Trump’s Executive Order On Price Transparency: More Data for Employers and Employer-Sponsored Plans

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On February 25, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Making America Healthy Again by Empowering Patients with Clear, Accurate, and Actionable Healthcare Pricing Information” (the “Order”), which generally aims at enhancing transparency in healthcare pricing. The full text of the Order can be found here.

Background

The Order reinforces and builds on a prior order issued in 2019 and titled “Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First” (the “Initial Order”). Among other things, the Initial Order required hospitals to provide patients with pricing information for up to 300 shoppable services in a consumer-friendly manner and a machine-readable file with negotiated rates for all provided services, as well as their out-of-network payments to providers. Various hospital groups, such as the American Hospital Association, challenged the Initial Order on statutory and constitutional grounds, and such challenge was unsuccessful, both in the district court and on appeal.

Pursuant to the Initial Order, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (the “CMS”) implemented two transparency rules: (1) the Hospital Price Transparency Rule; and (2) the Health Plan Transparency in Coverage Requirements. However, CMS noted very low compliance with the Initial Order, and, as a result, attempted to increase compliance by way of civil monetary penalties and other incentives.

The Order

The Order mandates for the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to “take all necessary steps to improve existing price transparency requirements” and do the following within 90 days with the general intent to increase price transparency:

• Price disclosure: Hospitals and insurers must disclose the actual prices of items and services instead of mere estimates. The Order seeks to ensure that consumers are aware of their true financial obligations.
• Enforcement policies: Federal agencies are required to update enforcement policies in an effort to comply with the transparency requirements.
• Pricing information: The Order calls for standardization of pricing information to ensure comparability across hospitals and health plans.

Employer Impact

While the benefits of greater transparency are self-evident for individual consumers of healthcare, employers generally welcome price transparency because better access to clear and standardized pricing information enables employers and employer-sponsored health plans to make more informed decisions regarding coverage and tailor their health plan coverage accordingly. Furthermore, more transparent pricing schemes provide employers with data to negotiate with healthcare providers and insurers in a more effective manner, which could drive down costs in the future. However, employers may need to invest in systems and processes in order to process and analyze the pricing data and subsequently relay the information to the employees. In addition, while the proponents of the Order believe it will lead to lower prices and better healthcare quality, the critics seem to think the Order will present challenges and may disrupt employer-provider negotiations.

As for any action items, employers should ensure adherence to the updated transparency requirements. For instance, employers should get in touch with their insurers and/or third-party administrators to verify that pricing information is accurately reflected and accessible. For example, impacted parties should consult their advisors as to the posting of machine-readable files and on a public website in accordance with the transparency rules. As such, ensuring compliance with the new transparency requirements may entail additional administrative efforts and costs for employers, which vary based on the size of the employer.

Conclusion

The Trump administration anticipates that full implementation of the price transparency measures will result in a great deal of healthcare savings for insurers, employers, and consumers alike—$80 billion by 2025 to be exact—and generally calls for “a more competitive, innovative, affordable, and higher quality healthcare system.” The benefitting stakeholders can then redirect the savings into other benefits and investments. On the other hand, while price transparency is generally praised and widely-accepted by consumers, the aforementioned concerns regarding the Order should be taken into account. Nevertheless, the long-term success of the Order will largely depend on its effective implementation and consistent enforcement.