What is CMS Care Compare and what facility types does it cover?

CMS Care Compare is the federal database of quality ratings and facility information for Medicare-certified healthcare facilities. It covers nursing homes, home health agencies, hospices, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical centers, hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and inpatient rehabilitation facilities. Fonteum organizes the Care Compare data into separate source family entries for each facility type, all joined via the CMS Certification Number (CCN) backbone.

Where does CMS Care Compare data come from?

CMS Care Compare data comes from multiple federal sources: OASIS assessments (home health), Minimum Data Set (nursing home), Medicare claims, CAHPS surveys (patient experience), and direct facility reporting. Each quality measure within Care Compare has its own data source, reporting period, and lag. Fonteum documents the source, methodology version, and snapshot date for each measure surfaced.

How does Fonteum use CMS Care Compare data?

Fonteum ingests each Care Compare facility type dataset quarterly, attests the SHA-256 hash to the provenance chain, and surfaces the data on the brand-hub Care Compare modules at fonteum.com/care-compare. Each displayed field carries a SourceChip showing the CMS dataset ID, the snapshot date, and the display limitation.

Can I query Care Compare data across facility types in one request?

Yes — Fonteum's Facility API endpoint accepts a CCN and returns the joined Care Compare signals across all facility types that share that CCN. The join engine uses the CMS Provider of Services (POS) iQIES file as the CCN identity backbone.

What is the CCN and why does it matter for Care Compare?

The CMS Certification Number (CCN) — formerly Medicare Provider Number — is the facility-level identifier that CMS assigns to every Medicare-certified provider. It is the primary key across all Care Compare datasets. Every nursing home, home health agency, hospice, dialysis facility, ASC, and hospital in Care Compare has a CCN. The CMS Provider of Services (POS) file is the master CCN registry.

CMS Care Compare — Fonteum source library

Name: CMS Care Compare
Creator: U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
License: https://www.usa.gov/government-works

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CMS Care Compare

U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services · Tier-2 · profile-enrichment (renders on matched profiles)

Research-only

Source:CMS Care CompareChecked May 2026 Open official source ↗

CMS Care Compare publishes facility-quality data via the Provider Data Catalog (data.cms.gov/provider-data/). Four cluster families share the CMS Certification Number (CCN) as canonical identifier: Nursing Home Compare, Home Health Compare, Hospice Compare, and Dialysis Facility Compare.

What Fonteum uses it for

How this source shows up on Fonteum.

Today: four published research snapshots — nursing homes, home health, dialysis, hospice — plus the source pack staged for future Tier-2 facility pilots. CMS overall star ratings and component sub-ratings render only when a facility-level vertical launches; until then the data is research-only.

What this source does NOT mean

CMS ratings are published by CMS and reflect the measure definitions in the source dataset. Fonteum does not independently rate, inspect, score, endorse, or guarantee any provider.

What this dataset answers

Research and data questions this source supports.

Access a single API surface that joins nursing home, home health, hospice, dialysis, and ASC quality data via CCN — no multi-dataset joins required.
Build a post-acute care network quality dashboard that ranks facility options across all five Care Compare facility types.
Power a referral management tool that surfaces the highest-rated post-acute options for a patient transitioning from a specific acute care hospital.
Support M&A diligence on a post-acute portfolio by querying Care Compare quality signals across multiple facility types simultaneously.
Serve as a foundation for a RAG system that answers questions about specific facility quality using CMS-sourced structured data.

Dataset size: ~50,000+ facilities across all Care Compare types

Fields used

Per-field display contract.

Every field below has a `display_allowed` flag in the §94 provenance schema. Write-locked fields are captured to provenance for audit but never rendered on profile pages.

Renders on profile

7 fields

cms_certification_numberCMS Certification Number (CCN)

cms_overall_star_ratingOverall star rating (1-5)

cms_health_inspection_ratingHealth inspection rating (1-5)

cms_staffing_ratingStaffing rating (1-5)

cms_quality_measures_ratingQuality measures rating (1-5)

cms_ownership_typeOwnership type (For Profit / Non Profit / Government)

cms_certification_dateMedicare/Medicaid certification date

Write-locked — captured to provenance, not displayed

4 fields

cms_total_health_deficienciesTotal health deficiencies

cms_penalty_countPenalty count

cms_special_focus_statusSpecial Focus Facility status

cms_abuse_iconAbuse icon

Limitations

What we can’t infer from this source.

Each Care Compare cluster has its own measure-set; the overall rating is not directly comparable across clusters.
Hospice has no CMS overall star rating today; the Hospice General Information dataset publishes provider availability + ownership only.
State-level aggregates (mean rating, share-of-stars) NEVER attach to individual facility profiles. They render on /research only.
Special Focus Facility status, fines / payment denials, abuse-icon flags, and individual quality measures are write-locked pending operator copy review — captured to provenance but not surfaced.
Refresh cadence is conservative (90 days) versus CMS's monthly publish; profiles may lag by 1-2 monthly snapshots.

