Federal hospital standard-charge publishing rule
CMS Hospital Price Transparency Rule
Last updated: June 2026
Hospitals are required to publish standard charge information, including machine-readable price files. These prices can help compare facilities, but they are not a personalized estimate and may not match your final ER bill.
What the Hospital Price Transparency Rule protects
- Public access to hospital standard charge information.
- Machine-readable files that include pricing information for hospital items and services.
- Consumer-friendly information for some shoppable services.
- A way to compare published hospital price data before or after care.
What hospital price transparency does not guarantee
- It does not guarantee that the published number is what you will owe.
- It does not include every separate bill you may receive after an ER visit.
- It does not replace an insurer estimate, hospital estimate, or explanation of benefits.
- It does not mean every hospital file is easy to read or complete.
What to ask for
- Ask the hospital billing office where its price transparency file is posted.
- Ask which billing code was used for your ER visit.
- Ask your insurer for your expected out-of-pocket cost based on your plan.
- Ask for an itemized bill if the final charge does not match what you expected.
Steps to take
- Use published price data as comparison context, not as a final quote.
- Compare the ER visit level, cash price, gross charge, and payer rate labels carefully.
- Check whether your bill includes separate professional, lab, imaging, or ambulance charges.
- If a hospital's public price file appears missing or unusable, use CMS resources to learn about complaints.