Bill
SB 5493
Hospitals must publish and annually submit machine-readable price data and a consumer-friendly list of shoppable prices to DOH, aligned to 1/1/2025 federal rules.
Status
- Chapter 146, 2025 Laws. Governor signed 4/22/2025. Effective date: July 27, 2025.
- Enacted form is the substitute bill (S-1431.1) that added a new section to chapter 70.41 RCW.
Purpose / Intent
- Require Washington hospitals to make public and submit standardized price data by aligning state requirements with federal hospital price-transparency rules (45 C.F.R. Part 180, subparts A & B) as those rules existed on January 1, 2025. The aim is to increase consumer access to hospital price information and enable comparison across hospitals.
Key provisions (enacted substitute)
- Compliance date: By July 1, 2027, hospitals must publish all data and comply with the federal hospital price transparency rules as of 1/1/2025.
- Submission requirement: Beginning July 1, 2027, hospitals must submit to the Washington State Department of Health (DOH), at least annually, their most recent:
- machine-readable file listing all standard charges for all hospital items and services; and
- consumer-friendly list of standard charges for the limited set of “shoppable services” required by the federal rule.
- The statute adopts the federal rule set as of a fixed date (1/1/2025), rather than automatically incorporating later federal changes.
What the federal rules require (as referenced)
- Machine-readable file: item/service descriptions, gross charges, payer‑specific negotiated charges, de-identified minimum and maximum negotiated charges, discounted cash price, and hospital billing/accounting codes.
- Consumer-friendly shoppable list: plain‑language descriptions, payer-specific negotiated charges, discounted cash price or gross charge, min/max de‑identified negotiated charges, location of service, and primary billing codes. The federal rule specifies at least 300 shoppable services (including 70 CMS-specified services) where applicable.
Who is affected
- Hospitals licensed under chapter 70.41 RCW (all state-licensed hospitals).
- Department of Health (receiving and potentially publishing submitted files).
- Consumers, patients, payors, insurers, and researchers—who may use the data to compare prices.
Implementation and impact
- Provides a state-level mandate that reinforces and operationalizes federal price-transparency requirements, with a defined compliance and submission schedule.
- Expected outcomes: greater availability of hospital price data to consumers and payors; potential administrative and IT costs for hospitals to collect, format, and submit required files.
- The enacted substitute is narrowly focused on publication and submission requirements. More prescriptive enforcement, complaint, audit, consumer‑protection, or anti‑collection provisions that appeared in earlier drafts/reports were not included in the substitute text that became law.
Notes
- Because the law references the federal rules as they existed on a fixed date (1/1/2025), future federal amendments after that date are not automatically required under this state law unless the Legislature acts again.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
Sign in to ask a question.
