Terms and Conditions

These Terms and Conditions (the “Terms”) govern your access to and use of hospitalbilldata.com and any related websites, subdomains, pages, content, data, features, and services (collectively, the “Site” or “Service”). The Site is owned and operated by an Illinois limited liability company (the “Operator,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). The Operator’s registered legal name and registered agent are on file with the Illinois Secretary of State and are available on request via our contact page.

By accessing or using the Site, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy and Disclaimer, which are incorporated by reference. If you do not agree to all of these Terms, do not access or use the Site. These Terms contain a binding arbitration agreement and a class-action waiver (Section 13), a limitation of liability (Section 10), and an indemnification obligation (Section 11) that affect your legal rights. Please read them carefully.

1. Eligibility and acceptance

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a legally binding contract to use the Site. By using the Site you represent that you meet these requirements and that you accept these Terms on behalf of yourself and any entity for which you act. If you use the Site on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization.

2. What the Site is — informational use only

The Site is a search and reference tool that compiles and presents hospital-published price transparency information drawn from publicly available files that hospitals publish. The Site exists for general informational and educational purposes only. The Site is not, and does not provide:

• medical, clinical, legal, accounting, tax, insurance, or financial advice;
• a quote, offer, estimate, or guarantee of any price, charge, rate, or amount;
• a statement or prediction of what any patient, plan member, or person will be billed, owe, or pay for any service;
• a determination, prediction, or guarantee of insurance coverage, claim payment, benefit eligibility, provider billing or coding, network status, prior authorization, or reimbursement; or
• a substitute for confirming prices, codes, and coverage directly with a hospital, provider, or insurer before making any care or payment decision.

Prices that hospitals publish are reference figures that depend on numerous factors — including your insurance, plan, deductible, network status, diagnosis, the exact services performed, the care setting, and changes the hospital makes over time. You should not rely on the Site to make medical, financial, or purchasing decisions, and you assume all risk arising from any such reliance.

3. Data, accuracy, completeness, and scope

The information on the Site is derived from third-party source files and is presented “as is” and “as available.” We do not create the underlying prices and we do not independently verify them. Source files may be incomplete, inaccurate, ambiguous, outdated, internally inconsistent, or formatted in ways that limit what can be parsed. Where we parse only a portion of a very large file, we label that data as a sample-limited (bounded) dataset; where we parse a complete file we label it full-file. Coverage is currently focused on a limited set of hospitals in the states we cover and is not nationwide or exhaustive. We make no representation that the Site reflects all hospitals, all services, all prices, or the most current data, and we may add, change, suspend, or remove any data or feature at any time without notice.

4. No professional relationship; independent resource

Use of the Site does not create any physician-patient, attorney-client, fiduciary, advisory, or other professional relationship between you and the Operator or any of its owners, members, managers, officers, employees, contractors, or agents. The Operator is an independent provider of public-data tools and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), any government agency, any hospital, any health system, or any insurer. Third-party names, marks, and logos are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification only.

5. Intellectual property and limited license

The Site, including its design, text, graphics, logos, software, organization, structure, compilation, and the selection and arrangement of data, is owned by the Operator or its licensors and is protected by intellectual-property and other laws. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Site for your own personal, non-commercial informational use. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

6. Acceptable use and prohibited conduct

You agree that you will not, and will not permit any person or automated process to:

• present, republish, or resell the data in a way that states or implies it is a guaranteed price, an estimate of what a person will pay, or otherwise misrepresents it;
• scrape, crawl, harvest, mirror, or place automated or excessive load on the Site, or bypass any rate limit, access control, or technical protection;
• reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive source code, or interfere with, disrupt, probe, or test the security or integrity of the Site or its infrastructure;
• use the Site to violate any law or regulation, infringe any right, or for any unlawful, fraudulent, harmful, or deceptive purpose;
• use the Site or its data to make decisions about a person’s eligibility, credit, employment, insurance, or similar matters; or
• remove, obscure, or alter any notice, label, or attribution, including full-file / sample-limited labels and source links.

