President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling on three federal agencies to escalate the implementation of healthcare transparency regulations issued during his first term in office.
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump ordered the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Labor to “rapidly implement and enforce” transparency regulations, which he said had been “slow-walked” by the Biden administration. The executive order means hospitals, insurance providers, and the healthcare industry will be under increased federal pressure to publicly post prices for common services such as stitches, delivery room costs, and MRI scans in a manner that is easy for patients to access.
The move is “one of the biggest things that can happen to reducing costs in healthcare,” the president said of his executive order, which targets noncompliant healthcare providers. Patients will be able to check prices, “compare them, go to different locations, so they can shop for the highest-quality care at the lowest cost,” he continued.
In 2019, Trump issued an executive order seeking more pricing transparency in the healthcare industry. In accordance with the directive, Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor issued several regulations ordering hospitals and healthcare systems to post prices for patients, among other policies, publicly. The implementation of major healthcare transparency rules, including a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulation requiring that hospitals list the prices insurers pay for services and technologies, took effect in Jan. 2021 as the Biden administration came into power.
Under President Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House, enforcement of these healthcare regulations waned, with a Nov. 2024 report from Patient Rights Advocate finding that only 21% of 2,000 hospitals analyzed were in full compliance with the Trump-era Hospital Price Transparency Rule. The Biden administration took enforcement action against 18 hospitals, according to CMS.
A 2024 Health and Human Services Inspector General audit estimated that 46% of hospitals were not in full compliance. And a 2021 Wall Street Journal report found that the healthcare industry was working assiduously to bypass the new regulations. Many hospitals, including some of the biggest U.S. healthcare systems, created special coding software aimed at making it difficult for patients to view pricing data, the analysis found.
Trump said that enforcing transparency rules was about ensuring patients could access “high-quality care.”
“You’re looking at comparisons between talents, which is very important. And then, you’re also looking at cost. And, in some cases, you get the best doctor for the lowest cost,” Trump said on Tuesday. “It’s been unpopular in some circles because people make less money, but it’s great for the patient.”
Federal agencies will require the disclosure of actual prices, not estimates, to ensure price information is standardized, and update or issue enforcement policies that warrant compliance, per Trump’s executive order. If fully enforced, the healthcare transparency regulations could save consumers, employers, and insurers $80 billion by 2025, according to the White House.
“You’re not allowed to even talk about [prices] when you go into a hospital or see a doctor, and this allows you to talk about it,” Trump said.
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The president’s executive order comes as rising healthcare costs have spurred fights among key stakeholders in the medical industry. Pharmacy benefit managers, or “middlemen,” and “Big Pharma,” or giant companies that manufacture and sell drugs and medicines, have long blamed each other for creating high drug prices and crafting structures that make it difficult for patients to find cheaper alternatives.
On his first day in office, Trump signaled sweeping changes to the drug and treatment pricing industry by signing an executive order overhauling Biden-era Medicare and Medicaid price innovation programs.