14. Department of Health and Human Services · Notable · Needs Congress
Codify price transparency regulations
Printed page 465 14. Department of Health and Human Services
“Codify price transparency regulations.”
What has happened
- Attempted
Treasury, Labor and HHS finalized the amended Transparency in Coverage rules "in line with the goals of Executive Order 14221": new contextual files and data elements (product type, provider network name and identifier), a changed aggregation level, removal of in-network rates for unlikely provider-to-service mappings, a longer reporting period and lower claims threshold for out-of-network data, a slower reporting cadence, a findability text file, and price information by phone, which also satisfies No Surprises Act section 114. The requirements are stronger and now final, but they are still regulation that the next administration can change. The Quote asks for them in statute, and no bill to codify them has moved past referral, so this stays `attempted`.
- Attempted
Treasury, Labor and HHS proposed amended Transparency in Coverage rules "in line with the goals of Executive Order 14221" — new contextual files and data elements, changed aggregation levels, a lower out-of-network claims threshold, and telephone disclosure. Rulemaking again, and reversible by the next administration; H.R. 267, the Health Care PRICE Transparency Act, which would put the requirements in statute, was referred to committee on 2025-01-09 and has had no further action.
- Attempted
Executive Order 14221 directed Treasury, Labor and HHS to enforce and expand the 2019 hospital and 2020 Transparency in Coverage price-disclosure rules within 90 days — actual prices rather than estimates, standardized and comparable files, updated enforcement. A directive to strengthen the regulations, not the codification in statute the Quote asks for.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- The CY 2026 OPPS/ASC final rule (FR 2025-20907, 2025-11-25) also tightened the hospital price transparency requirements — attestation and data-accuracy standards keyed to the CMS Hospital Price Transparency Data Dictionary — and the CY 2027 OPPS proposed rule (FR 2026-13656, 2026-07-07) carries a request for information on standardizing and comparing that data. Both are regulation, which is the thing the Quote wants replaced by statute; they are noted, not cited.
- H.R. 267, the Health Care PRICE Transparency Act, was opened at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119hr267ih/html/BILLS-119hr267ih.htm; it is introduced text dated 2025-01-09, before the evidence window opens, so it is recorded here rather than as Evidence.
- Reviewed 2026-10-12. The 2026-10-06 event was first written from the rule’s published summary. On review the rule itself was opened (91 FR 63748, FR 2026-20447): it is effective 2026-12-07, and all of its provisions apply for plan years (in the individual market, policy years) beginning on or after 2027-01-01. Until then plans and issuers keep complying with the 2020 rules.
- Queries: a search of bill titles among those we keep and search, from congress.gov, for “price transparency” → 3 (H.R. 267 referred; a PBM bill; a housing bill). The public laws of the window we keep and search → nothing codifying price transparency.
- Action
- other
- Object
- price transparency regulations
- ID
- 1267