 0.61×) while skewing captive emergency, lab, and upper-quartile codes to 2.7× Medicare (p75 0.81×, +33% upper-tail jump). Patients scheduling elective outpatient care can capture competitive rates, but emergency and ancillary bills require strict line-item auditing.
Where They're Good (Patient & Payer Edge)
- Elective shoppable care is priced 38% below peer Fair BaseRate (0.62×)
- Self-pay cash beats commercial insurance on 46% of shoppable procedures (99/100 Cash Honesty)
- CMS clinical safety score (70/100 safety score) with 70% patient recommendation
- IRS 501(c)(3) charity care provides free care up to 200% FPL and discounted care up to 400% FPL (40.0% AGB cap)
Where You Can Get Burned (Markup Traps)
- Even at low-cost facilities (0.62× Fair BaseRate), out-of-network or unnegotiated chargemaster bills can exceed commercial medians — confirm in-network status or request a self-pay cash quote up front.
- Captive ER (0.9×) & laboratory (1.0×) services average 3.38× higher multiples than routine shoppable care (0.8×)
- Upper-quartile procedures (Q75 0.81×) jump +33% above the median procedure ratio (Q50 0.61×)
- Consolidated metro market (HHI 3,645) limits in-network hospital competition (Highly Concentrated Monopoly (>2,500))
Pre-scheduled outpatient procedures where patients can comparison-shop.
Emergency, inpatient DRG, lab, and specialty drug lines billed after admission.
Detects median-gaming when upper-quartile codes spike above the p50 median.
Hospitals in the Fergus Falls area
Ranked by how their prices compare to the fair BaseRate — best value first. The × fair figure is geo-adjusted. Tap any hospital for its full price list.
- Astera Health · Wadena 77/100 55 priced 0.62× fair
- Perham Health · Perham 74/100 37 priced 1.81× fair
Compare prices by procedure in Fergus Falls
Local prices across Fergus Falls-area hospitals for 27 procedures.
- CT scan, abdomen and pelvis (no contrast)
- CT scan, abdomen and pelvis (with contrast)
- CT scan, chest (no contrast)
- CT scan, head (no contrast)
- CT scan, head (with and without contrast)
- CT scan, head (with contrast)
- CT scan, lower back (lumbar spine)
- CT scan, neck (cervical spine)
- CT scan, pelvis
- CT scan, sinuses
- Colonoscopy (diagnostic)
- Colonoscopy with biopsy
- Extended office visit (prolonged)
- Inguinal hernia repair
- MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella)
- MRI, brain (no contrast)
- MRI, brain (with and without contrast)
- MRI, knee or other leg joint
- MRI, lower back (no contrast)
- New patient office visit (30-44 min)
- Office visit, established patient (20-29 min)
- Office visit, established patient (30-39 min)
- Psychiatric evaluation (first visit)
- Psychotherapy session (60 minutes)
- Screening mammogram (both breasts)
- Upper endoscopy with biopsy
- X-ray, chest (two views)
No procedures match that search.
How to Pay Less Nearby: Freestanding Centers, Insurer Leverage & Outpatient Savings
Inpatient MS-DRG vs. Outpatient CPT Care-Setting Savings
Clinical Scope Note:Inpatient MS-DRG reflects a multi-day hospital admission (room, nursing, higher clinical acuity); outpatient CPT reflects the outpatient facility fee for clinically eligible low-acuity patients and excludes separate surgeon and anesthesia professional fees.
Prices are sourced from each hospital's federally-required public price file, most recently published October 2026. The BaseRate is a modeled fair-price estimate — not a bill or quote. How we build these numbers →