# Summary of S. 3548 — Health Care PRICE Transparency Act 2.0
This bill significantly expands price transparency requirements across the health care system, effective January 1, 2025. It requires hospitals, clinical laboratories, imaging providers, and ambulatory surgical centers to publicly disclose detailed pricing information, including gross charges, discounted cash prices, and negotiated rates with insurance companies. Health insurers must provide consumers with real-time tools showing out-of-pocket costs for specific services and must submit monthly machine-readable files containing pricing and payment data to regulators and the public. The bill also requires group health plans to gain access to claims data and pricing information from their service providers, including pharmacy benefit managers and third-party administrators, to audit payments and verify accuracy.
The legislation affects hospitals of all sizes, clinical laboratories, imaging centers, surgical centers, health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, and other healthcare service providers. Hospitals face tiered civil penalties ranging from $300 per day for small facilities to $35 per bed per day for large ones if they fail to comply after 45 days of notice, with higher penalties for persistent violations. Laboratories and imaging providers face penalties up to $300 per day, while surgical centers face similar limits. The bill provides for no waivers of penalties and requires senior hospital officials to attest to pricing accuracy under threat of reduced federal payment. It does not preempt state transparency laws and applies rules uniformly across the health care industry beginning in 2025.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.