Healthcare Price Transparency Policies Face Challenges in Implementation and Patient Use
President Trump’s latest push for healthcare price transparency clashes with a decade of evidence showing patients rarely use the data, while insurers and hospitals leverage it for their own negotiations.
The Trump administration’s 2025 “Great Healthcare Plan” mandated that providers publicly post the prices of services, building on the Biden‑era rule that required hospitals to disclose negotiated rates. The intent was to empower consumers, yet the reality has been starkly different.
A 2021 analysis revealed that only about one‑third of hospitals actually complied with the federal transparency requirements. This low compliance persisted despite the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issuing fines to 27 hospitals between 2022 and 2025 for non‑compliance.
Zack Cooper said:
"There’s no evidence that patients use this information."
Patients often defer to physician recommendations, bypassing lower‑priced alternatives even when price data are available. The same study noted that many consumers follow the care pathway suggested by their doctors, rendering the posted prices largely invisible in decision‑making.
Hospitals and insurers, however, have found a different utility for the data. Eric Hoag said:
"We use the transparency data... to make sure we are competitive."
Negotiating contracts now frequently references the publicly posted rates, turning transparency into a bargaining chip rather than a consumer guide.
Marcus Dorstel added:
"Nine times out of 10 you will hear them say that the price transparency data is a vital piece of the contract negotiation now."
A 2024 study of a New York initiative found only a marginal increase in billed charges after hospitals posted price information, underscoring the limited impact on overall cost trends.
The American Hospital Association described the data as requiring “detailed assumptions about how to apply complex contracting terms,” highlighting the intrinsic difficulty of translating raw numbers into meaningful consumer insights.
Experts caution that while transparency policies aim to lower costs, the mixed effects on pricing and the persistent gap between policy intent and patient use suggest that additional measures are needed to make the information actionable.
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