ADA Urges Congress to Aim Price Transparency Rules at Dental Plans, Not Offices

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Posted: June 15, 2026

ADA Urges Congress to Aim Price Transparency Rules at Dental Plans, Not Offices

Edited by Dentaltown staff

The American Dental Association is urging Congress to focus new health care price transparency requirements on dental insurers rather than dental practices, telling lawmakers that benefit plans control most of the information patients need to know what they will owe. The position came in a June 9 letter to House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders, submitted ahead of a June 10 Subcommittee on Health hearing on health care transparency legislation.

The letter, signed by ADA President Richard Rosato and Executive Director Nader Nadershahi, weighed in on a slate of bills under review, including the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act (H.R. 5582) and the Clear Healthcare Expense Cost Knowledge Act of 2026 (H.R. 9117), along with measures on insurer overhead reporting, claim denial rates, ownership disclosure, and Medicare Advantage broker compensation.

At the center of the letter is the argument that dental benefit payers, not offices, set the benefit design, fee schedules, network leasing arrangements, deductibles, annual maximums, and frequency limits that determine what a patient actually owes. The association said dental offices should communicate treatment cost estimates, while plans should be accountable for the accuracy of coverage estimates and final payment determinations. Dental transparency works best, the ADA wrote, when it is “payer-facing, patient-specific, available in real time” and tied to dental procedure codes.

On the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, the ADA supported provisions giving providers and patients real-time, patient-specific benefit information but opposed extending hospital-style public price posting to dental offices, saying published fee schedules and negotiated rates would not give patients a meaningful estimate of out-of-pocket costs. It urged lawmakers to instead require payers to disclose coverage and cost-sharing by CDT code, including deductibles, annual maximums, frequency limitations, and expected plan payments.

The ADA also asked that dental practices be exempted from hospital-style itemized-billing mandates in the CHECK Act, or deemed compliant when they provide a dental-specific statement listing procedure codes, estimated patient responsibility, insurance payments, and any remaining balance.

The letter further backed broader disclosure of health care ownership, asking that dental practice ownership, management arrangements, and outside investors be covered so patients can see who controls the entity delivering their care. On Medicare Advantage, the ADA supported limits on agent and broker compensation and improved encounter-data reporting for supplemental dental benefits.

The June 10 hearing, “Lowering Health Care Costs for All Americans: Examining Policies to Increase Health Care Transparency,” was part of the subcommittee’s health care affordability series. The ADA said it welcomed the chance to work with lawmakers on amendments that keep the bills’ transparency goals without adding burdens on dental practices.

Sources:
ADA News, “ADA urges Congress to focus transparency efforts on dental benefit plans,” June 11, 2026: adanews.ada.org/.../transparency-efforts-on-dental-benefit-plans
American Dental Association, letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee on price transparency bills, June 9, 2026 (PDF): ada.org/.../ada_letter_house_ec_price_transparency_bills.pdf


ADA Urges Congress to Aim Price Transparency Rules at Dental Plans, Not Offices

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