About the data
Every rating and figure on this site is published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). None of it is our opinion or a user review.
We show CMS's numbers as issued, for every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home in the country, and explain what they mean in plain English.
Where it comes from
Three datasets from the CMS Provider Data Catalog, loaded every month.
Provider information
Star ratings, nurse staffing hours and turnover, ownership, beds, and Medicare and Medicaid participation.
Health inspections
Every citation from standard inspections and complaint investigations, with its scope and severity letter.
Penalties
Fines and payment denials CMS imposed, with dates and amounts.
Assisted living and memory care communities aren't certified by Medicare or Medicaid this way, so they aren't listed.
How a monthly update works
The data on every page is from October 2026.
- CMS publishesNew ratings, inspections and penalties, usually early each month.
- We load itAll three datasets, for every certified home.
- We check itCounts and totals are checked before anything goes live; a short or broken file is rejected.
- Pages refreshRankings, maps and each home's page update together. Closed homes are marked, not deleted.
What the ratings mean
CMS rates each home from 1 to 5 stars overall and in three areas.
What inspection letters mean
Every citation gets a letter from A to L: how serious it was (rows) and how many residents it affected (columns).
Letters G through L mean residents were harmed or put in immediate danger. Each home's page lists its citations with their letters and dates.
CMS abuse icon
CMS shows its abuse icon on homes with abuse citations in recent inspections: one where residents were harmed (scope and severity G or higher) within the past year, or abuse citations at D or higher in each of the last two years. We show it exactly as CMS assigns it, with the date and a link to the home's Medicare Care Compare page.
Special Focus Facilities
Homes CMS has placed in its program for persistently poor inspection results, and candidates for it. Shown as CMS lists them, with the date.
What the data can't tell you
- Ratings lag reality by months.
- A single inspection can move a home's stars.
- No dataset shows how a home feels, or whether it suits a particular person.
Before you decide
- Read the home's inspection history, citation by citation.
- Ask about staffing on the shifts that matter to you, including nights and weekends.
- Visit, ideally more than once and at different times of day.
Corrections
We publish CMS's figures as issued and can't change them, but we can fix names, addresses, phone numbers and matching mistakes.
Independent and free
We're not affiliated with CMS or Medicare. The site is paid for by ads and featured listings, which never change the data or rankings.