Keep the note beside the number

A note can change the question a price-file row raises. A populated median next to a zero count warrants review. Add a note saying there were zero instances in the preceding 15 months, and the reviewer has an explicit source-history claim to reconcile.

That is what our anonymized public-file example contained. The note does not prove which system produced the mismatch. It does make stripping notes out of the review view a poor way to investigate it.

Build an exception list that keeps payer/plan context, charge method, count, all three statistics and notes together. Retain the original row privately so the data owner can trace it. Share an anonymized explanation publicly, not the private source record. The next step is to compare the export with the applicable contract and remittance history.

Read the original research: When a zero count has a median.

Sources: CMS FAQ; CMS technical documentation.