state_expert

State Expert

What it answers

The callable STATE EXPERT — the data-availability + regulation X-ray for a US state. Given a 2-letter state code (e.g. 'CT'), returns: (1) DATA AVAILABILITY — how many hospitals are priced, total price rows, distinct billing codes, care sites mapped, and payers with resolved coverage; (2) the REGULATION object — the rules of the game in that state (transparency regime, required disclosures, public datasets like an APCD or rate-setting authority, and the completeness bar); and (3) the computed GAPS — required-or-known datasets we have NOT yet ingested (e.g. a mandatory APCD), so absence is reported as gap-vs-expected, not silently. This is the 'what data do we have in this state, what is required here, and what is missing' entry a higher-level agent or operator reasons over. Because hospital pricing is a NATIONAL substrate, a state can show many hospitals priced even before its county map is built (e.g. MD). Stateless + state-parameterized: one runtime serves every state. Drill into a county with county_intelligence; into one facility with care_site_price. SOURCE: curated hospital chargemaster + care-site registry + the state-regulation object.

Inputs

state_code

string · required

2-letter USPS state code, e.g. 'CT' (fully built) or 'MD' (hospital pricing present in the national substrate; county map not yet built).

Call it

From an agent: connect the Vlada MCP once (one click for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code) and ask in plain English; the agent selects state_expert when the question fits. From code: the same tool over REST with an API key. The schema endpoint needs no key.

curl -X POST https://api.vladahealth.com/v1/tools/state_expert \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VLADA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"state_code":"<state_code>"}'

curl https://api.vladahealth.com/v1/tools/state_expert/schema      # the JSON schema, no auth
# MCP endpoint (Streamable HTTP): https://mcp.vladahealth.com/mcp

What comes back

Typed rows plus provenance on every answer: the public source file, its vintage, the methodology, and a response_hash you can replay. Prove and replay tools turn any number into a re-runnable receipt. A number the data cannot support comes back as “not in the data”, never as zero.

Output schema

{
 "$defs": {
  "Quality": {
   "description": "Row-level quality signal. All flags precomputed at build time\n(stored on the gold mart) and passed through here.",
   "properties": {
    "is_outlier": {
     "default": false,
     "title": "Is Outlier",
     "type": "boolean"
    },
    "is_ghost_candidate": {
     "default": false,
     "title": "Is Ghost Candidate",
     "type": "boolean"
    },
    "n_similar_rates": {
     "default": 0,
     "title": "N Similar Rates",
     "type": "integer"
    },
    "confidence": {
     "default": 1,
     "title": "Confidence",
     "type": "number"
    }
   },
   "title": "Quality",
   "type": "object"
  },
  "Source": {
   "description": "Cell-level provenance. Every served value traces back here.\n\n`snapshot_id` is the Iceberg snapshot the tool read from. Two calls\nat the same snapshot MUST produce byte-identical responses —\nthat's the content-addressed caching guarantee.",
   "properties": {
    "table": {
     "title": "Table",
     "type": "string"
    },
    "rate_id": {
     "anyOf": [
      {
       "type": "string"
      },
      {
       "type": "null"
      }
     ],
     "default": null,
     "title": "Rate Id"
    },
    "source_files": {
     "items": {
      "type": "string"
     },
     "title": "Source Files",
     "type": "array"
    },
    "snapshot_id": {
     "anyOf": [
      {
       "type": "integer"
      },
      {
       "type": "null"
      }
     ],
     "default": null,
     "title": "Snapshot Id"
    }
   },
   "required": [
    "table"
   ],
   "title": "Source",
   "type": "object"
  }
 },
 "description": "value carries {state_name, fips, data_availability{hospitals_priced,\nhospital_price_rows, distinct_billing_codes, care_sites_mapped,\npayers_with_coverage}, regulation{...}, gaps[], freshness{...}}.",
 "properties": {
  "value": {
   "default": null,
   "title": "Value"
  },
  "unit": {
   "anyOf": [
    {
     "type": "string"
    },
    {
     "type": "null"
    }
   ],
   "default": null,
   "title": "Unit"
  },
  "vintage": {
   "anyOf": [
    {
     "type": "string"
    },
    {
     "type": "null"
    }
   ],
   "default": null,
   "title": "Vintage"
  },
  "source": {
   "$ref": "#/$defs/Source"
  },
  "methodology": {
   "anyOf": [
    {
     "type": "string"
    },
    {
     "type": "null"
    }
   ],
   "default": null,
   "title": "Methodology"
  },
  "quality": {
   "$ref": "#/$defs/Quality"
  },
  "invariants_applied": {
   "items": {
    "type": "string"
   },
   "title": "Invariants Applied",
   "type": "array"
  },
  "caveats": {
   "items": {
    "type": "string"
   },
   "title": "Caveats",
   "type": "array"
  },
  "response_hash": {
   "default": "",
   "title": "Response Hash",
   "type": "string"
  },
  "semantic_version": {
   "default": 1,
   "title": "Semantic Version",
   "type": "integer"
  },
  "tool_version": {
   "default": "unknown",
   "title": "Tool Version",
   "type": "string"
  },
  "explanation": {
   "anyOf": [
    {
     "type": "string"
    },
    {
     "type": "null"
    }
   ],
   "default": null,
   "title": "Explanation"
  },
  "status": {
   "default": "complete",
   "title": "Status",
   "type": "string"
  },
  "refusal": {
   "anyOf": [
    {
     "additionalProperties": true,
     "type": "object"
    },
    {
     "type": "null"
    }
   ],
   "default": null,
   "title": "Refusal"
  },
  "failure": {
   "anyOf": [
    {
     "additionalProperties": true,
     "type": "object"
    },
    {
     "type": "null"
    }
   ],
   "default": null,
   "title": "Failure"
  },
  "as_of": {
   "anyOf": [
    {
     "type": "string"
    },
    {
     "type": "null"
    }
   ],
   "default": null,
   "title": "As Of"
  },
  "freshness_state": {
   "default": "unknown",
   "title": "Freshness State",
   "type": "string"
  }
 },
 "title": "StateExpertResponse",
 "type": "object"
}

Sources behind it

vlada_curated.fact_hospital_chargemaster
vlada_curated.dim_care_site
vlada_curated.agg_care_site_payer_coverage

tables: vlada_curated.fact_hospital_chargemaster · vlada_curated.dim_care_site · vlada_curated.agg_care_site_payer_coverage

Known limits

regulation_object_is_seed_not_yet_dim_state_regulation
freshness_not_yet_tracked_pending_refresh_cascade
county_map_built_for_CT_only

As of the 2026-09-19 build of the served surface · machine-readable catalog · the live server may run a different version; the schema endpoint above is authoritative for what is deployed.