(a) General rules.

(1) A hospital must establish, update, and make public a list of all standard charges for all items and services online in the form and manner specified in this section.

(2) Each hospital location operating under a single hospital license (or approval) that has a different set of standard charges than the other location(s) operating under the same hospital license (or approval) must separately make public the standard charges applicable to that location.

(b) Required data elements. A hospital must include all of the following corresponding data elements in its list of standard charges, as applicable:

(1) Description of each item or service provided by the hospital.

(2) Gross charge that applies to each individual item or service when provided in, as applicable, the hospital inpatient setting and outpatient department setting.

(3) Payer-specific negotiated charge that applies to each item or service when provided in, as applicable, the hospital inpatient setting and outpatient department setting. Each payer-specific negotiated charge must be clearly associated with the name of the third party payer and plan.

(4) De-identified minimum negotiated charge that applies to each item or service when provided in, as applicable, the hospital inpatient setting and outpatient department setting.

(5) De-identified maximum negotiated charge that applies to each item or service when provided in, as applicable, the hospital inpatient setting and outpatient department setting.

(6) Discounted cash price that applies to each item or service when provided in, as applicable, the hospital inpatient setting and outpatient department setting.

(7) Any code used by the hospital for purposes of accounting or billing for the item or service, including, but not limited to, the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code, the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code, the Diagnosis Related Group (DRG), the National Drug Code (NDC), or other common payer identifier.

(c) Format. The information described in paragraph (b) of this section must be published in a single digital file that is in a machine-readable format.

(d) Location and accessibility.

(1) A hospital must select a publicly available website for purposes of making public the standard charge information required under paragraph (b) of this section.

(2) The standard charge information must be displayed in a prominent manner and clearly identified with the hospital location with which the standard charge information is associated.

(3) The hospital must ensure that the standard charge information is easily accessible, without barriers, including but not limited to ensuring the information is accessible:

(i) Free of charge;

(ii) Without having to establish a user account or password; and

(iii) Without having to submit personal identifying information (PII).

(4) The digital file and standard charge information contained in that file must be digitally searchable.

(5) The file must use the following naming convention specified by CMS, specifically: <ein>__<hospital-name>__standardcharges.[json|xml|csv].

(e) Frequency of updates. The hospital must update the standard charge information described in paragraph (b) of this section at least once annually. The hospital must clearly indicate the date that the standard charge data was most recently updated, either within the file itself or otherwise clearly associated with the file.