What public data exists on nursing homes?

Seven CMS datasets: Provider Information (Care Compare), health inspection deficiencies, Payroll-Based Journal staffing, MDS quality measures, Medicare cost reports, PECOS ownership records, and Medicare Advantage enrollment. All are free to download from data.cms.gov or cms.gov.

Does CMS publish what insurers pay nursing homes?

No. No CMS nursing home dataset carries a payer-negotiated rate. Cost reports show days by payer and Medicare payments, from which an average Medicare rate can be derived. Commercial and Medicare Advantage negotiated rates appear in insurer price-transparency files.

What is the join key across nursing home datasets?

The CCN (CMS Certification Number), a six-character facility code. The facility-level files carry it directly. The PECOS ownership files key on a Medicare enrollment ID that the SNF enrollment file maps to the CCN, and Medicare Advantage enrollment is published by county, not by facility.

SNF Insights guide

Nursing Home Data: What Exists and Where It Comes From

Nearly everything publicly known about a U.S. nursing home comes from seven free CMS datasets. Five carry the facility’s CMS Certification Number (CCN), the key that joins them.

Updated October 2026 · Sources: CMS Provider Data Catalog; data.cms.gov (PBJ, MDS frequency, SNF ownership); HCRIS cost reports; CMS Medicare Advantage enrollment files

Seven datasets, each on its own schedule

Dataset	What it covers	Updates	History CMS publishes
Provider Information (Care Compare)	One row per certified home: star ratings, ownership type, beds, average residents per day, staffing hours, survey summary, penalties	Monthly	CMS archive keeps about 7 years (2019 on)
Health Deficiencies (F-tags)	Every health citation: F-tag, scope and severity, survey date, correction date	Monthly	Current file holds the last 3 years
Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ)	Payroll-based nurse and aide hours by day and job category, plus census	Quarterly	Q1 2017
MDS (Minimum Data Set)	Two files: 17 resident-assessment quality measures (4-quarter average plus each quarter), and item-level response frequencies	Quarterly	Frequency file from Q1 2020
Medicare Cost Reports (Form CMS-2540)	Expenses, revenue, days by payer, balance sheet, wages	Filed annually by each SNF	FY1995 (HCRIS)
Ownership (PECOS)	Organizations and individuals behind each Medicare enrollment, plus change-of-ownership filings	Owners monthly; ownership changes quarterly	Ownership changes since 2016
Medicare Advantage enrollment	Enrollment and penetration by county, plan and contract	Monthly	Penetration files from June 2008

Cadence and history as listed by CMS in October 2026.

All seven are free to download from data.cms.gov or cms.gov, with no account required. Nursing home data, skilled nursing data and SNF data all mean these same files: SNF is the Medicare term for the certified provider, and Care Compare calls them nursing homes. Since October 8, 2026 the Provider Information file also carries a High Performing Icon flag (Y/N) for homes that qualify for CMS’s shorter Risk-Based Survey; see the High Performing icon guide.

Five files carry the CCN; ownership and Medicare Advantage need a bridge

Provider Information, deficiencies, PBJ, MDS and cost reports all carry the facility’s CCN. The PECOS owner file keys on a Medicare enrollment ID, which the SNF enrollment file maps to the CCN. Medicare Advantage enrollment is published by county, plan and contract, so it attaches to a facility through the county it sits in.

Start with Provider Information, then follow the question

For one facility, start with Provider Information for the ratings and size of the building, then read the deficiency file for what the last surveys found (Care Compare provider data, the Five-Star rating, deficiencies and F-tags).

For a market, Provider Information lists every certified home in a county on the same fields, and Medicare Advantage enrollment shows how the payer mix is moving underneath them. For staffing, PBJ gives daily hours by job category (PBJ staffing data); for clinical trends, the MDS measures (MDS data).

For an operator, the ownership files link a facility to the organizations and people behind it, and the change-of-ownership file shows what has traded and when (ownership data). For the money, the cost report is the annual financial statement that nearly every Medicare-certified SNF files (the SNF cost report).

SNF Insights is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by CMS.

SNF Insights puts all seven datasets on one facility record, alongside commercial payer rates.

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