Currently submitted to: Interactive Journal of Medical Research
Date Submitted: Oct 7, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 13, 2026 - Dec 8, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Health Care Price Transparency in the United States: A Systematic Scoping Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Following the implementation of the Hospital price Transparency and Transparency in Coverage rules, healthcare price transparency has significantly expanded across the United States. However, the practical usability of disclosed information and data is still limited.
Objective:
This review broadly focuses on U.S. healthcare price transparency to assess implementation of federal disclosure policies, accessibility and usability of available pricing data, and remaining gaps in compliance, data standardization, stakeholders use, market implications, and policy application.
Methods:
This systematic scoping review uses a structured thematic approach to analyze 219 publications published between 2024 to June 2026.
Results:
Price transparency has led to an increase in the availability of hospital and payer data. Despite expanded disclosure, there exists compliance gaps, inconsistent machine-readable files, ambiguous pricing information and data usability challenges, which undermine the full potential of transparency. The literature is also weighted toward hospital data and consumer-facing usability, with relatively limited attention to payer data, and employer and policy maker applications.
Conclusions:
Price Transparency has expanded public access to hospital and payer pricing data, but disclosure alone is not enough. The barriers such as inconsistent and incomplete files, compliance gaps, limited comparability, varying price definitions, and uneven stakeholders’ engagement undermine the practical use of data. Future research should emphasize that price transparency is meaningful only when available price data is standardized, interpretable, quality linked, and actionable
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