Price Transparency
for Healthier Lives
Empowering healthcare providers and public agencies with comprehensive compliance monitoring and transparency solutions across the United States.
Products & Services
Specialized tools and expert guidance to help healthcare organizations achieve and maintain price transparency compliance.
National Compliance Database
Real-time monitoring of hospital compliance across the United States. Our comprehensive dataset is continuously updated to track price transparency requirements.
Browse Compliance DatabaseUnderstanding Price Transparency Compliance
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires hospitals to publish their standard charges in a machine-readable format and display consumer-friendly pricing information for common services. These federal transparency rules, which took effect in January 2021, are designed to help patients make informed healthcare decisions.
Key Compliance Requirements
Machine-Readable Files (MRF): Hospitals must publish comprehensive pricing data in a standardized digital format that includes gross charges, payer-specific negotiated rates, discounted cash prices, and de-identified minimum and maximum negotiated charges.
Consumer-Friendly Display: Clear, accessible pricing information for at least 300 common services, including both the service and associated ancillary services, must be prominently displayed on hospital websites.
Regular Updates: Pricing information must be updated at least annually, with many hospitals updating quarterly or more frequently to reflect contract changes and new services.
Penalties & Enforcement
Non-compliance can result in civil monetary penalties of up to $300 per bed per day. For a 200-bed hospital, this could mean fines of up to $21.9 million annually. CMS actively monitors compliance and has begun issuing formal notices and penalty assessments to non-compliant facilities.
How Care Carta Helps
Our platform automates the complex process of generating compliant machine-readable files, monitors regulatory changes, provides real-time compliance status updates, and offers expert guidance to help healthcare organizations avoid costly penalties while meeting all federal transparency requirements efficiently and accurately.