STAT+: New Trump regulations would clean up health care pricing disclosures

The Trump administration released new regulations on Monday that will force health insurance companies to publish cleaned-up spreadsheets of the prices they pay hospitals and doctors, while stripping out the meaningless data that had clogged up the earlier files. The move is aimed at making health care price transparency disclosures actually usable rather than filled with unusable entries.

Trump officials also said they will start developing the system for disclosing prescription drug prices next month. Mehmet Oz, the head of Medicare and Medicaid, said at an event Monday in Washington that a "hopeful" final plan for drug pricing data will come out by next May, and that the government will enforce those requirements by the end of 2027.

That drug pricing piece follows a reversal in posture: last year, the Trump administration punted on finalizing drug price disclosure rules, which was a victory for drug companies and pharmacy benefit managers that have fiercely guarded their prices. Public drug price information is now expected to arrive next year, according to officials. The remainder of the story is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers.