How we rank agencies (methodology)

HomeCareFinder lists every Medicare-certified home health agency in the CMS Care Compare dataset outside Florida (until January 1, 2027) and orders each list by one rule: the CMS quality-of-patient-care star rating, highest first; ties alphabetical by agency name; agencies without a rating last, alphabetically. Nothing else changes the order, and no one can pay to change it.

Data source

Dataset: CMS Provider Data Catalog, Home Health Care Agencies (ID 6jpm-sxkc), July 2026 release (11,314 agencies).
Star rating: the CMS Quality of Patient Care star rating, 1 to 5 stars in half-star steps, updated quarterly (CMS fact sheet; CMS methodology). We show it exactly as published. It is a government quality rating, not a customer review.
Services, address, phone, ownership type and certification date are shown as CMS publishes them (we only change capitalization and phone formatting).

The ranking rule

sort key = (has_rating ? 0 : 1, -star_rating, lowercase(name), ccn)

The generator applies this rule to all agencies identically. Medicare home health, hospice and nursing home pages have no per-provider override, no paid listing, no sponsor and no partner link. Aspen Home Health, which the owner currently owns, gets no adjustment of any kind; the code contains no agency-specific logic. Optional filters (such as services offered) only hide agencies that don't match; they never reorder the list.

What the rating does not tell you

No rating is not a bad rating. CMS doesn't rate agencies with too few patients to report, or agencies certified recently.
CMS says the rating is a first step and that you should also weigh the patient's needs and preferences, other quality measures, references and past experience (fact sheet).
Agencies are grouped by office address, and agencies usually serve a wider area. Always ask whether an agency serves your address. Service-area matching from the CMS ZIP-code file is planned.
The separate HHCAHPS patient survey star rating is not shown yet.

Small cities

Cities with fewer than 3 agency offices still get a page, but it is marked noindex and its agencies also appear in a combined "smaller cities" list on the state page. City spelling variants in the CMS file (for example "ST LOUIS" and "ST. LOUIS", or "N HOLLYWOOD" and "NORTH HOLLYWOOD") are merged into one page, and the old address redirects to it.

Updates

We plan to refresh from CMS monthly (CMS updates star ratings quarterly). Every Medicare home health page shows the CMS data release and the date the page was built.

Private-pay listings

California: home care listings are Home Care Organizations with a licensed or on-probation status in the most recent list California CDSS has published (dated May 25, 2025, so it may be out of date). Assisted living listings are residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs) that CDSS's facility data shows as licensed (status code 3), updated October 2026; city names come from the CDSS CSV where the facility number matches, because the map layer shortens long city names. CDSS data doesn't flag memory care, so we don't publish a California memory care list. Florida: no listings until January 1, 2027.

Texas: private-pay listings are coming soon; Texas Medicare home health (CMS data) is live. When published, home care, assisted living and memory care listings come from Texas HHSC directories of active licenses (HCSSA directory, filtered to agencies licensed for personal assistance services; assisted living directory; memory care = assisted living facilities with an HHSC Alzheimer's certificate number). Expired licenses are left out. License status, including "enforcement action pending," is shown as HHSC publishes it.

These lists are alphabetical. We have no quality rating for these providers, so we don't rank them. The order of our lists can't be bought. Every provider in a list is placed by the same rule, and paying never adds anyone to a list, moves anyone up or down, or removes anyone. City pages are built for cities with 3 or more providers; the rest are listed on the state page. Large city pages are split into pages of 150 (private pay) or 90 (Medicare home health), and the city JSON always has the full list. If we ever show paid spots, they will be labeled "Ad" and shown separately from the list, and they will never change it.

Costs come from the CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025 median tables. We cite the national medians and the Texas and California figures, and link to CareScout's own tool for other states. We show "not reported" where CareScout publishes no figure and never estimate one.

Hospice

Hospice listings come from CMS Care Compare (general information, CAHPS Hospice Survey and provider data; August 2026 release). Each list is ordered by one rule: the CMS family caregiver survey star rating (the CAHPS Hospice Survey summary star rating), highest first; ties alphabetical; hospices without a star rating last. We also show, when CMS publishes them, the share of family caregivers who would definitely recommend the hospice and the Hospice Care Index score, but they don't affect the order. Hospices are grouped by the address CMS lists; cities with fewer than 3 are combined on the state page. No hospice can pay us, and hospice pages carry no ads, sponsors, paid listings or partner links, ever. Florida is withheld until January 1, 2027.

Nursing homes

Nursing home listings come from the CMS Nursing Homes Provider Information file (September 2026 release). Each list is ordered by one rule: the CMS overall star rating from the Five-Star Quality Rating System, highest first; ties alphabetical; unrated nursing homes last. We show CMS's component ratings (health inspections, staffing, quality measures), its Special Focus Facility status and its abuse icon exactly as CMS publishes them; they don't change the order. No nursing home can pay us, and nursing home pages carry no ads, sponsors, paid listings or partner links, ever. Florida is withheld until January 1, 2027.

Money and ranking

Rankings nobody can buy. The order of our lists can't be bought. Every provider in a list is placed by the same rule, and paying never adds anyone to a list, moves anyone up or down, or removes anyone. Medicare home health, hospice and nursing home listings are ranked only by CMS star ratings, with ties in alphabetical order; private-pay lists are alphabetical. If we ever show paid spots, they will be labeled "Ad" and shown separately from the list, and they will never change it. No home health agency pays HomeCareFinder for listing, ranking, leads or referrals. See how we make money.