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House Committee Passes Bills Requiring Hospital Executives to Certify Prices and Medicare Advantage Plans to Open Their Books

Six additional health care bills from the same July 15 markup would make hospital leaders personally accountable for posted prices and force Medicare Advantage insurers to disclose administrative spending and denial rates.

By the Goodsurance editorial teamJuly 14, 2026

The same July 15, 2026, markup by the House Committee on Ways and Means produced six additional health care bills focused on hospital price transparency and Medicare Advantage plan accountability. Under the price transparency measures, hospitals would be required to present prices in a format consumers can check before receiving services, going beyond the machine-readable rate files that federal rules have mandated since 2021. Hospital chief executives would be required to personally certify the accuracy of their institutions' published prices, raising individual accountability for non-compliance. For Medicare Advantage insurers, the package would require public disclosure of revenues, administrative spending, and the share of premium revenue spent on patient care. Insurers would file annual reports with CMS on prior authorization use, approval rates, denial rates, and average decision times, and CMS would publish those reports. A separate measure would require nursing facilities and skilled nursing facilities to permit two designated essential caregivers per resident to visit in person during declared public health emergencies, responding to blanket visitation restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The package also includes a provision expanding Medicare payment for remote patient monitoring in rural areas. All seven bills await a vote by the full House.

Your Medicare Advantage plan may soon have to show how often it says no and how much it spends on administration. Hospital executives could face personal liability for inaccurate posted prices.

In plain words

The same committee approved six other health care bills the same day. Hospitals would have to show patients prices before giving care, and executives would have to personally certify those prices are correct. Medicare Advantage plans would have to disclose how much they spend on administration versus patient care and report approval and denial rates. A separate bill would let two family caregivers visit nursing home residents during public health emergencies. All bills still need a full House vote.

Source: House Committee on Ways and Means
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