The Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) Scale under the CMS Hospital Price Transparency Rule (CMP Scale)
Below is the Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) Scale hospitals are subject to under Hospital Price Transparency enforcement, as administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This is current enforcement reality, not theoretical maximums—and CMS is actively applying it.
Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) Scale — Based on Hospital Bed Count
Hospital Bed Count | Daily CMP Amount | Annual Exposure (If Uncorrected) | What CMS Is Signaling |
|---|---|---|---|
1–30 beds | $300 per day | ~$109,500 per year | Small hospitals get grace, not immunity |
31–50 beds | $600 per day | ~$219,000 per year | CMS expects basic compliance maturity |
51–100 beds | $1,000 per day | ~$365,000 per year | Transparency is no longer optional |
101–300 beds | $2,000–$3,000 per day | ~$730,000–$1.1M per year | Systemic failures draw scrutiny |
301–500 beds | $4,000 per day | ~$1.46M per year | Public enforcement territory |
501+ beds | $5,500 per day (maximum) | ~$2.0M per year | Board-level financial risk |
How CMS Actually Applies This Scale
CMS calculates penalties per hospital, per day, per violation period, not per file version. Once a hospital is deemed noncompliant, the clock runs until CMS verifies remediation, not until the hospital claims it has fixed the issue.
“Penalties accrue while hospitals debate whether they are compliant.”
Key CFO Implications (This Is the Part People Miss)
Reality | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
CMPs are not capped per year | Multi-year exposure is real |
Correction is not retroactive | Past days still count |
Public naming accompanies fines | Reputational damage compounds |
Repeat violations escalate | CMS assumes willful neglect |
“The fine is rarely the problem. The public noncompliance notice is.”
Why Bed Count Is the Proxy CMS Uses
CMS explicitly ties penalties to bed count because it correlates with:
Contract complexity
Negotiated rate variability
Ability to invest in compliance infrastructure
Translation: larger hospitals are assumed to know better.
Bottom Line
Civil Monetary Penalties under Price Transparency are no longer symbolic. For mid-to-large hospitals, noncompliance is a seven-figure annual liability that accrues quietly until it doesn’t.
“If your transparency data would not survive a claims audit, it will not survive a CMP calculation.”
Related Reading: A CMS Audit Checklist for Hospitals