criticalopen

Missing machine-readable file accessibility

45 CFR § 180.50(b)

Fix time

45 minutes

Accumulated liability

$247,500

Daily penalty

$2,750/day

Status

open

Regulation

45 CFR § 180.50(b) →

Hospitals must make public all standard charges in a single machine-readable file.

What's Wrong

Hospital has not published a publicly accessible machine-readable file containing standard charges.

How to Fix

Owner: web team · Est. 45 minutes

Locate or create your machine-readable file

Your hospital must publish a machine-readable file (MRF) in JSON or CSV format. If you don't have one, download the CMS template from GitHub.

Documentation →

Upload file to your website

Place the file on your hospital's public website. Common locations: /price-transparency/ or /standard-charges/

Example

https://yourhospital.org/price-transparency/standard-charges.json

Verify file is publicly accessible

Test the URL in an incognito browser window. The file should download without requiring login or authentication.

Create cms-hpt.txt file (optional but recommended)

Create a cms-hpt.txt file in your website root directory listing all price transparency file URLs.

Documentation →

Add "Price Transparency" footer link

Add a link labeled "Price Transparency" in your website footer that links directly to the page hosting your MRF file.

Example

<a href="/price-transparency">Price Transparency</a>

Evidence

{
  "error": "404 Not Found",
  "url_tested": "https://stmarysregional.org/price-transparency/standard-charges.json",
  "attempted_at": "2026-01-08T15:56:09.530Z"
}

Violation age: 90 days

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