Trump administration warns Kentucky hospitals to provide more medical price info
Eight Kentucky hospitals, including one in Lexington and at least two in Eastern Kentucky, have been put on notice by President Donald Trump’s administration this year for failing to adequately disclose basic medical pricing information, according to new reporting by The Associated Press.
The state-owned Eastern State Hospital psychiatric care facility managed by University of Kentucky HealthCare was instructed to submit a corrective transparent pricing plan, as was the University of Louisville Health Jewish Hospital and a SUN Behavioral Health institution in Erlanger, according to the reporting.
Corrective Action Plan requests from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services give health institutions 45 days to address price transparency deficiencies before federal authorities can begin issuing civil monetary penalties that can run as high as $2 million a year, according to the agency.
The Pikeville Medical Center and Hazard Appalachian Regional Health Medical Center campus received 90-day warning notices, the AP reports.
A UK HealthCare spokesperson directed questions regarding patient pricing at Eastern State Hospital to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. The university health system has managed ESH under a Department of Behavioral Health contract since 2013.
Both CHFS and UK HealthCare “are aware of the federal administration’s communication regarding pricing transparency and have submitted a corrective action plan to comply,” a cabinet spokesperson told the Herald-Leader.
“Team Kentucky believes healthcare is a basic human right and strives to help Kentuckians access affordable services across the healthcare system,” said Beth Fisher, deputy executive director of the CHFS Office of Public Affairs.
Prices at ESH are calculated using federally established cost-based formulas CMS oversees, but final billing is managed by UK HealthCare, Fisher said.
Pikeville Medical Center and Appalachian Regional Health chalked their 90-day warnings up to “technical issues” with how price transparency issues are displayed online. CMS first monitors hospitals for price transparency compliance using web scrapers that can get tripped up by formatting or bad links.
Pikeville Medical Center received a warning notice from CMS in mid-May concerning what it called “a technical issue with a broken URL,” according to a statement the Pike County medical system provided the Herald-Leader. It “was an unrecognized error resulting from the recent migration of PMC’s website from pikevillehospital.org to pmcky.org.”
Pricing information remained available online, but the outdated link prevented the machine-readable file from being referenced by CMS, according to the system.
“Upon receiving the notice, PMC immediately identified and corrected the issue and submitted a formal response letter to CMS on May 27, 2026,” the statement reads. “In addition, PMC instituted additional monitoring measures to help prevent similar technical issues that could prevent CMS from accessing PMC’s files in the future to validate compliance.”
The medical system has retained a consulting firm to ensure ongoing compliance with the rules, according to the statement.
“Pikeville Medical Center is fully committed to price transparency and adheres to all state and federal transparency requirements,” said Michelle Hagy, executive vice president and chief financial officer in a statement. “This was an unfortunate technical website issue, not a lack of compliance, and it was resolved immediately after we received notification. Our pricing information has been and remains publicly accessible at pmcky.org, as required.”
Appalachian Regional Health, meanwhile, said its warning involved “technical aspects of how certain files were presented and formatted, and not the absence of pricing information itself,” said ARH Chief Financial Officer Byron Gabbard.
The files have sense been corrected, and officials have strengthened how patient information is displayed online across the Kentucky and West Virginia health system, he added.
“ARH has consistently maintained pricing transparency on its website for many years and remains committed to remaining in compliance with federal transparency requirements and providing patients with access to information about the cost of care,” Gabbard said.
More than 500 hospitals nationwide were told they had failed to comply with federal price transparency requirements, according to a comprehensive list published by the AP. Senior administration officials told the outlet that Trump’s administration is ramping up its enforcement of healthcare costs, which could mean more warnings for out-of-compliance-hospitals.
Federal regulations require roughly 4,000 American hospitals and 6,000 ambulatory surgical centers to post standard medical charges in a single, machine-readable file and provide patient-friendly online cost estimators for some services. Medical institutions began facing stricter penalties for failing to comply with the rules under the tail end of Trump’s first term in office.
Since then, the Trump administration has allowed Affordable Care Act subsidies to lapse, putting pressure on Republicans to lean into a healthcare affordability message ahead of the November midterms, the AP reports.
This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 12:21 PM.
