Washington, D.C. – February 23, 2026 – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) today submitted recommendations in response to a proposal by The U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury (the Tri-Departments) amending the Transparency in Coverage (“TiC”) regulations, which require public disclosure of health care prices paid by insurance companies and self-insured employer-sponsored health plans. The proposed rules aim to standardize and improve the accuracy and accessibility of TiC pricing disclosures, while reducing the size, number, and duplication of data in TiC Machine-Readable Files (MRFs).
“Employers, policymakers, and health care advocates recognize that price and data transparency are not optional – they are essential tools for addressing rising medical costs. Without clear, accessible pricing information, employers cannot steer employees toward high-quality care or hold providers accountable for quality, cost, and value,” said ERIC President and CEO James Gelfand. “Working in partnership with the Tri-Departments, we believe these recommendations can improve the accuracy of the data and ultimately drive more value in the system.”
ERIC offered a series of recommendations to reduce the volume and complexity of MRF data, and make the information more useful and actionable for plan sponsors and consumers, including:
- Assisting self-insured plan sponsors in obtaining complete and accurate pricing information by ensuring that the insurance companies they work with produce TiC MRFs that are complete, accurate, and compliant with regulatory requirements.
- Eliminating “ghost rates” that clog up MRFs with useless information and make the files unwieldy, confusing, and difficult to use.
- Setting a 90-day effective date for compliance with the regulations. ERIC noted that the changes contemplated under the proposed rule require modifications, refinement, and improvements to existing systems, but do not necessitate the intensive effort or time required during implementation of the original TiC rule. This recommendation would be similar to recent changes to the Hospital Rule requirements finalized on November 25, 2025, which became effective January 1, 2026.
ERIC is a national advocacy organization exclusively representing the largest employers in the United States in their capacity as sponsors of employee benefit plans for their nationwide workforces. With member companies that are leaders in every economic sector, ERIC is the voice of large employer plan sponsors on federal, state, and local public policies impacting their ability to sponsor benefit plans. ERIC member companies offer benefits to tens of millions of employees and their families, located in every state and city across the country.
Read the full comments here.
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