Data sources
Every figure on this site comes from a public CMS file. We apply no editorial adjustments to the underlying records. The table also identifies Grade 2.0 shadow sources that we ingest for research and validation but do not yet use to change the public Grade 1.x score.
| CMS file | Cadence | CMS public release | Imported by NursingHomeGrade |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Health Deficiencies
https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/dataset/r5ix-sfxw |
Monthly, reflecting surveys conducted on a rolling basis | August 26, 2026 | September 5, 2026 |
| Public Grade 1.x. Supplies health inspection citations for the last three survey cycles, including scope/severity and correction status, used for deficiency counts and both safety penalty terms. | |||
|
Ownership
https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/dataset/y2hd-n93e |
Monthly | August 26, 2026 | September 5, 2026 |
| Facility record. Supplies owning organizations and individuals used to group facilities into chains. | |||
|
Penalties
https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/dataset/g6vv-u9sr |
Monthly | August 26, 2026 | September 5, 2026 |
| Civil money penalties and Medicare/Medicaid payment denials, including individual action dates, fine amounts and denial lengths when CMS publishes them. Shown in each facility's enforcement history. | |||
|
Provider Information
https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/dataset/4pq5-n9py |
Monthly | August 26, 2026 | September 5, 2026 |
| Public Grade 1.x + facility profile. Supplies facility identity, ownership/bed fields, CMS star ratings, reported RN staffing, and the four base-grade components. Grade 2.0 also extracts richer adjusted staffing fields from this file into shadow evidence tables. | |||
Data period, release date and import date are different
CMS public release is when CMS made that copy available. Imported by NursingHomeGrade is when we loaded that copy. Facility pages separately show the CMS processing/data-period date carried by the provider record. A later import date never makes an older survey or reporting period more current.
The ingest pipeline reads release metadata from CMS itself rather than stamping the current date into this page. That same source metadata is used for sitemap freshness so rerunning an unchanged public-data import does not manufacture a new content date.
Public grade inputs vs. Grade 2.0 shadow evidence
The public Grade 1.x formula still uses Provider Information plus Health Deficiencies for its score and penalties. Grade 2.0 research additionally ingests Survey Summary, measure-level MDS Quality Measures, Medicare Claims Quality Measures, and richer staffing fields from Provider Information. Those Phase A tables are intentionally shadow evidence only: they are stored so we can test missingness, build historical features and backtest candidate models without silently changing anyone's public grade.
Payroll-Based Journal daily staffing remains a later Grade 2.0 phase and is not ingested by the Phase A pipeline in this change.
Reproducing our numbers
The public Grade 1.x source files are public and free. Combined with the published formula, they are sufficient to reproduce every public grade we display. Shadow Grade 2.0 evidence is versioned separately and is not part of that production calculation. If you reproduce the public formula and get a different answer, tell us.