Percentry Price File Review
An independent review of your hospital’s price file
We check your machine-readable file against every CMS requirement, then go further: whether the data makes sense, and whether the public, and CMS, can find and download it. You get findings to fix before your executive signs the next update.
- 66 checks
- JSON and CSV (tall and wide)
- A 900 MB file with 2.8 million rates in seconds
Why a second look matters in 2026
Since January 1, 2026, every rate a hospital expresses as a percentage or an algorithm must come with a count of allowed amounts and, unless that count is zero, the median, 10th, and 90th percentile allowed amounts, all calculated from 835 remittance data. A named senior official attests that the file is true, accurate, and complete. CMS enforces these rules with warning letters, corrective action plans, and fines.
A file can pass CMS's own validator and still be wrong. The validator checks structure: required fields, valid values, the right template. It doesn't check whether the numbers hold together.
What the review checks
Every CMS requirement
The v3 JSON and CSV templates and 45 CFR 180.50: required data elements, CMS's conditional requirements, and valid values.
On 133 Georgia hospital files, our checker flagged every type of error CMS's own validator (version 1.10.8) reported, and the two agreed on which 10 files had errors. Percentry isn't affiliated with CMS.
Whether the data is accurate
What the validator doesn't check: minimums and maximums that don't match the rates, dollar amounts far out of line, cash prices above gross charges, and a count of "0" for services a hospital bills every day.
How the file is posted
The
cms-hpt.txtfile CMS uses to find your price file, the "Price Transparency" footer link, the file-naming rule, and links that are broken or block automated downloads.Across a health system
The same NPI, name, or address in more than one location's file, near-copies built from one template, and every Type 2 NPI checked against the national NPI registry.
What you get
A written review your compliance, finance, and IT teams can all read, and that prints cleanly for the attesting official.
The sample is for a made-up hospital, compared with real Georgia hospitals. None is named.
- A summary, and the five things to fix first
- How your file compares with other Georgia hospitals
- How your file is posted and found
- A checklist of every CMS requirement checked
- Each finding: why it matters, what to do, and examples from your file
- Your 2026 allowed-amount data at a glance
How a review works
- Tell us which file. We download the file you already publish. Public data only: we don't need access to your systems, and no patient information changes hands. Before the review starts, we disclose any relationship with your price-file vendor.
- We run every check on the file and on how it's posted. Some requirements can only be confirmed with your own records, such as whether every payer and service is included; the review says which.
- A person reviews the results, and you get the written findings. We walk through them with your team.
- Your team or your vendor makes the fixes, and we check the file again. The follow-up review shows what changed.
September 2026 · 129 Georgia hospitals
What we found in Georgia
In September 2026 our crawler visited the public websites of Georgia's 166 non-federal hospitals, and we reviewed 133 price files from 129 of them. Totals only; no hospital is named.
- 92%pass CMS's mechanical requirements
- 51%have data that is likely inaccurate
- 58%of hospitals with 100 or more percentage-based rates report zero payments on nine in ten of them
- 42%of 166 hospitals have a problem with how the file is posted
A count of "0" on nearly every percentage-based rate usually means payments weren't matched to the file's rows, not that the hospital was never paid.
Independent
We review price files; we don't produce them, and we don't build or sell price-file generators. Percentry never reviews a file it helped build, including a file whose allowed amounts were calculated with its Allowed-Amount Percentiles tool. Your findings report goes only to your hospital.
Percentry isn't affiliated with any hospital, health plan, insurer, price-file vendor, or state health program.
Your data
A review uses only the file your hospital already publishes. Percentry doesn't receive patient data. Checking your posted counts against your 835 remittances is work your team or vendor does inside your own environment, for example with our Allowed-Amount Percentiles tool.
Percentry is not a CPA firm or a law firm. A review lists what was checked and what was found; it gives no opinion or assurance on the file as a whole, and it isn't legal advice or a CMS compliance determination.
Interested in a pilot review?
Ask about a review of your hospital's posted file, or read the sample review first.