in effect
This is a presidential executive order (Executive Order 14221, signed February 25, 2025) directing federal agencies to strengthen and enforce healthcare price transparency rules. It builds on an earlier 2019 order (EO 13877) that required hospitals and health plans to publish their prices. It does not create new law by itself; it instructs agencies on what to do under existing authority.
The order gives the Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services 90 days to take three specific actions. First, they must require disclosure of actual prices for items and services, not estimates. Second, they must issue guidance or proposed rules making pricing information standardized and easy to compare across hospitals and health plans. Third, they must update enforcement policies to ensure the reported data is complete, accurate, and meaningful. The order frames this as re-activating and tightening existing rules that require hospitals to post prices for up to 300 shoppable services and machine-readable files of negotiated rates, and require health plans to post negotiated rates, out-of-network payments, and actual drug prices.
Hospitals, health plans (insurers), and pharmacy benefit managers are the parties expected to comply, and they face increased enforcement of what they must publicly disclose. Patients, employers, and taxpayers are the intended beneficiaries, meant to gain clearer price information to compare care before a visit or procedure. The order states it creates no new legally enforceable rights for any person and is subject to available funding.