Source metadata

Authority, license, refresh cadence.

Authority

U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Tier

Tier-2 · profile-enrichment (renders on matched profiles)

Refresh cadence

Quarterly across most datasets; some monthly. Fonteum re-pulls on a 90-day cadence.

License

U.S. government public-domain works. Attribution required: 'Source: CMS Care Compare · Last checked {date}'. License ↗

Official URL

https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/

Attribution requirement

Source: CMS Care Compare ({Provider Data Catalog dataset name + id}) · Last checked {YYYY-MM-DD}

ToS & usage notes

What the source allows.

U.S. government public-domain works. CMS publishes the Provider Data Catalog at data.cms.gov/provider-data/ with explicit redistribution rights. Attribution must include both the dataset name (e.g. "NH Provider Info", dataset id 4pq5-n9py) and the snapshot date. Fonteum's 90-day re-pull cadence is intentionally conservative versus CMS's monthly publish.

Sample provenance

What a single field looks like in the graph.

A worked example. Every field surfaced from this source carries this shape of provenance line — source · last checked · display rule · confidence (when applicable).

Field

State-level mean star rating (research-only)

Sample value

3.41 (CA, n=1,184 rated nursing homes)

Provenance line

Source: CMS Care Compare · NH Provider Info (4pq5-n9py) · Snapshot 2026-04-15 · Display rule: research-only — never rendered on individual facility profiles

How to access

Official API, bulk download, and Fonteum endpoints.

Official API / download

https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/ ↗

Fonteum surface

https://fonteum.com/care-compare →

Frequently asked

Common questions about CMS Care Compare.

What is CMS Care Compare and what facility types does it cover?: CMS Care Compare is the federal database of quality ratings and facility information for Medicare-certified healthcare facilities. It covers nursing homes, home health agencies, hospices, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical centers, hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and inpatient rehabilitation facilities. Fonteum organizes the Care Compare data into separate source family entries for each facility type, all joined via the CMS Certification Number (CCN) backbone.
Where does CMS Care Compare data come from?: CMS Care Compare data comes from multiple federal sources: OASIS assessments (home health), Minimum Data Set (nursing home), Medicare claims, CAHPS surveys (patient experience), and direct facility reporting. Each quality measure within Care Compare has its own data source, reporting period, and lag. Fonteum documents the source, methodology version, and snapshot date for each measure surfaced.
How does Fonteum use CMS Care Compare data?: Fonteum ingests each Care Compare facility type dataset quarterly, attests the SHA-256 hash to the provenance chain, and surfaces the data on the brand-hub Care Compare modules at fonteum.com/care-compare. Each displayed field carries a SourceChip showing the CMS dataset ID, the snapshot date, and the display limitation.
Can I query Care Compare data across facility types in one request?: Yes — Fonteum's Facility API endpoint accepts a CCN and returns the joined Care Compare signals across all facility types that share that CCN. The join engine uses the CMS Provider of Services (POS) iQIES file as the CCN identity backbone.
What is the CCN and why does it matter for Care Compare?: The CMS Certification Number (CCN) — formerly Medicare Provider Number — is the facility-level identifier that CMS assigns to every Medicare-certified provider. It is the primary key across all Care Compare datasets. Every nursing home, home health agency, hospice, dialysis facility, ASC, and hospital in Care Compare has a CCN. The CMS Provider of Services (POS) file is the master CCN registry.

Research studies citing this source

Related sources in the graph

Per-source methodology: /methodology/home-health →

How this source shows up on Fonteum.

What this source does NOT mean

CMS ratings are published by CMS and reflect the measure definitions in the source dataset. Fonteum does not independently rate, inspect, score, endorse, or guarantee any provider.

What this dataset answers

Research and data questions this source supports.

Access a single API surface that joins nursing home, home health, hospice, dialysis, and ASC quality data via CCN — no multi-dataset joins required.
Build a post-acute care network quality dashboard that ranks facility options across all five Care Compare facility types.
Power a referral management tool that surfaces the highest-rated post-acute options for a patient transitioning from a specific acute care hospital.
Support M&A diligence on a post-acute portfolio by querying Care Compare quality signals across multiple facility types simultaneously.
Serve as a foundation for a RAG system that answers questions about specific facility quality using CMS-sourced structured data.

Dataset size: ~50,000+ facilities across all Care Compare types

Fields used

Per-field display contract.

Every field below has a `display_allowed` flag in the §94 provenance schema. Write-locked fields are captured to provenance for audit but never rendered on profile pages.

