President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday directing three federal agencies to enforce the health care price transparency regulations first introduced during his administration.
The new order does not introduce any new pricing policies, but it underscores Trump’s continued focus on health care price transparency and suggests increased enforcement actions against hospitals and insurers that fail to comply.
In 2020, the Trump administration finalized regulations requiring hospitals to publicly post their negotiated prices for health services, and health insurers to do the same. The intent behind these regulations was to provide patients with more control over their health care decisions and to help lower overall health care costs by making pricing more transparent.
However, compliance has been sluggish. A report from an advocacy group revealed that fewer than 25% of hospitals met all the transparency requirements by November.
According to a White House fact sheet, the Biden administration “slow walked” the enforcement of price transparency rules. Between 2022 and 2025, the Biden administration took enforcement actions against 18 hospitals, as noted in online records.
Trump’s latest executive order instructs the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments to accelerate the implementation and enforcement of the price transparency regulations.
Chip Kahn, CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, expressed cautious support for the new order, saying, “We support transparency, but the devil is in the details of how the executive order would impact the regulations.”
Related topics
