CMS Hospital Price Transparency
A passing file isn't a compliant file.
Most hospitals under CMS enforcement have price files that pass the format check — and are enforced anyway, because the prices weren't correctly computed from their own payment data. The validator checks the format. AttestWell checks the numbers — on your own computers, so your patient data never leaves your building.
Check my hospital's file — freeNo login. No PHI. We check the file your hospital already publishes.
Prefer to talk first? Book 30 minutes →- must have required property 'attestation'
- must have required property 'type_2_npi'
- payer-specific: median / 10th / 90th percentile allowed amounts missing
Most hospitals under enforcement already pass the format check
We ran the public price files of rural hospitals on CMS's published enforcement list through CMS's own validator. Of the hospitals with a checkable file, roughly 7 in 10 pass the format check — and are under enforcement anyway.
That's because the rule doesn't just require a well-formed file. It requires the posted prices — the median, 10th- and 90th-percentile allowed amounts — to be correctly calculated from your hospital's own payment data (the 835 remittance files your billing office already receives). The format validator can't see any of that. So hospitals fix the format, believe they're done, and stay in enforcement.
The validator checks the format. AttestWell checks the numbers.
What CMS enforcement actually looks like
Since January 1, 2026, every hospital's machine-readable file must follow CMS's v3.0 format — including the median, 10th- and 90th-percentile allowed amounts calculated from your own remittance data, and a named attestation of accuracy (45 CFR § 180.50). Enforcement of the new requirements began April 1, 2026.
Under 45 CFR § 180.90, civil monetary penalties for hospitals of 30 beds or fewer run $342 per day — roughly $125,000 a year. Larger hospitals pay per bed, per day — up to roughly $2,290,000 a year. CMS adjusts these amounts annually for inflation, and it publishes its enforcement actions publicly — hundreds of hospitals are already under warning notices or corrective-action plans.
Every hospital's attestation is signed by a senior official — usually the CEO. Your name goes on it.
Already received a CMS warning notice?
If you're under a warning letter or corrective-action request, you're on CMS's 90-day cure clock. We offer fixed-fee remediation to get your published file passing before that window closes — no long project, no software to install.
Ask about remediation →How the free check works
Tell us your hospital
We locate your public machine-readable file the same way CMS does — from your own website.
We run CMS's official validator
The same open-source tool CMS publishes — not our interpretation of the rule.
You get the report within one business day
Every error, what it means in plain English, and what fixing it takes. Yours to keep either way.
Point it at your 835s — the rest is done.
That's the whole pitch, because that's the whole product. AttestWell isn't a portal to log into or a system for your staff to learn. It's software your hospital installs once, on your own computers, with one setup step: show it where your 835 remittance files live. From there it calculates the required median, 10th- and 90th-percentile allowed amounts and keeps a validator-passing file ready — quietly, in the background.
Install it once
One setup question: where do your billing files live? Your IT team approves it once. No EHR integration, no network access, no new logins.
It does the work in the background
It watches your 835 folder and keeps your machine-readable file current and passing — the percentile math, the required fields, the attestation packaging. Nobody has to remember to run anything.
You review and sign
The one thing that ever reaches your desk: a finished, validator-passing file, ready for the CEO's attestation — the single step the law requires a named human to do.
Your patient data never leaves the building. The software runs entirely inside your hospital — nothing is sent to AttestWell.
Now onboarding founding hospitals. Book 30 minutes with the founder →
Built for the people who sign
For the CFO
For a critical-access hospital, non-compliance is up to ~$125,000 a year of penalty exposure — against a fix priced to fit inside the Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) grant many rural hospitals already receive. No new FTE, no IT project, no system-sized platform contract.
See your exposure — check my file, free →For the CEO
Before you sign this year's attestation, know what CMS's validator sees on your website today. We make sure the numbers under your signature are right.
Know what you're attesting to →For your HIM / IT lead: the free check touches nothing — it reads the file your hospital already publishes. The full product installs once on a machine you choose, needs no EHR access and no outside network access, and your data never leaves your environment. One approval, then nothing to maintain.
Who's behind AttestWell
Michael O'Connor founded AttestWell after a career in enterprise software, to give small and rural hospitals a straight answer on price-transparency compliance. The product is built on CMS's own open-source validator — so you can verify everything we tell you against CMS's published tooling.
AttestWell is a small, focused company. When you email us, the founder answers.
Pricing
File check. We run your public file through CMS's validator and send you the full report. No login, no card, and the report is yours.
Warning-letter remediation. Under a CMS warning notice or corrective-action request? We fix your published file to pass the v3.0 format and completeness checks — schema, required fields, discoverability, and attestation packaging — inside your cure window. Priced by file complexity, and it applies toward your first year if you move to ongoing compliance.
Critical-access tier — annual license. One flat price, everything included: the full product running on your own computers, your file rebuilt from your 835 remittance data, validated against CMS's own tool, kept current in the background, with an attestation-ready sign-off packet — and your data never leaves your building. Fits within the SHIP grant. No implementation fee, no per-module pricing, no surprises at renewal.
Small rural PPS tier — annual license. Same product, sized for larger rural hospitals.
For scale: penalty exposure for even the smallest hospital runs ~$125,000 a year — and price-transparency software is an allowable use of SHIP grant funds.
Security & data
The file we check for free is the machine-readable file your hospital already publishes to the public internet under 45 CFR § 180 — we never access PHI, your EHR, or your network. The full product is built the opposite of typical cloud software: it installs on your hospital's own computers, and your patient and payment data never leaves your environment. Nothing is uploaded, transmitted, or shared with AttestWell — there's no data-sharing to review because no data is shared. This site is served over HTTPS and loads nothing from third parties. The only thing you submit here is your email address, and we use it for exactly one thing: sending your report.
Common questions
What do you do with our file?
We validate it, write your report, and that's it. It's already public data; we don't sell, share, or republish it. Your email address is used only to send the report and one follow-up.
Does passing the validator mean we're fully compliant?
It means your file meets the v3.0 format and completeness checks CMS's tool enforces — the layer where most files fail today. Full compliance also covers the accuracy of the underlying data and your consumer display requirements, which is exactly what our paid service takes on.
Does our patient data ever leave the hospital?
No. The full product runs entirely on your own computers. Your 835 remittance files — and everything computed from them — stay inside your building. Nothing is uploaded or sent to AttestWell. The free check is even simpler: it only reads the file your hospital already publishes to the public internet.
Do our staff have to learn new software?
No. After a one-time install, it runs in the background — there's no dashboard to monitor and nothing to remember to run. The only thing anyone ever sees is a plain-English notice that the file is ready to review, and the one step the law requires a human to do: the CEO's signature on the attestation.
Do we need IT involved?
Barely. The free check uses your public website — no IT at all. The full product is a one-time install on a machine you choose: no EHR integration, no outside network access, nothing to maintain after the first approval.
What does the free check cost later?
Nothing, ever. It's how we show our work. If your file passes, we'll tell you that too.
We already have a vendor — why check?
A posted file isn't the same as a passing one. As of mid-2026, we've run dozens of hospitals' public files through the validator — including many from hospitals on CMS's published enforcement list — and most fail at least one current check. If your vendor's file passes, you've lost nothing and gained proof.
You're new — will you be around?
Fair question. The check runs on CMS's own open-source validator, not our black box — and the report is yours to keep either way. You can verify everything we tell you against CMS's published tooling.
Is this legal advice?
No. AttestWell provides compliance tooling and reporting, not legal advice.
Know what CMS's validator sees — before CMS does.
Check my hospital's file — freeNo login. No PHI. We check the file your hospital already publishes.