Reconciliation Differ: CMS Hospital Records Joined by CCN

Column key

Sampling methodology

Version

reconciliation-differ/v2

Join key

CMS Certification Number (CCN) — exact 6-digit match, no normalization

Universe

Hospitals present in both the CMS Care Compare Hospital General Information snapshot (2026-05-07) and the CMS Healthcare Cost Report Information System (HCRIS) database, joined by CCN. 867 of 5,426 Care Compare hospitals (16.0%) have an HCRIS cost report.

Sample selection

100 hospitals drawn from the 867-hospital join universe. Sorted by CCN ascending; every 8th record selected. Deterministic across deploys — same ordering every render.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

What is a reconciliation differ?

A reconciliation differ compares the same entity — here, a Medicare-certified hospital — across multiple federal data files to show what you gain, and what you miss, when you use each file alone. Fonteum's differ joins CMS Care Compare (quality and identity data) with HCRIS (financial data) by the 6-digit CMS Certification Number, then shows freshness, field coverage, and provenance side by side for each hospital.

How are hospitals sampled in this table?

100 hospitals drawn from the 867-hospital join universe. Sorted by CCN ascending; every 8th record selected. Deterministic across deploys — same ordering every render.

What is the CCN match rate between Care Compare and HCRIS?

867 of 5,426 Care Compare hospitals (16.0%) have a matching HCRIS cost report when joined by exact CCN. The remaining 4,559 hospitals have quality data in Care Compare but no current HCRIS cost report, typically because they have not yet submitted or been processed by CMS in the current HCRIS release.

Is probabilistic or fuzzy matching used?

No. The CCN join uses only exact 6-digit matches. The entity-resolution crosswalk (column 5) similarly uses only deterministic links from federal sources — currently CMS Care Compare ASC, which publishes NPI alongside CCN for every facility. Probabilistic candidate matches are staged for operator review before any are published.

What is the entity-resolution column?

The Entity Links column shows whether Fonteum has a deterministic CCN → NPI crosswalk entry for each hospital. Links come from federal sources that carry both identifiers on the same row. Phase 1 uses CMS Care Compare Ambulatory Surgical Centers (1,000 facilities, confidence 1.000). Hospitals without a crosswalk entry are marked "Unlinked" — Phase 2 probabilistic matching is staged for operator sign-off before any candidates are published.

Fonteum is a US healthcare provenance registry that publishes signed, chain-of-custody-attested research and data pages on Medicare, Medicaid, and federal regulator datasets, drawing from 23 federal source families across CMS, OIG, HRSA, AHRQ, and HHS.

Reviewed by Jennifer Montecillo, MD, medical reviewer. Non-practicing medical reviewer.