The principle behind hospital transparency is simple: Patients should know the price of care before they receive it. Americans should not have to agree to a medical procedure or test without knowing whether it will cost $5,000 or $50,000. Transparency creates the foundation for competition. If patients can compare prices, hospitals have a greater incentive to compete on cost and quality of care.
Voters agree; polling from America’s New Majority Project found 72.8% support “requiring hospitals to publicly post their prices for treatment and services, including negotiating rates with insurers, so patients and purchasers can better understand hospital pricing.”
Unfortunately, hospitals have not always embraced this principle.
A 2024 Government Accountability Office report found that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services initiated 1,287 enforcement actions against hospitals for price transparency violations between 2021 and 2023. Of those, 851 came in 2023 alone. CMS issued more than $4 million in penalties to 14 hospitals that failed to take timely corrective action.
The Trump administration is now making enforcement a priority.
In February 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to strengthen enforcement of hospital and health plan transparency requirements. The order requires hospitals to publish a list of hundreds of shoppable services and procedures in a way that is easy for patients to understand, or to provide a price estimator tool. Hospitals can be fined $5,500 per day, up to $2 million annually, for noncompliance.
Casey Mulligan, chief economist and chief regulatory officer of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, said in a panel discussion at the HFMA 2026 Conference in June that the administration will focus on price transparency.
In June 2026, the administration also sent a letter warning more than 500 hospitals that they were failing to meet federal price transparency requirements.
Patients have a right to know the cost of their care upfront. Enhancing the enforcement of transparency rules is a crucial move forward. Ultimately, price transparency isn’t merely about following rules — it’s about prioritizing patients.
