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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. Sprint 1 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.
Sprint 1 LOCKED-7 #1: deterministic CCN identity backbone. Every cross-source join (Care Compare, PBJ, Deficiencies, LEIE, ownership) hangs off this CCN. Per Council #8-a/b LOCKED-C, POS QA gating is strict-serial for public joins — all cross-source rendering blocks until POS QA passes. Surface usage: brand-hub Care Compare modules + audit-pack export. Not surfaced on hero verticals.
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 Sprint 1 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.
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
- /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.
Compliance posture
We don’t sell ranking and don’t accept payment to move a provider up the list. For final hire decisions, verify licensing, insurance, and references directly with the applicable licensing or credentialing body.
No bulk-licensing source family is currently ingested for this vertical. Hire-time checking still routes through the body named above.