Taking Stock Of Proposed Updates To Health Plan Price Transparency Rules

Proposed updates to the 2020 health plan price transparency rules, referred to as Transparency in Coverage or TiC rules, stem from an executive order issued in February 2025 that instructs the Departments to “rapidly implement and enforce” existing hospital and health plan price transparency rules adopted during President Donald Trump’s first term. The TiC updates rely on legal authority under the Affordable Care Act and the No Surprises Act.The 2020 TiC rules envisioned that equipping patients and employers with health care prices would “empower consumers to make informed decisions about their health care, spur competition in health care markets, and slow or potentially reverse the rising cost of health care items and services.” But this vision has not materialized, as the new proposal acknowledges. While health plans are posting an enormous volume of price data, the data are challenging and expensive to access and use. The best-resourced employers are starting to draw insights from the data with considerable effort, but most employers are left in the dark.