CMS Care Compare — Hospital Datasets (Provider Data Catalog)

Collected 2026-07-21. Dataset identifiers can change; confirm via the live API listing below.

The public hospital quality data shown on Medicare Care Compare is published through the CMS Provider Data Catalog (PDC). It is free and requires no API key.

Browse / download (human)

• Hospitals landing page: https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/topics/hospitals
• Full dataset search: https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/

API (no key required)

Base URL: https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/api/1

List all datasets (find identifiers):

GET https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/api/1/metastore/schemas/dataset/items?show-reference-ids=false

Each item includes identifier (UUID), title, description, modified.

Query rows of a dataset:

GET https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/api/1/datastore/query/{datasetId}/0?limit=20&offset=0

Commonly used hospital datasets

These are the hospital datasets clients ask about most (titles are stable; look up the current UUID via the list endpoint): - Hospital General Information — one row per hospital: name, address, type, ownership, overall star rating. - Timely and Effective Care – Hospital — process-of-care measures (e.g., ED throughput, sepsis SEP-1). - Complications and Deaths – Hospital — PSI-90, mortality, complication measures. - Unplanned Hospital Visits – Hospital — readmissions and return visits (feeds HRRP context). - Healthcare Associated Infections – Hospital — CLABSI, CAUTI, SSI, MRSA, C. difficile (NHSN). - Payment and Value of Care – Hospital — payment + mortality paired measures. - Medicare Hospital Spending by Claim / Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary – Hospital — efficiency measure used in VBP. - HCAHPS – Hospital — patient experience survey results. - Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program — HAC program scores. - Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (HVBP) — Total Performance Score and domain scores.

Example: pull a hospital's overall rating (conceptual)

1. List datasets → find "Hospital General Information" → copy its identifier.
2. Query that dataset with limit and filter client-side by facility_name / state / CCN (facility_id).

Notes for answering client questions

• Care Compare data is refreshed by CMS on its own schedule (often quarterly); the "measure start/end dates" in each dataset tell you the reporting period.
• These datasets are de-identified, hospital-level public data — never mix with any PHI.
• For measure definitions (not results), use QualityNet, not the PDC.