Boston, MA, October 17, 2026: Deerhold, a company offering advanced healthcare data management and solutions to support healthcare price transparency and compliance, today announced the MRF Attestation Program, a new offering for third-party administrators (TPAs) and the self-funded employer groups they serve. The program helps TPAs produce, review, and document the payer machine-readable files (MRFs) that each self-funded employer plan will be required to attest to under the final Transparency in Coverage rule.

The final rule, published in the Federal Register on October 6, 2026 (91 FR 63748) by the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury, requires each in-network rate, out-of-network allowed amount, prescription drug, taxonomy, and utilization file to include an attestation that, to the best of the plan's knowledge and belief, the file includes all required information and that the information is true, accurate, and complete. Each file must also carry the name of the chief executive officer, president, or designated senior official responsible for the attestation. A self-funded plan may have its TPA make the attestation under a written agreement to provide the files, but the plan remains responsible if a file is incomplete or inaccurate. Existing federal penalties still apply, including excise taxes of up to $100 per day for each affected individual under Internal Revenue Code section 4980D.

"Starting next March, every self-funded employer plan's price transparency files must carry an executive's attestation, and many of those employers rely on their TPA to get the files right," said Jeff Gasser, CEO and co-founder of Deerhold. "The MRF Attestation Program gives TPAs a way to bring their groups the answer before they have to ask, with files built and reviewed by a team that has worked with TPAs and their networks for decades."

The files that need the most attention are often the ones no national network publishes, such as direct contracts, domestic hospital tiers, and custom networks wrapped by a national or regional PPO. The final rule requires an in-network rate file for each provider network a plan uses, and the Departments state that this applies whether the network is rented or owned. TPAs can choose the full program or only the components their groups need:

• Compliance check-up. Deerhold confirms whether each employer group has its required files and Table of Contents files posted, reviews current payer MRFs against the final rule, and shows what is missing, group by group.

• MRF creation and hosting. In-network files for direct contracts, domestic hospital tiers, and wrapped networks, built from the TPA's source data, hosted, and updated on the quarterly schedule the rule sets for 2027.

• Quality review of existing files. Independent checks of files already published by the TPA or another vendor, covering billing codes, providers, lines of service, network identifiers, and rate formats.

• Table of Contents management. One Table of Contents linking every employer group, EIN, and plan to the correct network files, kept current as groups and networks change.

• Out-of-network and new rule files. Out-of-network allowed amount files, plus the new taxonomy, utilization, and text files the rule adds.

• Attestation report package. A dated quarterly package for each employer group documenting the files reviewed, data sources, and issues found and resolved, with a sign-off page for the official who attests. TPAs can deliver the package under the Deerhold brand or their own.

Deerhold builds each engagement around the TPA's plan design strategy. The team walks through how the TPA wants its Table of Contents and file structure organized before anything is built, and structures multi-tier designs so members can see which providers deliver the most value within their plan. Every file is checked for missing billing codes, providers, and lines of service, with issues routed back to the data source for correction.

"Good files matter even without a compliance deadline," said Ed Hausman, Chief Product Officer at Deerhold. "Many member shopping tools draw on these files. When the rates and rosters for a domestic tier or a direct contract are accurate, members are steered to the providers the plan was designed around, and those arrangements deliver the savings they were built to produce."

Deerhold provides the program to TPAs for a flat fee. TPAs offer it to their employer groups under their own name and set their own pricing, adding a new service line while helping their groups meet the requirement. Deerhold provides MRF files, file review, and documentation. The attestation itself is made by the plan or the administrator it contracts with.

The MRF Attestation Program is available now. TPAs can schedule a compliance check-up by contacting Pete Titas (ptitas@deerhold.com) or visiting https://www.deerhold.com/prizm.

About Deerhold
Deerhold is a digital technology company, delivering SaaS-based healthcare solutions in the U.S. and IT and software development services to companies around the globe. Headquartered in Boston, Deerhold has offices in Kathmandu and Tokyo, and is supported by a network of software engineers working from the U.S., Nepal, and Japan. For more information, visit www.deerhold.com.

"Starting next March, every self-funded employer plan's price transparency files must carry an executive's attestation. The MRF Attestation Program gives TPAs a way to bring their groups the answer before they have to ask."

Media Contact

Pete Titas, Deerhold, Ltd., 1 216.402.5295, ptitas@deerhold.com, https://www.deerhold.com