HR 9393: Lower Costs, More Transparency Act of 2026

HR 9393 in plain English: This bill aims to increase price transparency in the healthcare system by requiring hospitals and other providers to publicly disclose costs for items and services. It establishes civil monetary penalties for hospitals that fail to comply with transparency requirements, with penalty amounts scaled to hospital size.

Stated purpose

This bill aims to promote price transparency in the health care sector by requiring hospitals and other health care entities to publicly disclose their prices, including what they charge insurers, cash-paying patients, and others, in a standardized and accessible format.

Key points

• Requires hospitals to publicly disclose prices for items and services, excluding $0 charges
• Penalizes small hospitals (30 or fewer beds) up to $300 per day for noncompliance, rising to $400 per day after one year
• Penalizes large hospitals (more than 500 beds) up to $25 per bed per day, rising to $35 per bed per day after one year
• Maximum penalties for the largest hospitals (500+ beds) range from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000
• Gives the Secretary authority to waive or reduce penalties in certain cases

Arguments supporters make

• When patients can see real prices upfront, they can shop around and choose lower-cost care, which puts pressure on hospitals and insurers to compete and bring prices down.
• Revealing what insurers actually pay for the same service exposes large price gaps and gives employers, patients, and policymakers the information they need to hold the health care system accountable.
• The bill passed committee 45 to 0, showing broad bipartisan agreement that consumers deserve to know what health care costs before they receive a bill.

Arguments opponents make

• Posting prices does not help patients who have no real choice — in an emergency or in areas with only one hospital, price lists do not create meaningful competition or lower costs.
• Disclosing negotiated rates between hospitals and insurers could allow hospitals to see what competitors charge, potentially leading all prices to rise toward the highest rate rather than fall.
• Compliance with new standardized reporting requirements creates significant administrative costs for hospitals, costs that may ultimately be passed on to patients or reduce resources available for care.

Tradeoffs

Making negotiated prices public may empower consumers and increase competition, but it could also eliminate the confidentiality that allows insurers to negotiate lower rates, potentially affecting what those deals look like in the future. Enforcing uniform standards improves comparability but adds regulatory and administrative burden on hospitals, especially smaller or rural facilities with fewer resources.

Current status in Congress: In committee.

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