# 2026-01688: HHS Inflates Health Violation Fines for Fairness

2026-01688, Annual Civil Monetary Penalties Inflation Adjustment, is a Federal Register rule from Health and Human Services Department published 2026-01-28, effective 2026-01-28 (as of 2026-06-11).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-01688
- As of: 2026-06-11
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Document number: 2026-01688
- Title: Annual Civil Monetary Penalties Inflation Adjustment
- Type: Rule
- Agencies: Health and Human Services Department
- Citation: 91 FR 3665
- Published: 2026-01-28
- Effective: 2026-01-28
- Comments close: not stated
- Significant: no
- Touches household money: no
- Regulation identifier numbers: 0991-AC38
- Last updated: 2026-06-11

## In one line

HHS Inflates Health Violation Fines for Fairness

## Summary

The Department of Health and Human Services is raising its civil penalty amounts to keep up with inflation, making sure fines stay fair and effective. These new penalty amounts apply to violations from November 2, 2015, onward and take effect as soon as this rule is published. If you’re involved in health-related regulations, watch out—penalties might be a bit higher now!

## Abstract

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is updating its regulations to reflect required annual inflation-related increases to the civil monetary penalty (CMP) amounts in its statutes and regulations, under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015.

## Effects PRIA read

- Annual inflation raise for HHS fines: cost, medium. HHS raised many civil monetary penalties by applying the 2025 cost‑of‑living multiplier of 1.02598 to the penalty amounts that were updated for FY2024. The adjusted amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar, take effect upon publication (January 28, 2026), and apply to penalties assessed on or afte…
- Higher hospital price‑transparency fines: cost, medium. Penalties for hospitals that fail to make public standard charges for items and services were adjusted. The per‑instance penalty increases from $333 (2024) to $342 (2025), and the per‑day maximum increased from $6,118 (2024) to $6,277 (2025). These adjusted amounts take effect upon publication (Jan…
- HIPAA civil penalty increases: cost, medium. HIPAA administrative‑simplification penalties were adjusted upward. For example, the minimum per‑violation tier increased from $141 (2024) to $145 (2025), the maximum per‑violation tier increased from $71,162 (2024) to $73,011 (2025), and the calendar year cap increased from $2,134,831 (2024) to $2…
- Information‑blocking penalty increase: cost, high. The civil monetary penalty for information blocking under 300jj‑51 was increased from $1,293,601 (2024) to $1,327,209 (2025). This adjusted amount is effective upon publication (January 28, 2026) and applies to penalties assessed on or after publication if the violation occurred on or after Novembe…

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## Sources
- [2026-01688 on federalregister.gov](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/01/28/2026-01688/annual-civil-monetary-penalties-inflation-adjustment)
- [2026-01688 as published (PDF)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-01-28/pdf/2026-01688.pdf)

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- [All Federal Register documents](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-01688 (as of 2026-06-11).