Subcommittee advances bill to put federal price-transparency rule into state law, members push timing changes

A Commerce and Consumer Affairs subcommittee on Monday voted to advance HB 507 — a bill that would put federal price-transparency requirements for insurers into state law and give the state insurance commissioner authority to adopt implementing rules that mirror forthcoming federal standards.

The change would require insurers to publish standardized, machine-readable pricing information for plan years beginning Jan. 1, 2026, and makes the law’s effective date contingent on federal guidance: the amendment the subcommittee endorsed sets final applicability to six months after finalization of federal guidance issued under Presidential Executive Order 14221.

Committee members said the bill’s purpose is to create an enforceable state mechanism for price-transparency rules the federal government has already been developing, while insurers and their representatives urged caution about timing and technical readiness.

"Currently, it's a federal regulation," said Alex (staff member), describing how price-transparency reporting has been handled to date. Sabrina Dunlap, director of government relations for Anthem, told the committee her company and other carriers have been in contact with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and that the 90-day directive in the executive order likely will not result in finalized rules in that period. "It seems unlikely that final rules will be issued in that period. So I don't think the timing is as clear as 90 days from the executive order," Dunlap said.

Committee discussion focused on three timing questions: (1) when CMS will issue final guidance tied to the presidential order; (2) whether the state rulemaking can and should be required to mirror the federal standard; and (3) how much runway carriers and the department should be given after federal finalization to comply. Staff and witnesses said federal guidance may be proposed quickly but could take months to finalize through the federal rulemaking and public-comment process.

The subcommittee adopted an amendment that removes a section of the original draft and revises the effective/applicability language. As amended, the bill requires the commissioner to adopt rules consistent with the federal standard and specifies that the statute will apply to plan years beginning Jan. 1, 2026, but will not take effect until six months after final federal guidance under Executive Order 14221 has been finalized.

Insurer witnesses described the technical size and cost of publishing complete machine-readable files. Dunlap said carriers' published files cover detailed rate elements — network, facility, physician codes, and place-of-service — and that preparing them to a new, state-specific format can require “completely new computing capabilities.” Committee members pushed back that the goal of uniformity is to reduce downstream costs for the department and data users, and some legislators said they prefer having the uniformity requirement in statute rather than leaving it solely to the rulemaking process.

The subcommittee took a nonbinding straw vote in favor of the six-month-after-finalization timing and approved the committee’s majority recommendation to report the bill "ought to pass as amended." Members agreed to reconvene the subcommittee at 9:45 a.m. the next day to consider final amendment text before the committee’s executive session.

Next steps: committee staff will circulate the drafted amendment language clarifying the effective date; the subcommittee will reconvene at 09:45 tomorrow to take a formal vote on the amendment and the committee report.