2021 Health Price Transparency: Data Availability and Analysis

Starting on January 1, 2021 hospitals were required by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to begin publishing price transparency data. Hospitals are required to publish payer-specific negotiated rates for common services including at least 300 of the hospital’s most shoppable services available to the general public in a machine-readable format. The rule defines the rates to include payer-specific negotiated rates, gross charges, and out-of-pocket cash prices. Wakely has found that the hospital transparency data released to-date is able to provide some meaningful insights. This paper will outline Wakely’s initial data collection and analysis as well as our thoughts on the future of the hospital transparency data.