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CMS POSCMS Provider of Services (POS) File
U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services · Tier-1 · research-only (never on individual profiles)
The Provider of Services (POS) file is the canonical CMS list of Medicare/Medicaid-certified providers. CCN (PRVDR_NUM) is the primary key. Fonteum uses the 'Quality Improvement and Evaluation System' (QIES) distribution as the deterministic identity backbone for cross-source joins (Care Compare star ratings, PBJ staffing, Health Deficiencies, OIG LEIE sanctions, ownership chains). The QIES 'Hospital and other' distribution covers hospitals, hospital swing beds, hospices, PRTFs, and psychiatric hospitals; SNFs / HHAs / ASCs / Dialysis are not in this distribution and are sourced from the per-cluster Care Compare snapshots that already live in the Fonteum pipeline.
How this source shows up on Fonteum.
Deterministic CCN identity backbone. Every cross-source join (Care Compare, PBJ, Deficiencies, LEIE, ownership) hangs off this CCN. Surface usage: brand-hub Care Compare modules + audit-pack export.
What this source does NOT mean
POS QIES does not contain NPIs (the modernized iQIES dataset does). The CCN-NPI crosswalk is performed by the Fonteum join engine via NPPES Type 2 fuzzy match. POS records the certification status at snapshot time; it is not real-time and does not capture intra-quarter changes.
Research and data questions this source supports.
- Resolve a CMS Certification Number (CCN) to facility name, type, address, and participation dates — the identity backbone for any cross-source join across Care Compare, PBJ, Deficiencies, and LEIE.
- Build a facility-level join engine that uses CCN as the primary key to link nursing-home star ratings, staffing data, health deficiencies, and ownership chains.
- Enumerate all active Medicare-certified facilities by state and type to support a regional healthcare capacity analysis.
- Validate that a facility's CCN is still active (termination_date is null) before joining it to real-time quality data.
- Support M&A diligence on skilled nursing facilities with POS participation dates, certified bed counts, and chain affiliation.
Dataset size: 68,211 certified facilities (Q1 2026 snapshot)
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
12 fieldsWrite-locked — captured to provenance, not displayed
5 fieldsWhat we can’t infer from this source.
- QIES 'Hospital and other' distribution scope is narrower than full POS — covers hospitals (PRVDR_CTGRY_CD=01), hospital swing beds (06), hospices (12), PRTFs (19), and psychiatric hospitals (21). SNFs / HHAs / ASCs / Dialysis live in iQIES + Care Compare per-cluster snapshots.
- NPI is absent from QIES — bridge to NPPES Type 2 happens at the join-engine layer (`src/lib/pos/ccn-resolver.ts`), not at ingest.
- Quarterly cadence — intra-quarter certification changes are not in the snapshot until the next quarterly publish.
- Termination dates not always backfilled for legacy closures pre-1990s; null = active at snapshot time, NOT 'currently operating today'.
- CCN format varies by facility type; always preserve as TEXT with leading zeros.
Authority, license, refresh cadence.
Authority
U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Tier
Tier-1 · research-only (never on individual profiles)
Refresh cadence
Quarterly (Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4). Fonteum re-pulls every quarter.
License
U.S. government public-domain works (17 U.S.C. § 105). Attribution required: 'Source: CMS Provider of Services (QIES) · {publish-date} · Snapshot {YYYY-MM-DD}'. License ↗
Attribution requirement
Source: CMS Provider of Services (QIES) · {publish-date} · Last checked {YYYY-MM-DD}
What the source allows.
U.S. government public-domain works. CMS publishes the POS file at data.cms.gov with explicit redistribution rights. Attribution must include the dataset id (QIES `8ba0f9b4-9493-4aa0-9f82-44ea9468d1b5`) and the snapshot date.
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
Hospital certification (write-locked example)
Sample value
SOUTHEAST HEALTH MEDICAL CENTER · CCN 010001 · DOTHAN AL · 420 beds
Provenance line
Source: CMS Provider of Services (QIES) · 2026-01-01 · Snapshot 2026-05-07 · Display rule: write-locked — sample only, profile rendering depends on hero / module surface
Official API, bulk download, and Fonteum endpoints.
Common questions about CMS POS.
- What is the CMS Provider of Services (POS) file?
- The Provider of Services (POS) file is the master facility registry for all Medicare-certified providers published by CMS via the iQIES (Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System) portal. It assigns a CMS Certification Number (CCN) to every nursing home, hospital, home health agency, hospice, dialysis facility, and ambulatory surgical center participating in Medicare. The CCN is the primary key used to join all Care Compare datasets.
- Where can I download the CMS POS file?
- CMS publishes the POS file as a quarterly CSV download at data.cms.gov/provider-data under the 'Provider of Services' dataset. The full file includes all active and terminated facilities. It is U.S. government public-domain data with no redistribution restriction beyond attribution.
- What is a CMS Certification Number (CCN) and how does it relate to an NPI?
- A CMS Certification Number (CCN) — formerly called a Medicare Provider Number — is the facility-level identifier assigned to Medicare-certified providers by CMS. An NPI is the provider-level identifier assigned to individuals and organizations under HIPAA. A single facility typically has one CCN and may have one or more NPIs. The iQIES POS file does not include NPI; a separate join to NPPES Type 2 records is required to link CCN to NPI.
- How often does the CMS POS file update?
- CMS publishes a fresh iQIES POS CSV each quarter (Q1–Q4). Fonteum ingests the latest quarter within 30 days of publication. Because quarterly data lags enrollment by up to 90 days, intra-quarter certification changes and closures are not reflected until the next quarterly file.
- What facility types are covered in the CMS POS file?
- The POS file covers all Medicare-certified provider types: skilled nursing facilities, hospitals, home health agencies, hospices, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical centers, rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers, and others. Each row carries a provider_type code identifying the facility category. The complete provider type taxonomy is defined in the CMS POS data dictionary available at data.cms.gov.
Where this source already shows up.
Related sources in the graph
- /sources → The full source library — every dataset Fonteum cites.
- /data-provenance → The provider graph — pipeline diagram, source-family clusters, field-level provenance examples, display rules.
- /methodology → Network-wide sourcing, refresh cadence, and corrections policy.
- /editorial-policy → Independence, sourcing, conflicts, corrections, retractions.