U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

10/06/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/07/2026 13:07

WTAS: New Regulations Make It Easier to Find, Compare, and Report Healthcare Pricing and Coverage Information

WASHINGTON, D.C.-OCTOBER 6, 2026-The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), on Monday announced that Americans will have access to more reliable, accessible, and actionable information about what their health coverage includes and what they are likely to pay before receiving care under new regulations that strengthen federal healthcare price transparency requirements. The actions taken today to create a more transparent healthcare marketplace also ensure employers can make more informed decisions; researchers can better understand healthcare markets; and innovators can build better tools.

Here is how government officials, medical professionals, advocates, the media, and others are responding:

Government Officials
Medical Professionals & Academics
Advocates & Organizations
Media & Influencers
Headlines

Government Officials:

  • Rep. Davidson via X: "When patients can compare prices, health plans and providers have to compete for their business, and that competition brings costs down. This final rule puts Americans in charge of choosing the health care that works best for them and their families."
  • Rep. Harshbarger via X: "For too long, the corporations that pay for our care have gone to great lengths to hide costs and bury patients in complexity. For the first time, insurers will have to attest that their pricing data is accurate and complete. Transparency drives competition, and competition lowers costs. That's a win for patients, employers, and taxpayers!"
  • Rep. Fine via Newsmax: "I think it's going to be a massive help,' Fine said. 'When people are getting an X-ray or they're going to get a shot or some other service, they don't realize that the 10 providers in their community could charge massively different prices. If you're willing to drive an extra mile down the street to save a nickel a gallon on gas, you certainly ought to know if a procedure is going to cost $50 or $100 less at one place or another."
  • White House via X: "The Trump Administration is putting Americans first with healthcare price transparency, ensuring healthcare price data is clear and reliable. @HHSGov is making healthcare transparency useful for patients. Americans should know exactly how much their healthcare options cost."
  • White House Rapid Response via X: "@DrOzCMS: 'Our rule is going to empower all these transparency sites in the room today to sync up and deliver a one-stop shop for cost comparison - using data that has always been out there but has purposely been obfuscated.'"
  • White House Rapid Response via X: "@SecKennedy: In his first term, President Trump succeeded in demanding healthcare price transparency - but the industry took evasive action to obscure the process. Today, we are fixing that so Americans know exactly what their healthcare procedure will cost."
  • Department of Labor via X: "The American People have a right to compare healthcare prices and thanks to @POTUS - now they can. CHOICE DRIVES COMPETITION - it's the opposite of Socialism - IT IS THE AMERICAN WAY. Together with @HHSGov, @USTreasury, and @CMSGov - we are delivering on healthcare transparency so ALL AMERICANS can make the best choices for themselves and their families."
  • Republican Study Committee via X: "President Trump started the fight for healthcare price transparency in his first term, and now @SecKennedy and @DrOzCMS are finishing what he started by giving American families the CLEAR, ACCURATE, and ACTIONABLE prices they need to make the best decisions for their health."
  • Republican Study Committee via X: "For too long, Big Healthcare overcharged vulnerable patients and kept Americans in the dark about what their care would cost. Thanks to the leadership of @CMSGov, new transparency rules will cut bloated pricing files by roughly 70%, strip out useless and duplicative data, and make personalized cost estimates far easier to access. America FIRST means American patients FIRST, and the Trump administration is keeping that promise."
  • Pennsylvania State Senator Dawn Keefer via X: "A win for health care transparency! The federal govt is strengthening price transparency so patients can compare costs. That's a step in the right direction! One we should build on here in PA."

Medical Professionals & Academics:

  • Katy Talento, epidemiologist and former White House Health Policy Advisor, via X: "Announcements of more robust requirements to end secret health care prices. Closing some loopholes, requiring plans to attest that the prices are accurate, allowing patients to get REAL price info by phone in advance. And much more. Amen. Thanks @HHSGov @USDOL @USTreasury @FTC"

Advocates & Organizations:

