How Can You Find Out Who Owns a Hospice?

You can look up a hospice's owners yourself, for free, in the "Hospice All Owners" dataset that CMS publishes on data.cms.gov. It lists the people and companies that report an ownership stake in, or managing control of, each hospice currently enrolled in Medicare. You find the hospice in a companion file called "Hospice Enrollments," note its enrollment ID, and then pull the matching rows from the owners file. The information comes from what hospices report to Medicare when they enroll, and CMS refreshes it every quarter.

Where the ownership data comes from

CMS releases hospice enrollment and ownership data as part of its public provider enrollment files. The source is PECOS (the Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System), which is Medicare's system of record for provider enrollment. According to CMS's data guidance, the information is self-reported by the hospice on its Medicare enrollment application (form CMS-855A).

Two datasets work together:

• Hospice Enrollments: one row per hospice enrollment, with the legal business name, "doing business as" name, CMS Certification Number (CCN), NPI, organization type, address, and an enrollment ID.
• Hospice All Owners: one row per owner or manager tied to an enrollment, with names, roles, addresses of organizational owners, ownership percentages, and the date each one became associated with the hospice.

Both cover only enrollments that are currently approved to bill Medicare. Each quarterly file shows only current enrollments and owners, so a past owner who has since sold will not appear in the latest file. Earlier quarterly releases, going back to 2023, are still available on the same dataset pages, so you can compare an older release to see who owned the hospice before. The release dated October 1, 2026 contains 5,690 hospice enrollment records.

Step by step: finding who owns a specific hospice

1. Get the hospice's CCN. Each provider page on this site shows the hospice's CMS Certification Number near the bottom.
2. Open the Hospice Enrollments dataset at data.cms.gov/provider-characteristics/hospitals-and-other-facilities/hospice-enrollments. Look up the hospice by CCN, or by name, city, and state. Write down its ENROLLMENT ID (organization enrollment IDs start with the letter O).
3. Open the Hospice All Owners dataset at data.cms.gov/provider-characteristics/hospitals-and-other-facilities/hospice-all-owners and find every row with that same ENROLLMENT ID. You can view it on the dataset page or download it as a CSV file.
4. Read the role column ("ROLE TEXT - OWNER") to see how each person or company is connected, and the "PERCENTAGE OWNERSHIP" column to see the size of each stake.

What the roles in the owners file mean

CMS defines "ownership" broadly. The file includes true owners and also the people who run or control the hospice. These are the role labels used in the file:

To see who actually owns the hospice, focus on the direct and indirect ownership rows. CMS notes that the direct ownership percentages should generally add up to 100%, but because the data is self-reported, some hospices show totals above 100% because of input errors or ownership changes that are still being processed.

Answering "Is it for-profit?"

The Hospice Enrollments file has a field named PROPRIETARY_NONPROFIT. CMS's data dictionary describes it as "P" if the business is registered with the IRS as proprietary (for-profit) and "N" if it is registered as nonprofit. The file also lists the hospice's organization structure, such as corporation, LLC, partnership, or government.

For organizational owners, the owners file carries yes/no flags describing the owner, including for profit, nonprofit, private equity company, real estate investment trust (REIT), holding company, investment firm, management services company, and chain home office. A separate flag shows whether the owning organization was created solely to acquire the hospice, and another shows whether the owner is itself owned by another organization or individual. These flags are blank when the hospice did not report them. For what ownership type does and does not tell you about care, see nonprofit vs. for-profit hospice: does it matter?

Checking whether the owner runs other hospices

Every owner has an identifier in the column "ASSOCIATE ID - OWNER." CMS explains that all enrollments sharing the same owner ID have that owner in common. Filter the owners file by that ID and you will see every enrolled hospice the same person or company owns or manages. For what that difference can mean in practice, see independent vs. chain hospices.

If a hospice lists no owners or partners at all, CMS's guidance gives two possibilities: an organization with a single location may be governed by a board instead of owners, and an organization with several locations may itself be the top owner of a chain.

What the ownership data cannot tell you

• It is not a quality score. Ownership tells you who is behind the hospice, not how well it cares for patients. Use Medicare's Care Compare quality measures and family survey results for that.
• It can lag. CMS notes that ownership changes are processed by Medicare contractors one application at a time, so different enrollments of the same provider can show different information while changes are pending.
• Each file is a current snapshot. Only current owners appear in the latest release, though earlier quarterly releases going back to 2023 remain available. The "ASSOCIATION DATE - OWNER" column shows when each current owner or manager became associated with the hospice, so a very recent date on a direct or indirect ownership row can signal a recent ownership change worth asking about.

Using ownership to judge whether a hospice is legitimate

Because the files include only enrollments approved to bill Medicare, finding a hospice there is one sign that it is currently enrolled, but it is not a full check. CMS notes the files may leave out a small number of enrollments with data problems, so a hospice missing from the file is not proof that it is unenrolled. Confirm certification the way described in how to verify a hospice is Medicare-certified, and learn the warning signs in hospice fraud warning signs families should know. If the owners you find do not match what the hospice told you, or the hospice will not tell you who owns it, treat that as a reason to ask more questions before you sign anything.

Frequently asked questions

Is hospice ownership information public?

Yes. CMS publishes the Hospice Enrollments and Hospice All Owners datasets on data.cms.gov as public data, free to view and download. They are updated quarterly.

Why does the name in the CMS file not match the name on the hospice's sign?

The files list the hospice's legal business name and, separately, its "doing business as" name. A hospice may be known locally by a name that differs from its legal name, which is why searching by CCN is the most reliable approach.

Does the file list every owner?

It lists the ownership interests, partners, officers, directors, and managers the hospice reported for its Medicare enrollment. Ownership rows cover interests of 5% or greater. Because the data is self-reported, errors are possible.

Who do I contact about the data itself?

CMS lists the Provider Enrollment Oversight Group at ProviderEnrollmentDataRequests@cms.hhs.gov for questions about these files. For questions about a specific hospice, ask the hospice directly. A reputable agency should be willing to tell you who owns and runs it.

What to do next

• Note the CCN from the hospice's page on this site, then look it up in the two CMS datasets.
• Ask the hospice who owns it and compare the answer with what you found.

When you are ready, compare hospices near you and check each one's ownership and quality data side by side.