In October 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) established a new requirement that hospitals post a list of standard charges for hospital items and services by Jan. 1, 2019, as well as diagnosis-related group (DRG) average charges, on the Internet. The rule requires hospitals to list their charges, which are different from the amounts that either patients or insurers actually pay
In November 2019, CMS added a requirement that hospitals post a machine readable file containing gross charges, discounted cash prices, payer-specific negotiated charges, and de-identified minimum and maximum negotiated charges. This requirement went into effect on January 1, 2021.