  • Patient Rights Advocate Founder and Chairman, Cynthia A. Fisher, via The Center Square: "…[A] transformative step to lower health care costs, stop overcharges, and hold insurers and hospitals accountable... added requirement of executive attestation that published prices and other information are true, accurate, and complete as of the date in the machine-readable file is a breakthrough for compliance… Real price transparency means patients can shop for better care at lower prices and employers can demand a better deal."
  • America First Works via X: "@SecKennedy announces more TRANSPARENCY in healthcare costs: 'If you went to a car dealer and you said, 'How much does that cost?' and they said, 'We're not going to tell you until after you make the purchase,' you wouldn't do it-but that's how the healthcare system in this country [worked].'"
  • American First Policy Institute via X: "@SecKennedy: Americans deserve healthcare price transparency, and to know exactly what their procedure will cost."
  • Patient Rights Advocate via X: "@AFergusonFTC hits it out of the park: 'Arming consumers with the knowledge they need to shop around will foster competition and drive down healthcare costs.'"
  • Patient Rights Advocate via X: "@Sonderling47 explains how price transparency is critical to lowering healthcare costs for employers and employees: 'When workers and employers can compare prices, providers have to compete for their business... putting more money back in your pocket.'"
  • Patient Rights Advocate via X: "@CMSGov's Peter Nelson announces the upcoming schema for the Prescription Drug File, requiring insurers to post exactly what they pay for prescription drugs. This long-overdue step is essential to helping patients better understand and lower their drug costs!"
  • Patient Rights Advocate via X: "@SecKennedy nails it: 'One lesson from the first generation transparency requirement is that publishing enormous quantities of data does not necessarily produce useful information.' The new Transparency in Coverage final rule requires health plans to publish the data actually needed to deliver clear and upfront prices to patients.'"
  • Patient Rights Advocate via X: "The final Transparency in Coverage rule announced today is a significant step toward holding insurers accountable and securing actual, upfront prices in dollars and cents for consumers. As @SecKennedy said, 'The American people pay for this care system, and they have the right to know the prices. The prices do not belong to the hospitals. They don't belong to the insurance companies. They belong to the American people and the consumers.'"
  • Patient Rights Advocate via X: "The @FTC is cracking down on hidden hospital prices, warning 24 large hospital systems to disclose their prices upfront or be taken to court. As @AFergusonFTC said, 'We demand nothing less than radical transparency.'"
  • Independent Women via press release: "Independent Women applauds new regulations finalized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), under the leadership of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, respectively, that will strengthen federal healthcare price transparency requirements, empower employers to make informed decisions, equip researchers to more effectively understand healthcare markets, and incentivize innovators to develop better tools."
  • Independent Women Director of the Center for Better Health, Dr. Monique Yohanan, via press release: "Healthcare is one of the only places Americans are expected to buy first and learn the price later…Price transparency is one of the most powerful tools we have to make healthcare more affordable."
  • State Financial Officers Foundation via X: "Transparency only works if the data is actually usable. Today's move toward real dollar prices, standardized reporting and greater accountability is meaningful progress for employers, patients and taxpayers trying to understand what healthcare actually costs."
  • MAHA Action via X: "Dr. Oz says UnitedHealthcare patients in New York City can be charged anywhere from $350 to $3,000 for the same MRI. And he says this is not unique to one insurer, but part of a broader pricing problem seen across the healthcare system. Now, he and RFK Jr. are taking action to make those prices far easier for patients to see and compare. 'And if you actually look at the numbers, it's stunning.' 'In the city that I practiced medicine in for much of my life, New York City, the difference between an MRI scan across UnitedHealthcare insured policies, so just one insurance company, one procedure, $350 to $3,000.' 'On the same island if you're insured by the same company.' 'The bottom line is our rule is going to empower all these transparency sites in the room today to sync up and deliver a one stop shop for cost comparison using the data that is out there, has always been out there, but has purposely been obfuscated.'"
  • MAHA Action via X: "'Hip replacement in Boston costs $17,900 at one hospital, and at a nearby hospital, it costs $74,000 for the exact same surgery.' 'Researchers have found MRI prices varying as much as ninefold within a single city.' RFK Jr. says Big Insurance has created a system where Americans can pay wildly different prices for the exact same care while the real cost stays hidden. 'And one analysis found that 60% of insurer negotiated hospital rates were higher than the hospital's own cash price.' 'The insurance company, who is supposed to be negotiating for all of its members and beating down the price, has actually negotiated a price that is higher than if you just walked into that hospital off the street and asked for that procedure.' 'So, the whole system was corrupt.' 'It was crooked.' 'Markets cannot discipline prices that they cannot see.'"
  • MAHA Action via X: "RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz are making healthcare, and insurance executives put their names behind the pricing data they release. No more hiding behind manipulated numbers and misleading data. 'We are also requiring health plans and insurers to attest that pricing data they publish is true, accurate, and complete.' 'And to identify the senior official at that company who is responsible for that data and for those statements.'"
  • American Hospital Association via Spectrum News: "…[A]n important step toward greater accountability across the healthcare system by shining more light on health plan pricing information. Hospitals have spent years making detailed pricing information public, and we welcome efforts to bring greater transparency to health plan data. This includes making personalized cost information easier to access, which is critical to helping patients make informed health care decisions."
  • Erisa Industry Committee President and CEO, James Gelfand, via press release: "Employers buy health care for their workers, and for too long the prices have been hidden or buried…The first round of price data opened the books. This rule makes the data usable by a general audience. For large employers that provide coverage to tens of millions of workers and their families, better data means we can spot when one hospital charges more than another for the same procedure, negotiate harder, build better networks, and cut waste that drives up costs for employers and employees alike."
  • Purchaser Business Group on Health CEO, Elizabeth Mitchell, via Healthcare Dive: "We believe that these new rules are going to make a really significant difference, this has the potential to meaningfully address the affordability crisis in the commercial market."
  • State Financial Officers Foundation CEO, OJ Oleka via The Center Square: "…[R]eal dollar prices, standardized reporting, and greater accountability is meaningful progress for employers, patients, and taxpayers trying to understand what healthcare actually costs… Accountability and transparency go hand in hand, but transparency only works if the data is actually usable."
  • David Kochel, campaign strategist via The Center Square: "[T]he Trump Administration is taking action on healthcare price transparency ahead of the midterm elections, showing Republicans are willing to lean forward on an issue that hits Americans' wallets every day. Real prices give patients the freedom to choose lower-cost, high-quality care and give employers the power to audit spending, negotiate better deals, and hold insurers accountable…The administration's work on price transparency puts power in the hands of patients and employers to stop overcharges, demand a better deal, and keep more of their hard-earned money."
  • Families USA Executive Director, Anthony Wright, via press release: "Cleaner, more useable pricing data from insurers will help employers, researchers and other purchasers see what health care actually costs."
  • Save Our States Executive Director, Trent England, via The Center Square: "That it has taken this long to guarantee patients and employers actual prices is absurd…Fortunately, President Trump is standing strong for common-sense and putting the American people ahead of hospital and insurance executives and other insiders…With real price transparency, patients can plan ahead, find the best care at the best price, fight overcharging, and avoid price gouging and surprise bills…Employers can finally see the receipts and use real pricing data to negotiate better deals, lowering healthcare costs for employees and freeing up resources for higher wages, more jobs, and better returns for investors, including pensioners and retirees…All this is long overdue."
  • Andrew Bremberg, Former Director of the Domestic Policy Council via The Center Square: "…[R]equiring insurance executives to attest that their machine-readable files are true, accurate, and complete will unleash actual transparency and accountability… These commonsense reforms are a testament to President Trump's commitment to 'maximum transparency' and shifting the power from the big business of healthcare to the American people."
  • Laura Ingraham via Fox News broadcast: "America is frustrated with these indecipherable medical bills. Anytime you go to the doctor, especially you go to the hospital. Now look at Riley Gaines. She gave birth a year ago and is still getting a constant stream of bills in the mail…This happens to everyone and that's why President Trump is taking on the machine. Today, the administration is finalizing new rules requiring hospitals and health insurers to disclose prices up front, so patients know exactly what they're paying for."
  • Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) via X: "BREAKING: In a massive win, HHS Sec. Bobby Kennedy is moving to FORCE Big Healthcare to disclose all pricing to Americans UP FRONT rather than dump JUNK DATA as a loophole, which was totally unusable. Pricing files will be slashed by -70% and Americans will actually be able to SHOP AROUND with all necessary information before they receive care. THIS IS COMMON SENSE."
  • Terrence Williams (@w_terrence) via X: "Give Dr. Oz credit on this one. This is what I voted for. Saving people money and cutting unnecessary waste. Here is what has been going on. Medicare has been paying twice for overlapping work when someone has an office visit and a procedure on the same day. Those extra costs can eventually mean higher premiums and more out of pocket costs for patients. @DrOzCMS is pushing a fix so Medicare is not paying full price twice for the same overlapping work. This is the kind of change I want to see in healthcare"
  • One America News Network (@OANN) via X: "Dr. Oz: 'Our rule is going to empower all these transparency sites in the room today to sync up and deliver a one-stop shop for cost comparison - using data that has always been out there, but has purposely been obfuscated.'"
  • Morse Report (@MorseReport) via X: "HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the Trump administration is fixing healthcare price transparency after the industry took evasive action to obscure first-term rules. HHS and CMS finalize regulations so Americans can see what a procedure will cost before they receive care. Kennedy says patients will get clearer information to compare costs, understand coverage, and make informed decisions."

Headlines:

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services published this content on October 06, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on October 07, 2026 at 19:07 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]