SNF Insights guide
Care Compare Data: What’s in the Provider File
The data behind Care Compare is the Provider Information file: one row per certified nursing home, keyed on the CCN and refreshed monthly. The October 2026 file has 14,690 homes.
Updated October 2026 · Sources: CMS Provider Information file and data dictionary, data.cms.gov, October 2026
102 columns in six groups
| Field group | Contents |
|---|---|
| Identity and location | CCN, name, address, county, ownership type, chain, certified beds, average residents per day |
| Ratings | Overall, health inspection, staffing and quality measure stars (quality also split long-stay and short-stay), each with a footnote column |
| Staffing | Reported, case-mix and adjusted nurse hours per resident day, weekend hours, nursing and RN turnover, administrators who left |
| Survey summary | Latest standard survey (rating cycle 1) and the one before, deficiency counts and scores for cycle 1 and for cycles 2 and 3 combined, total weighted score, infection-control citations |
| Penalties | Number of fines, total fine dollars, payment denials, total penalties |
| Flags | Abuse icon, High Performing icon, Special Focus status, ownership change in the last 12 months, sprinkler status, resident and family council |
The file is published on data.cms.gov and replaced each month. CMS’s archive page keeps roughly the last seven years of monthly files, which is what turns a single rating into a trend. Fine-level detail, citations and ownership sit in companion files (Penalties, Health Deficiencies, Ownership). For how the stars are calculated, see the Five-Star guide.
1,429 homes carry the abuse icon and 1,699 the new High Performing icon
Those are the October 2026 counts. CMS added the High Performing Icon (Y/N) column on October 8, 2026 to mark homes that qualify for its shorter Risk-Based Survey (how the icon works). Special Focus status and an ownership change in the last 12 months are flagged in the same file.
125 homes have no overall rating, and none of them scored zero
A blank star means CMS did not rate the home. In the October 2026 file, 87 of the 125 unrated homes are in the Special Focus Facility program (footnote 18) and 38 are newly certified (footnote 1). Quality measure and staffing ratings can also be blank when there is not enough data (footnote 2). Read the footnote column before treating a blank as a low score.
Counts are from the October 2026 CMS file and change with each monthly release. SNF Insights is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by CMS. See also nursing home ownership data.
SNF Insights keeps every monthly file back to 2017 on one facility record, so a rating or staffing change reads as a trend.
Get started