§ 147.211 Transparency in coverage—required disclosures to participants, beneficiaries, or enrollees.

(a) Scope and definitions—(1) Scope. This section establishes price transparency requirements for group health plans and health insurance issuers in the individual and group markets for the timely disclosure of information about costs related to covered items and services under a plan or health insurance coverage.

(2) Definitions. For purposes of this section, the definitions in § 147.210 apply.

(b) Required disclosures to participants, beneficiaries, or enrollees. At the request of a participant, beneficiary, or enrollee who is enrolled in a group health plan or health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage, the plan or issuer must provide to the participant, beneficiary, or enrollee the information required under paragraph (b)(1) of this section, in accordance with the method and format requirements set forth in paragraph (b)(2) of this section.

(1) Required cost-sharing information. The information required under this paragraph (b)(1) is the following cost-sharing information, which is accurate at the time the request is made, with respect to a participant's, beneficiary's, or enrollee's cost-sharing liability for covered items and services:

(i) An estimate of the participant's, beneficiary's, or enrollee's cost-sharing liability for a requested covered item or service furnished by a provider or providers, which must reflect any cost-sharing reductions the enrollee would receive, that is calculated based on the information described in paragraphs (b)(1)(ii) through (iv) of this section.

(A) If the request for cost-sharing information relates to items and services that are provided within a bundled payment arrangement, and the bundled payment arrangement includes items or services that have a separate cost-sharing liability, the group health plan or health insurance issuer must provide estimates of the cost-sharing liability for the requested covered item or service, as well as an estimate of the cost-sharing liability for each of the items and services in the bundled payment arrangement that have separate cost-sharing liabilities. While group health plans and health insurance issuers are not required to provide estimates of cost-sharing liability for a bundled payment arrangement where the cost-sharing is imposed separately for each item and service included in the bundled payment arrangement, nothing prohibits plans or issuers from providing estimates for multiple items and services in situations where such estimates could be relevant to participants or beneficiaries, as long as the plan or issuer also discloses information about the relevant items or services individually, as required in paragraph (b)(1)(v) of this section.

(B) For requested items and services that are recommended preventive services under section 2713 of the Public Health Service Act (PHS Act), if the group health plan or health insurance issuer cannot determine whether the request is for preventive or non-preventive purposes, the plan or issuer must display the cost-sharing liability that applies for non-preventive purposes. As an alternative, a group health plan or health insurance issuer may allow a participant, beneficiary, or enrollee to request cost-sharing information for the specific preventive or non-preventive item or service by including terms such as “preventive”, “non-preventive” or “diagnostic” as a means to request the most accurate cost-sharing information.