Renders on profile

7 fields

cms_certification_numberCMS Certification Number (CCN)

cms_overall_star_ratingOverall star rating (1-5)

cms_health_inspection_ratingHealth inspection rating (1-5)

cms_staffing_ratingStaffing rating (1-5)

cms_quality_measures_ratingQuality measures rating (1-5)

cms_ownership_typeOwnership type (For Profit / Non Profit / Government)

cms_certification_dateMedicare/Medicaid certification date

Write-locked — captured to provenance, not displayed

4 fields

cms_total_health_deficienciesTotal health deficiencies

cms_penalty_countPenalty count

cms_special_focus_statusSpecial Focus Facility status

cms_abuse_iconAbuse icon

Limitations

What we can’t infer from this source.

Each Care Compare cluster has its own measure-set; the overall rating is not directly comparable across clusters.
Hospice has no CMS overall star rating today; the Hospice General Information dataset publishes provider availability + ownership only.
State-level aggregates (mean rating, share-of-stars) NEVER attach to individual facility profiles. They render on /research only.
Special Focus Facility status, fines / payment denials, abuse-icon flags, and individual quality measures are write-locked pending operator copy review — captured to provenance but not surfaced.
Refresh cadence is conservative (90 days) versus CMS's monthly publish; profiles may lag by 1-2 monthly snapshots.

Source metadata

Authority, license, refresh cadence.

Authority

U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Tier

Tier-2 · profile-enrichment (renders on matched profiles)

Refresh cadence

Quarterly across most datasets; some monthly. Fonteum re-pulls on a 90-day cadence.

License

U.S. government public-domain works. Attribution required: 'Source: CMS Care Compare · Last checked {date}'. License ↗

Official URL

https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/

Attribution requirement

Source: CMS Care Compare ({Provider Data Catalog dataset name + id}) · Last checked {YYYY-MM-DD}

ToS & usage notes

What the source allows.

Sample provenance

What a single field looks like in the graph.

A worked example. Every field surfaced from this source carries this shape of provenance line — source · last checked · display rule · confidence (when applicable).

Field

State-level mean star rating (research-only)

Sample value

3.41 (CA, n=1,184 rated nursing homes)

Provenance line

Source: CMS Care Compare · NH Provider Info (4pq5-n9py) · Snapshot 2026-04-15 · Display rule: research-only — never rendered on individual facility profiles

How to access

Official API, bulk download, and Fonteum endpoints.

Official API / download

https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/ ↗

Fonteum surface

https://fonteum.com/care-compare →

Frequently asked

Common questions about CMS Care Compare.

What is CMS Care Compare and what facility types does it cover?: CMS Care Compare is the federal database of quality ratings and facility information for Medicare-certified healthcare facilities. It covers nursing homes, home health agencies, hospices, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical centers, hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and inpatient rehabilitation facilities. Fonteum organizes the Care Compare data into separate source family entries for each facility type, all joined via the CMS Certification Number (CCN) backbone.
Where does CMS Care Compare data come from?: CMS Care Compare data comes from multiple federal sources: OASIS assessments (home health), Minimum Data Set (nursing home), Medicare claims, CAHPS surveys (patient experience), and direct facility reporting. Each quality measure within Care Compare has its own data source, reporting period, and lag. Fonteum documents the source, methodology version, and snapshot date for each measure surfaced.
How does Fonteum use CMS Care Compare data?: Fonteum ingests each Care Compare facility type dataset quarterly, attests the SHA-256 hash to the provenance chain, and surfaces the data on the brand-hub Care Compare modules at fonteum.com/care-compare. Each displayed field carries a SourceChip showing the CMS dataset ID, the snapshot date, and the display limitation.
Can I query Care Compare data across facility types in one request?: Yes — Fonteum's Facility API endpoint accepts a CCN and returns the joined Care Compare signals across all facility types that share that CCN. The join engine uses the CMS Provider of Services (POS) iQIES file as the CCN identity backbone.
What is the CCN and why does it matter for Care Compare?: The CMS Certification Number (CCN) — formerly Medicare Provider Number — is the facility-level identifier that CMS assigns to every Medicare-certified provider. It is the primary key across all Care Compare datasets. Every nursing home, home health agency, hospice, dialysis facility, ASC, and hospital in Care Compare has a CCN. The CMS Provider of Services (POS) file is the master CCN registry.

Research studies citing this source

Related sources in the graph

Per-source methodology: /methodology/home-health →

CMS Care Compare

How this source shows up on Fonteum.

Research and data questions this source supports.

Per-field display contract.

Renders on profile

Write-locked — captured to provenance, not displayed

What we can’t infer from this source.

Authority, license, refresh cadence.

What the source allows.

What a single field looks like in the graph.

Official API, bulk download, and Fonteum endpoints.

Common questions about CMS Care Compare.

Where this source already shows up.

Compliance posture

CMS Care Compare

How this source shows up on Fonteum.

Research and data questions this source supports.

Per-field display contract.

Renders on profile

Write-locked — captured to provenance, not displayed

What we can’t infer from this source.

Authority, license, refresh cadence.

What the source allows.

What a single field looks like in the graph.

Official API, bulk download, and Fonteum endpoints.

Common questions about CMS Care Compare.

Where this source already shows up.

Compliance posture