Unpacking Trump’s Healthcare Transparency Push: Savings for Patients or Unintended Consequences?

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." This directive aims to enhance healthcare price transparency, building upon initiatives from his previous term, to empower patients and promote a more competitive healthcare system. ​  

Key Provisions of the Executive Order 

The executive order mandates the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to take the following actions within 90 days. 

• Enforce Existing Transparency Rules: Ensure that hospitals and health plans comply with existing regulations requiring the disclosure of actual prices for healthcare services, rather than estimates.  
• Standardize Pricing Information: Issue updated guidance or propose regulatory actions to ensure that pricing information is standardized and easily comparable across hospitals and health plans. ​  
• Update Enforcement Policies: Revise enforcement policies to ensure the reporting of complete, accurate, and meaningful healthcare pricing data. ​  
• Read the White House fact sheet here  

Potential Benefits of Enhanced Price Transparency 

Advocates of the executive order believe that increased price transparency can lead to several positive outcomes. Here are some stats and claims pulled from the White House fact sheet, noting that we didn’t see any reference or source for this information:​ 

• Empowered Consumers: Access to clear pricing information allows patients to make informed decisions about their healthcare, potentially leading to cost savings. For example, one patient in Wisconsin saved $1,095 by comparing prices for the same tests between two hospitals located within 30 minutes of each other.  
• Cost Reduction and Employer Savings: An economic analysis estimated that fully implemented price transparency regulations could result in up to $80 billion in healthcare savings for consumers, employers, and insurers. Additionally, employers could lower their healthcare costs by an average of 27% on 500 common services by leveraging price transparency to shop for care more effectively. 

Concerns and Potential Unintended Consequences 

Even the most well-intentioned and meticulously crafted policies can result in unintended consequences. While the executive order aims to create a more consumer-friendly healthcare market, some experts caution that the outcomes may not always align with the intended goals. Understanding these potential challenges is essential to ensuring that implementation strategies address them proactively rather than reactively. 

Many of these concerns were raised when the original price transparency executive order issued back in 2019. However, we may not have seen these risks fully materialize because organizations largely did the bare minimum to comply, and enforcement may not have been strong enough to drive meaningful transparency that impacted negotiations. 

• Impact on Negotiations: Publicly disclosing negotiated rates between insurers and providers could affect contract dynamics, potentially leading to higher prices if providers push for rates that match or exceed those of their competitors. 
• Compliance Challenges: Hospitals and insurers may struggle to compile and present pricing data in a standardized, consumer-friendly format, resulting in compliance issues and increased administrative burdens. 
• Limited Consumer Use: Even with pricing data available, consumers may not use it effectively due to the complexity of healthcare services and difficulty in interpreting the information and performing a meaningful side by side comparison. 
• Consumers Prioritizing Price Over Quality: For consumers who choose to engage with price data, there is concern that they may prioritize cost savings without considering quality measures in their decision-making. 
  

Conclusion and Additional Considerations 

President Trump’s latest executive order on price transparency reinforces his administration’s goal of reshaping the U.S. healthcare system. By doubling down on transparency, the stated intention of the order is to empower consumers with more information about the costs of care, fostering a more competitive and efficient marketplace. For payers and providers, the order brings both opportunities and challenges. While increased transparency could lead to more competition and potentially lower costs, it also requires ongoing adaptation and may increase administrative burdens. 

As the healthcare industry continues to navigate these changes, there are several additional considerations to keep in mind. First, plans will need to monitor whether the Administration broadens the rule to include additional shoppable services beyond the current requirements. Such an expansion could further increase the complexity of compliance but also enhance the potential for consumer savings. Second, plans must work diligently to comply with the rule, which may involve significant operational and technological adjustments. Service providers, including technology vendors and consultants, will play a critical role in developing solutions to help plans meet these new requirements efficiently. 

Ultimately, the success of this initiative will depend on how effectively stakeholders like payers, providers, and service providers, collaborate to implement the changes while maintaining quality care and minimizing disruptions. As the industry adapts, the long-term impact of price transparency on consumers, employers, and the healthcare system as a whole will become clearer. 

If your organization needs help understanding the current policy landscape, reach out to us to set up some time to chat. Our Regulatory Resource Center monitors and stays on top of policy activity and how they might impact our clients.