Federal hospital price transparency rules are meant to help patients and employers compare prices before care. CMS says hospitals can face civil monetary penalties for noncompliance, and enforcement of new 2026 requirements began April 1, 2026. Supporters of stronger enforcement say machine-readable prices can help expose hidden costs and support comparison tools. Critics say hospital prices are complicated, many patients cannot shop in emergencies, and compliance can be costly for hospitals. Price files will not fix health care by themselves, but useless data does not help anyone. If hospitals have to publish prices, the information should be standardized enough for people and software to actually use.