In early September, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released Care Compare on Medicare.gov. Care Compare streamlines the eight original health care Compare tools, like Nursing Home Compare, Hospital Compare, Physician Compare, etc., which will be retired on December 1, 2020.
The new Care Compare gives patients and caregivers one user-friendly place to find cost, quality of care, service volume and other CMS quality data to help make informed health care decisions. For people with Medicare or their caregivers who want to choose a Medicare provider (like physicians, hospitals, nursing homes, and others), this tool provides a single source search and compare experience, that lets you:
- Find information about providers and facilities based on your individual needs
- Get helpful resources to choose your health care providers
- Make more informed decisions about where you get your health care
We must encourage people with Medicare and their caregivers to start using Care Compare. Visit Medicare.gov and choose “Find care.” Also, it is important to update any links to the eight original Compare tools on public-facing websites to help direct individuals to Care Compare.
You will still be able to download CMS publicly reported data from the Provider Data Catalog on CMS.gov after the eight original Compare tools are retired.