Photo: HIMSS Media
From the No Surprises Act of five years ago to President Donald Trump's 2025 executive order on healthcare pricing transparency, the federal government is sending a clear message to the private sector that it's time to get serious about costs and how consumers can calculate them as they make decisions about their care.
To help advance those goals, many stakeholders – providers, payers, vendors and others – have been working to develop a standardized approach to price transparency for patients. And a chief enabler of those efforts has been HL7, whose FHIR interoperability standard has already enabled so many advances in data exchange across a variety of healthcare use cases.
A session titled, "Putting Patients First: Implementing Patient Cost Transparency Using HL7 FHIR," scheduled for March at the 2026 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas, will show how.
In the talk, two presenters – Vanessa Candelora, co-lead of the HL7 Da Vinci Project and management and operations lead at Point of Care Partners, and Megan Meyer, lead director of project management at Aetna – will show how healthcare stakeholders are working together to harness FHIR to automate and streamline processes that promote transparency and enable patients to make more informed decisions.
We reached Candelora recently to learn how FHIR is promoting price transparency by enabling more efficient coordination, faster processing and more accurate, real-time access to medical cost information.
Q. Who is your HIMSS26 session meant for, and what should they hope to learn from it?
A. We initially planned to target C-suite executives of health systems, hospitals and health plans to demonstrate the value and accessibility of the HL7 Da Vinci Project's work to advance Patient Cost Transparency. However, the reality is that we are all patients. All attendees can benefit from knowing how this work will transform their personal health experiences.
We are sharing the latest policy updates, implementation challenges and benefits. We also are highlighting our five-year journey of how industry has been developing, testing and using HL7 FHIR to automate processes that will enable transparency, and what patients can expect.
Q. Generally speaking, how is FHIR able to help promote cost transparency? How are providers, payers and vendors putting it to work?
A. By using a standards-based approach, providers, payers and vendors can more easily automate data exchange processes, increase efficiency, speed processing and enable accurate, real-time access to cost data for patients and their care team. Currently, they are using FHIR in early adopter pilot project data exchange work to share Good Faith Estimates and Advanced Explanation of Benefits.
Q. And what can it do for patients, as they work to manage their health?
A. Knowledge is power. Having accurate, timely access to costs of medical care, including out-of-pocket costs, prior to the delivery of care allows for patients to work with their providers to compare options, prepare for their financial responsibility, and make informed decisions that are best for their health and their wallets.
A survey indicated that 41% of insured Americans have avoided medical care for fear of costs. Our work to enable patient cost transparency will alleviate that fear and empower patients to receive the care that they may have otherwise avoided.
Q. The session description mentions "access [to] resources and [participation] in pilots" – how can people get involved with moving FHIR-based data exchange/cost transparency efforts?
A. All can join our Patient Cost Transparency community calls on Wednesdays at noon ET. This is a great way to listen and learn. In addition, interested people can begin exploring our Confluence resources with our Da Vinci Welcome page via HL7.me/davincinews. People that are ready for hands-on experiences can participate in pilots and/or join testing sessions at upcoming Connectathons. Simply reach out to us at davincipmo@pocp.com.
Q. Any closing thoughts about what you hope to convey in this session?
A. Da Vinci's collaborative work is advancing and enabling HL7 FHIR-based patient cost transparency, aligned with the Transparency and Affordability focus of our nation's leaders. In the recent HTI-5 Proposed Rule, which includes a section on "America's FHIR-Forward Future," ASTP/ONC states, "The transition to a FHIR-based API ecosystem is a strategic imperative and an investment in the US's interoperability future."
Organizations that embrace FHIR-based transparency as a business strategy, not just a compliance task, stand to build trust and competitive advantage.
"Putting Patients First: Implementing Patient Cost Transparency Using HL7 FHIR" is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Level 3 | San Polo 3504, at the Venetian at HIMSS26 in Las Vegas.
