Data sources & methodology

PBJ320 combines public nursing home datasets and turns them into comparable facility, state, owner, and chain measures.

How PBJ320 builds the numbers

1. Staffing starts with PBJ

CMS's Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) files report the nursing hours facilities pay for and the residents in the building each day, by role (RN, LPN, nurse aide, and others). PBJ320 rolls the daily submissions up into quarterly facility measures, including Hours Per Resident Day (HPRD): total nurse hours divided by average residents for the period.

2. Facility context comes from CMS Provider Information

Ratings, the abuse icon, ownership type, and case-mix benchmarks shown on provider pages come from CMS Provider Information — the same dataset Care Compare is built from.

3. Reporting periods are aligned

Some Provider Information fields — star ratings, case-mix indexes, the abuse icon — are matched to the same PBJ quarter shown on the page. Others, like a facility's name and address, describe how CMS reports the facility today and aren't tied to a specific quarter. Chain and ownership associations use their own effective-date system, separate from PBJ quarter timing.

4. Comparisons are calculated from the facility data

State and national HPRD averages are resident-day-weighted across facilities for the quarter. Medians are calculated separately, from that same quarter's facility-level HPRD values — the typical facility, not weighted by size. Within-state percentile ranks (e.g. bottom 10%) compare a facility's total nurse HPRD against other facilities in the same state for the same quarter; they are not case-mix adjusted.

5. Ownership and chain data are joined separately

Owner profile pages link facilities using CMS's SNF All Owners release paired with matching SNF Enrollment records by CCN. Chain-level summaries on entity pages use CMS's own published chain performance aggregates for each release directly — not a facility roster recomputed by PBJ320. Coverage is limited and may expand over time.

Current data

CMS staffing (Payroll-Based Journal)

Facility-level nurse staffing hours, census, and derived metrics (including HPRD) come from CMS Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) public files.

• CMS PBJ staffing data submission — program page, policy manual, PUF documentation, and specs
• CMS PBJ — daily nurse staffing (data.cms.gov)

CMS provider & facility context

Ratings, abuse icon, ownership type, and case-mix benchmarks on provider pages come from CMS Provider Information files. CMS Provider Information may also carry a Special Focus Status field, but the authoritative current SFF/Candidate list is the standalone CMS SFF posting (see below).

CMS Special Focus Facility (SFF) history

Current SFF and SFF Candidate status comes from CMS Special Focus Facility postings. PBJ320’s longitudinal SFF history is built from archived CMS SFF postings. CMS did not publish an SFF list for every month, so continuity across some periods cannot be confirmed.

CMS chain & affiliated entity data

CMS identifies chains through reported ownership and management relationships in PECOS. “Chains” and “affiliated entities” refer to the same CMS grouping concept; they are not necessarily a single legal corporation.

PBJ320 retains the CMS-reported name and identifier for each historical snapshot. Numeric identifiers are not treated as permanent corporate identities. Historical coverage generally begins with the August 2023 snapshots. Unresolved identifier reuse, name changes, and cross-identifier matches are excluded; independently evidenced continuity may be included. Coverage varies by chain, and chart lines stop across missing periods.

Historical matches follow the current Provider identity through an uninterrupted observed identifier/name sequence. Matching names and identifiers are evidence of CMS assignment, not proof of permanent corporate identity. Historical CMS names are shown as reported, without implying a corporate rebranding.

CMS release vintages are shown where documented; otherwise dates are labelled as file dates. Individual performance measures may describe earlier periods, and changing membership means the figures do not represent a fixed group of facilities over time.

CMS began publishing affiliated-entity performance data in June 2023. Its June 2025 memorandum introduced chain performance on Nursing Home Care Compare beginning July 30, 2025; this presentation change does not establish continuity between differently named entities.

Chain-level summaries on entity pages use CMS nursing home chain performance measures where available.

• CMS 2023 affiliation memorandum
• CMS June 2025 memorandum
• CMS chain methodology
• CMS nursing home chain performance measures

CMS ownership (limited profiles)

Owner profile pages link facilities using the nationwide SNF All Owners release paired with matching SNF Enrollments via CCN linkage. State owner indexes may reference CMS change-of-ownership (CHOW) filings when available. Coverage on PBJ320 is limited and may expand over time.