7. Third-party links and content

The Site may link to or reference third-party websites, files, and resources, including hospitals’ published files. We do not control and are not responsible for third-party content, accuracy, availability, or practices, and links do not imply endorsement. Your use of any third-party resource is at your own risk and subject to that third party’s terms.

Advertising. The Site may display advertising served by third parties, and may in the future use advertising cookies or similar technologies, as described in our Privacy Policy and Advertising Policy. Advertisements are clearly labeled, are placed separately from our data, and do not influence the prices, hospitals, or other information we present. Any sponsored content, if ever used, will be clearly disclosed as such. We are not responsible for the content of any advertisement or for any product or service offered by an advertiser.

8. Assumption of risk and release

You knowingly and voluntarily assume all risks arising from your use of the Site and any reliance on the information it presents. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you release and forever discharge the Covered Parties (defined in Section 10) from any and all claims, demands, and damages of every kind, known or unknown, arising out of or related to your use of the Site or the data.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SITE AND ALL DATA, CONTENT, AND SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE COVERED PARTIES DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, CURRENCY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, OR THAT THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN WARRANTY EXCLUSIONS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

10. Limitation of liability

In these Terms, “Covered Parties” means the Operator and its past, present, and future owners, members, managers, officers, directors, employees, contractors, vendors, suppliers, licensors, service providers, agents, representatives, affiliates, successors, and assigns.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL ANY OF THE COVERED PARTIES BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, SAVINGS, OR BUSINESS, OR FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO ANY MEDICAL, FINANCIAL, INSURANCE, OR PURCHASING DECISION OR ANY AMOUNT BILLED OR PAID, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, STATUTE, OR ANY OTHER THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE COVERED PARTIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE COVERED PARTIES FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SITE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU ACTUALLY PAID TO THE OPERATOR FOR USE OF THE SITE IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US $100). THESE LIMITATIONS ARE AN ESSENTIAL BASIS OF THE BARGAIN AND APPLY EVEN IF A LIMITED REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

11. Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Covered Parties from and against any and all claims, actions, demands, proceedings, losses, liabilities, damages, judgments, settlements, fines, penalties, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and litigation costs) arising out of or related to: (a) your access to or use of the Site or the data; (b) your violation or breach of these Terms; (c) your violation of any law or regulation or the rights of any third party; (d) any decision you make or action you take based on the Site or its data; and (e) any content or information you submit, post, or transmit through the Site. We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification, in which case you agree to cooperate with our defense. This Section survives termination of these Terms.

12. Governing law and venue

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Site are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Subject to Section 13, you agree that the exclusive venue for any dispute not subject to arbitration will be the state or federal courts located in Illinois, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts and waive any objection to venue or inconvenient forum.

13. Binding arbitration; class-action and jury-trial waiver

Please read this Section carefully — it affects how disputes are resolved. Except for claims that may be brought in small-claims court and except for either party’s right to seek injunctive relief to protect intellectual property or stop misuse, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to the Site or these Terms will be resolved by final and binding individual arbitrationadministered under the rules of a recognized arbitration provider, seated in Illinois.

You and the Operator each waive the right to a trial by jury and the right to participate in a class, collective, consolidated, or representative action. Disputes must be brought in your or the Operator’s individual capacity, and the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims. If this class-action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) will be severed and brought in court, while the remainder will proceed in arbitration. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to the Company within 30 days of first accepting these Terms.

14. Time limit on claims

To the fullest extent permitted by law, any claim arising out of or related to the Site or these Terms must be filed within one (1) year after the claim arose; otherwise it is permanently barred.

15. Suspension and termination

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to the Site at any time, with or without cause or notice. Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including Sections 2–14, this Section, and Section 16 — survive.

16. General

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and Disclaimer, are the entire agreement between you and the Operator regarding the Site and supersede any prior agreements. If any provision is held unenforceable, it will be limited or severed to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions will remain in full force. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them freely. We may modify these Terms at any time by posting the updated version with a new “Last updated” date, and your continued use of the Site after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

17. Contact

Questions about these Terms may be directed to the Operator at contact@hospitalbilldata.com or via our contact page.

These Terms are a general template and are not legal advice. The Operator should have these Terms reviewed by an Illinois-licensed attorney before relying on them.