By HFT Staff

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is releasing ownership data for all Medicare-certified hospitals. For the first time ever, anyone will be able to review detailed information on the ownership of more than 7,000 hospitals certified to participate in the Medicare program on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website. 

• The new information also includes detailed information on the ownership of more than 7,000 hospitals certified to participate in the Medicare program regardless of any change in ownership. The data elements include: enrollment information, such as organization name, type, practice location addresses , national provider identifier (NPI), and CMS certification number (CCN) 
• detailed information about each owner, such as whether it is an organization or an individual, and whether it is a direct owner or indirect owner 
• a numerical associate identification for each owner to enable linkage to the enrollment file.  

Making facility ownership information transparent benefits researchers and enforcement agencies by allowing them to identify common owners that have had histories of poor performance, to analyze data and trends on how market consolidation impacts consumers with increased costs, without necessarily improving quality of care, and to evaluate the relationships between ownership and changes in health care costs and outcomes. Transparent ownership data benefits the public by assisting patients, and their loved ones, in making more informed decisions about care. HHS plans to analyze these data to identify ways to inform policy approaches that can improve competition in healthcare.