• CMS SNF All Owners

State staffing policy context

State minimum staffing references and MACPAC summaries on PBJ320 are policy compendia, not statutory text.

• MACPAC — state policies related to nursing facility staffing (March 2022 compendium)

Political contributions (FEC)

Where shown on CMS owner profile pages, political contribution totals come from Federal Election Commission (FEC) public campaign finance data, not CMS PBJ files.

• Federal Election Commission (FEC)

How metrics are calculated

Screening tool only—not proof of compliance, abuse, or care quality. Terms.

• HPRD: Total nurse hours ÷ average residents (CMS-reported).
• PBJ staffing methodology: Facility-level staffing on PBJ320 comes from CMS’s Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) Daily Nurse Staffing files, which facilities submit quarterly. PBJ320 sums each facility’s daily reported hours and resident census for the quarter into HPRD (hours per resident day). Total nurse HPRD includes all reported RN, LPN, and nurse aide hours—RN Director of Nursing and RN/LPN administrative hours, and nurse aide training/medication aide hours, are included in their respective role totals (RN, LPN, aide), matching CMS’s Five-Star role grouping. Quarters use CMS’s own calendar-quarter convention (e.g. “Q1 2026” = Jan–Mar 2026). See trend line exclusions below for quarters PBJ320 omits as implausible.
• Direct care: Excludes admin and DON where noted.
• Case-mix: acuity metrics based on distribution of MDS 3.0 assessments by nursing case-mix Groups (CMGs) from the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM). See the Five-Star / Care Compare Technical Users’ Guide (PDF).
• Within-state ranks (e.g. bottom 10%): Facility total nurse HPRD vs. other homes in the same state for the quarter on that page; not case-mix adjusted.
• CMS star ratings: CMS assigns each nursing home an overall rating of 1–5 stars based on health inspections, staffing, and quality measures. Ratings reflect the most recent available CMS reporting periods.
• CMS quality flags (SFF, SFF candidate, 1-star overall rating, abuse icon): PBJ320 shows these when they appear in CMS Provider Information—the same underlying fields Care Compare uses. PBJ320 reads and displays CMS’s flags; it does not run surveys or assign ratings. Confirm on Care Compare.
• FEC contributions data: Name-matched to FEC filings on owner profile pages when available; each amount links to the underlying FEC record.
• Trend line exclusions: Longitudinal charts omit quarters with implausible submitted HPRD. Total: total or direct-care below 0.25. RN: below 0.08, or (when median RN ≥ 0.12) below 0.25 and under 5% of both neighbors. LPN: below 0.05, or (when median LPN ≥ 0.20) below 0.12 and under 5% of both neighbors. Aide: below 0.15, or (when median aide ≥ 0.75) below 0.45 and under 5% of both neighbors.
• PBJ daily staffing flags (facility pages, when data is available): PBJ320 screens reported daily staffing against a state-specific total nursing HPRD threshold (all reported nursing roles, including admin/DON, ÷ census; days with census > 0), currently configured for a small number of states. PBJ320 also counts days with zero total RN hours or total RN hours under 8 (RN + RN administrator + DON; facility-wide hours that day, not RN-HPRD) in every state. PBJ320 reports PBJ-based days below threshold; it does not make legal findings of violation or noncompliance. Where PBJ320 shows state staffing context, thresholds and policy references are documented separately because state requirements differ — see State staffing standards.

About PBJ320

PBJ320 is a public nursing home staffing and facility lookup built from federal and other public datasets. PBJ320 is operated by 320 Consulting LLC and is not affiliated with CMS, Medicare, MACPAC, or the FEC. Background: What is PBJ? · What is HPRD

How to use this site

PBJ320 is an analytical tool built on public records. It is not proof of care quality, legal liability, or regulatory noncompliance. Verify important figures against the official CMS sources above before relying on them for research, litigation, or operations.

Questions: [email protected] or the contact form.