Yubita exists to make healthcare more accessible to everyday Americans. We do it the plainest way we know: by answering, before you decide, the question nobody else will — what is this going to cost me?
Free for patients. We're in beta, so we take a limited number of requests each month, and a person reads every one and replies by email, usually within one business day. Austin, Texas first.
Healthcare is the only major purchase an American makes without being told the price.
Four in ten adults carry debt from medical or dental bills. More than a third have skipped or put off care they needed because of what it might cost.1 Not because the care wasn't worth it, but because the question "what will this cost me?" has no answer anyone will stand behind.
We think that is fixable. Not by changing what care costs — that's a bigger fight — but by making the cost knowable before the decision. A price you can see is a price you can plan for, question, compare, and sometimes talk down. A price you can't see is a bill that arrives after you've already said yes.
The prices exist. Hospitals and insurers are now required to publish the rates they negotiate with each other. They publish them in files too large and too strange for any patient to read. Yubita reads them.
And we read them the way a bill actually works. A procedure is never one bill. It's the surgeon, the facility, the anesthesiologist you never met, a lab you've never heard of, a follow-up visit. Every tool that exists today prices one line at a time. Yubita shows you the whole bundle: every charge, from every provider, with how likely each one is, at your plan's rates.
Then we close the loop. After your procedure, we ask which of those lines actually showed up, and every answer makes the next estimate more accurate.
Our mission is simple to say and hard to do: make the cost of care knowable, for everyone, before you decide.
Five things we hold to, and that you can hold us to.
You cannot fully agree to care whose cost has been kept from you. Knowing the number is not a luxury; it's part of the decision.
A hospital's estimate for "the surgery" leaves out most of the people who will bill you. We show every line, and we say which ones usually surprise people.
Every number comes from the price files hospitals and insurers are required to publish, then gets compared to what patients actually received. We don't claim accuracy we can't show — which is why, in beta, every estimate says so.
The patients who most need a straight answer are the ones least able to pay for one. That’s why estimates and audits are free for patients during the beta, and why our aim is to keep them that way. We’re building Yubita to be paid for by practices and advocates, who gain every time a patient sees the whole bill, rather than by the patients themselves.
De-identified, and we keep only what's needed to improve the estimates. Nothing is sold, and nothing goes back to providers or insurers. The data exists to make the next estimate better, not to be a product on its own.
Whatever your age, a procedure is a bundle of separate services from separate people, and the charges that surprise patients are the ones nobody mentioned. Three examples, with the line that most often catches people off guard. An estimate does this for your procedure, at your plan's rates.
Ranges are illustrative negotiated rates drawn from the public price files hospitals and insurers are required to publish. Your plan's rates will differ. That's exactly what we look up.
The procedure in your own words, your insurance plan as written on your card, and your ZIP code. For an audit, roughly when it was. No name, no member ID. Two minutes.
For an estimate: every bill to expect, how likely each one is, and what it typically costs under your plan — within 3 business days. Where it's done matters, so we'll say if a surgery center or a hospital changes the total. For an audit: a private upload link, then your one-page report within 3 business days.
One email, about six weeks later, asking which lines showed up on your real bills. That's the deal: it's how the next person's estimate gets better. An audit already closes that loop.
Yubita is a small company in Austin, Texas. It was started by Shirley Cohen, who got surprise bills of her own and noticed that the people around her were putting off care because they couldn’t know what it would cost.
We are small on purpose. We go deep before we go wide: a plan or a hospital gets priced in full, line by line, before we add the next one, and we add the next one because people asked for it, not to pad a coverage map. We would rather answer twenty requests well than ten thousand badly. The numbers come from the price files; the judgment doesn't. A person reads every request, and a person reviews every estimate before it goes out.
We are not a hospital, an insurer, a law firm or a billing company, and we don't take money from any of them. Our only product is a clear answer, and our only measure of success is a simple one: how often did we tell someone, in advance, about every bill they ended up receiving?
If you've ever opened a bill that made no sense, you're who we built this for. If you work in a practice, a surgery center or a billing office and you think patients deserve the number up front, we'd like to hear from you: hello@yubita.care.
Your bills help us build accurate estimates for the next person. We only keep what that takes.
Files are stored encrypted, never sold, and never shared with providers or insurers. You can ask us to delete everything at any time.
For a procedure you haven't had yet. About two minutes. No name, no member ID. Free for patients. We're in beta, so we accept a limited number each month.
Already had the procedure and have the bills? Request a bill audit instead.
For a procedure you've already had. Tell us the basics here and we'll email you a private link to upload your bills. No name, no member ID. Free for patients.
Haven't had the procedure yet? Request an estimate instead.