How do you find out who owns a nursing home?

CMS publishes free PECOS ownership files for every Medicare-enrolled skilled nursing facility. The All Owners file lists direct and indirect owners (mostly interests of 5% or more), officers, directors, managing companies and other disclosed parties for each enrollment. The Enrollments file links each enrollment to the facility CCN.

Does PECOS show private equity ownership of nursing homes?

The All Owners file has a private-equity flag, but it is self-reported and is either Y or blank, so a blank does not mean no. In the July 2026 file it is set on 97 of about 14,400 enrollments. Treat it as a floor rather than a count.

Does PECOS show what a nursing home sold for?

No. Change of ownership (CHOW) filings record that a sale happened, the buyer, the seller and the effective date. There is no price.

SNF Insights guide

Nursing Home Ownership Data: What PECOS Shows

CMS’s PECOS files are the free public record of who owns and controls each Medicare-enrolled nursing home. By our count, about one row in five in the July 2026 All Owners file is an ownership stake; the rest are managers, officers, lenders and other disclosed parties.

Updated October 2026 · Sources: CMS SNF All Owners, Enrollments and Change of Ownership files and data dictionaries (data.cms.gov); 42 CFR 424.502

Three files, joined by enrollment ID

File	What it holds	Updated
All Owners	Every owner, officer, director, managing company and other disclosed party for each enrollment, with role and ownership percentage	Monthly
Enrollments	The legal entity enrolled in Medicare, with its CCN, NPI and address; this is where a facility joins the other files	Monthly
Change of Ownership	Buyer, seller, effective date and type (CHOW, acquisition or merger, consolidation) for changes since January 1, 2016	Quarterly

All three are published on data.cms.gov. The owner and enrollment files show current ownership only; CMS’s data guidance lists the lack of historical enrollment information as a limitation. Past owners come from the Change of Ownership file or from saved copies of earlier releases. Everything in them is self-reported by the facility on its Medicare enrollment application (Form CMS-855A).

Most rows are not ownership stakes

Every row carries a role code. In the July 2026 file, the single most common role, on 93,015 of 295,083 rows by our count, is “ADP of the SNF,” a disclosed party that may own nothing. These are the roles you will see most.

Code	Role	What it means
34	5% or greater direct ownership interest	Holds equity in the enrolled entity itself.
35	5% or greater indirect ownership interest	Owns part of an entity that owns the enrolled entity. The chain can run several layers deep.
85, 86	Direct / indirect ownership interest	Ownership reported without the 5% label.
38, 39	General / limited partnership interest	Any partnership interest counts as ownership under 42 CFR 424.502.
43	Operational/managerial control	Runs the facility or part of it, often the operating or management company. Not necessarily an owner.
40, 41	Officer, director	A person on the governing body. A role, not a stake.
36, 37	5% or greater mortgage / security interest	A lender’s interest, not equity.
72	ADP of the SNF	Additional disclosable party: anyone with operational, financial or managerial control, who sets policies, provides management, consulting, accounting or financial services, or leases or owns (5% or more) the real estate.

Codes and role text from CMS’s SNF All Owners data dictionary; ADP and owner definitions from 42 CFR 424.502. Rarer roles (trustee, governing body, managing employees, other) omitted.

Ownership rows also carry a percentage field, and organizational owners carry yes/no flags for type: holding company, investment firm, chain home office, parent company, created for the acquisition, and others.

What the files can and cannot establish

The files show who owns a facility directly and indirectly and which entity holds operational control. Because the same owner ID appears against every enrollment it is tied to, they also connect one facility to the rest of its group; CMS uses the same links to assign homes to affiliated entities.

Change of Ownership filings give the buyer, the seller and the effective date, but no price. Our copy of the file holds 5,227 SNF filings effective from January 2016 to February 2026.

The private-equity and REIT flags are reported as Y or left blank, so a blank does not mean no. In the July 2026 file, by our count, the private-equity flag is set on 97 of about 14,400 enrollments and the REIT flag on 587. Read them as a floor rather than a count. For how ownership fits into a purchase review, see skilled nursing acquisition due diligence.

SNF Insights reads these files down to the operating entity behind each facility and shows it alongside quality, staffing, financials and payer rates.

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