Patients Deserve Price Tags Act

This bill makes health care prices clear and easy to find. Hospitals must post their full list prices and consumer-friendly prices online every month, and by 2027 they must list prices for all “shoppable” services people can schedule in advance. They have to use a standard format, a top leader must attest the data are accurate, and there are regular audits and steep fines for not complying, scaled by hospital size. These rules start in 2026, with uniform posting formats due by January 1, 2026, and stronger enforcement that can reach millions of dollars for large hospitals . Price posting expands to imaging centers, labs, and certain ambulatory surgery centers in 2027, including cash prices and negotiated rates, with updates, audits, and daily penalties for noncompliance .

Health plans must give people real-time cost estimates through an online tool and honor those estimates so members aren’t billed more than shown. Plans also have to publish monthly rate and payment data, face audits, and can be fined up to $300 per member per day (capped at $10 million) if they fail to follow transparency rules. Plans must also send clear explanations of benefits after claims come in. To stop “gag clauses,” group plans get full access to their claims and pricing data; vendors who block access can be fined $100,000 per day. States can keep stronger price transparency laws unless those laws directly conflict with these rules .

• You must receive an itemized medical bill within 30 days after final payment on your claim, with plain-language descriptions, codes, prices, and payments. Providers cannot send you to collections unless they’ve given you that bill, and if your final bill is higher than a required posted price or good faith estimate, the provider has to prove why; otherwise, the estimate is binding. Fines can reach $10,000 per violation for providers who fail to follow these rules .

Overall, this aims to help people shop for care, compare prices, and avoid billing surprises, while holding hospitals, insurers, and vendors accountable if they hide prices or data .