A new white paper from Center grantee Simple Healthcare provides recommendations for improving the Transparency in Coverage (TiC) data that commercial health plans are required to release.

Since 2022, federal rules have required commercial health plans to publish data disclosing the prices that they negotiate with every healthcare provider, including all hospitals, physician groups, labs, and ambulatory surgery centers. This TiC data provides unprecedented visibility into healthcare pricing and is already enabling employers to seek more affordable care for their employees.

A December 2025 proposed rule from the Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor seeks to improve TiC data accessibility, accuracy, and usability. Simple Healthcare’s paper, based on original analysis of TiC data and Medicare data, provides recommendations that can make TiC data an even more powerful tool for employers and other stakeholders who want to investigate and compare health plans’ prices.

Simple Healthcare’s evidence-based recommendations for strengthening TiC data focused on filtering ghost rates (rates for items and services a clinician is highly unlikely to perform), structuring reporting of claims volume, improving file architecture, and disclosing bundled payments.