Hospital price transparency cuts costs, but limitations signal more work
A new study links hospital price transparency to lower cancer care costs, but merely posting machine-readable files will not cut it as efforts to disclose prices move forward.
Hospital price transparency is working to reduce costs for patients -- at least for those with cancer.
That's the high-level finding from a new study published in Value in Health by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Turquoise Health, a healthcare price transparency platform. The study analyzed payer-negotiated prices for 89 oncology services at 228 hospitals in the 10 largest U.S. metropolitan areas from December 2021 to June 2024.
The study found commercial prices for cancer treatments fell by about 0.82% each year when 10% more hospitals disclosed prices. There were also larger price reductions for routine services, like radiation therapy and surgical procedures, during the period.
To researchers, the findings make sense: Hospital price transparency supports meaningful cost comparisons and competition, thereby putting downward pressure on service prices.
However, it is not as simple as saying that hospital price transparency is effective at lowering healthcare costs. Researchers observed differences in effectiveness based on the level of price transparency -- a challenge the healthcare industry has faced in implementing and complying with transparency requirements.
When price transparency works, when it doesn’t
The study found that hospital price transparency is effective under certain conditions. When more hospitals disclose prices, prices tend to decline more significantly, according to research results. That means, areas with low hospital price transparency compliance are unlikely to realize the cost benefits of the federal requirements.
The federal government designed hospital price transparency requirements to empower patients to compare prices and achieve value. The requirements also encourage market competition to lower healthcare costs. However, compliance has been spotty since the requirements went into effect in 2021.
Together, these findings suggest that price transparency is not binary.
Forrest Xiao, director of quantitative research, Turquoise Health
While compliance has improved from initial low levels, reports from organizations such as PatientRightsAdvocate.org indicate that, as of September 2025, only about 21% of hospitals were fully compliant with all requirements.
However, the study also revealed that not all the federal requirements support cost-cutting goals. While compliance is key, merely posting a machine-readable file (MRF) as required by CMS was not associated with significant price reductions for cancer care. Price disclosure for specific oncology services, though, did.
Still, only about 19% of hospitals in each metropolitan area analyzed disclosed prices specific to oncology services. Meanwhile, a median of almost 48% had posted MRFs.
"Together, these findings suggest that price transparency is not binary," Forrest Xiao, study author and director of quantitative research at Turquoise Health, wrote in a blog post. "Transparency exists on a spectrum, and only disclosures that enable service-specific price comparisons appear to reduce prices."
How to bolster price transparency for lower costs
Hospital price transparency isn't new anymore, but it certainly hasn't left the spotlight. Studies, like the one from Turquoise Health and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, are building a growing body of literature around compliance and the effectiveness of such requirements. Federal regulators and lawmakers are also prioritizing improvements to established requirements and considering new ones.
President Donald Trump, specifically, addressed healthcare price transparency in the "Great Healthcare Plan," introduced in early 2026. The plan is an overarching framework for lowering healthcare costs, with a section on increasing price transparency through a "plain English standard" and upfront cost disclosure requirements for providers and payers.
This type of forward momentum is good, according to Carol Skenes, chief of staff at Turquoise Health.
What all of this ultimately points to is...does it help make patients more equipped to make their care decisions from a cost perspective?
Carol Skenes, chief of staff, Turquoise Health
"A win so far with price transparency is making sure data isn't getting stagnant," she explained. "We need to make sure the data is always accurate and, ultimately, that it can eventually become something that feeds the idea that patients could get an accurate upfront price for their care."
That's the main issue with hospital price transparency as it stands now. It is unfair and unreasonable to ask patients to download large MRFs to determine and compare prices, even if the government is seeking to make them smaller, Skenes said. Yet, the prices for many services are still only contained in those files.
But Skenes sees a solution. She envisions a more robust deployment of patient estimation tools that disclose prices for shoppable services and enable providers to consolidate costs into a single, estimated price for more complex services.
Getting to a more comprehensive price transparency solution, though, will rely on continued compliance with federal requirements and ongoing improvements to data elements and file formats.
"There's a lot more talk now of this convergence of machine-readable file data and patient estimate tool data," Skenes stated. "We're seeing that more and more, and we'd love to see dates and policy tied to that, so we can really hang our hats on that and other people can, then, start adding innovative solutions around it."
Hospital price transparency is a journey. Hospitals began by compiling their pricing data and have now developed the muscle to clarify it, Skenes noted. Now, the industry is entering an era focused on making the data accessible and digestible for consumers, not just researchers.
"What all of this, ultimately, points to is whether you're looking at the Great Healthcare Plan or the One Big Beautiful Bill or any niche element of price transparency, does it help make patients more equipped to make their care decisions from a cost perspective?" Skenes asked.
"Then, once they know the cost, are they able to factor in the element of quality, what providers are available to them in their area and how far away they want to go for their care? Those factors equip them better to be able to have those conversations and feel more like they're able to plan, which is what we all want as consumers of healthcare."
Jacqueline LaPointe is a graduate of Brandeis University and King's College London. She has been writing about healthcare finance and revenue cycle management since 2016.
