Relating to the disclosure of health care cost information by certain health care facilities; imposing an administrative penalty.

Contracts

• RCM & IT Vendors: Review Master Service Agreements with billing and Electronic Health Record (EHR) vendors immediately. You must ensure their software roadmap includes the capability to export "machine-readable files" of standard charges by 2029. If your vendor cannot guarantee this, you must pivot to a new vendor before the deadline.
• Payer Agreements: Review confidentiality clauses in payer contracts regarding negotiated rates. While statutory disclosure requirements supersede these clauses, you should prepare formal notifications to payers that this data will become public in 2029.

Hiring/Training

• Compliance Protocols: Establish a strict internal protocol for handling HHSC notices. Penalties are triggered specifically by failure to respond to or comply with a Corrective Action Plan (CAP). Front-line administrative staff must be trained to escalate any HHSC correspondence to Legal immediately.
• Data Management: Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) teams will require training on maintaining public-facing data sets, distinct from standard patient estimation workflows.

Reporting & Record-Keeping

• Revenue Verification: You must document "Total Gross Revenue" annually to determine your regulatory status. Facilities under $10M are exempt; facilities over $100M face higher penalty tiers.
• Audit Trails: Upon implementation in 2029, you must maintain digital logs proving the date and accuracy of your pricing updates to defend against potential administrative penalties.

Fees & Costs

• Administrative Penalties:
• Tier 1 ($10M - $100M Revenue): $100 per violation.
• Tier 2 ($100M+ Revenue): $1,000 per day of non-compliance.
• Operational Costs: Expect medium-level capital expenditures for IT upgrades to support public data hosting and formatting.