Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Statistics: 2026 Report

Hospital Price Transparency Enforcement Actions by Year

CMS logs each step of a compliance case as a separate action, from the first review to the final closure. The Healthcare Industry Reviews research team counted those actions by year using CMS's July 2026 enforcement file.

• For hospitals, price transparency enforcement is speeding up. CMS sent 953 warnings from January through July 2026, close to the 1,030 for all of 2025. If this pace holds, 2026 will set a record.
• April 2026, the month CMS began enforcing the updated requirements in its 2026 outpatient payment rule, had the most warning notices (196) and corrective action plan (CAP) requests (121) of any month on record.

Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Rate

Two measures show how often hospitals meet the rule. One is the share of hospitals that ever received a warning, and the other is the share of cases where CMS found no problems on its first review.

• 45.0% of CMS cases opened with a finding that the hospital met the requirements, with no deficiencies cited.
• The first-review pass rate was 64.4% for cases opened in 2025 and 31.7% for cases opened from January to July 2026, after the updated requirements took effect.
• 55.9% of hospitals that received a warning notice went on to receive a CAP request, the second step in the process.
• The updated rules have made the first review much harder to pass. The pass rate fell from 64.4% in 2025 to 31.7% in 2026, and the median case ran 99 days from warning to closure. Patients are likely to see more complete price files as these cases close.

Hospital Price Transparency Penalties

A civil monetary penalty is the last step, used when a hospital does not submit or complete a corrective action plan. CMS publishes each penalty notice, and the amounts below come from those notices.

• The 27 published penalty notices with amounts total $4,938,685. The median penalty was $84,216.
• Three penalties exceeded $800,000: Northside Hospital Atlanta ($883,180), Jackson Memorial Hospital ($871,122) and Community First Medical Center ($847,740).
• Texas had the most penalized hospitals, with five, and Pinnacle Hospital in Indiana is the only hospital to receive a second penalty.
• Penalties are set per day of noncompliance. Hospitals with 30 or fewer beds were charged $300 to $342 per day, and most larger hospitals $10 or $11 per bed per day, depending on the year of the notice.
• Fines are small next to hospital budgets, so delay is the bigger risk. Because penalties accrue per day, the cost grows the longer a hospital waits.

Hospital Price Transparency Warnings by State

Warning counts by state show where CMS has found the most hospitals out of compliance. The counts are hospitals, so a hospital warned more than once is counted once.

• Texas hospitals received warnings at 299 locations, and Texas also had five of the 27 penalty notices with amounts.
• Hospitals in a few states face the highest odds of a warning or fine, and Texas hospitals are likely to stay under close CMS attention.

What Hospital Price Transparency Trends Mean for 2027 and Beyond

Hospitals now have to publish their prices in more detail, and many are failing the new checks. Fines are small at first but grow every day a hospital stays out of line, and getting a warning resolved takes months.

Enforcement is on track to reach a new high this year, and hospitals that have not updated their files are the most likely to be warned. As cases close, patients and employers should get price files that are more complete and easier to compare. Whether that happens depends on CMS keeping up the pace of reviews.

So if you are planning a procedure, check the hospital's posted prices before you go, because the updated rules require those files to include more detail.