CCN
also known as: CMS Certification Number · Medicare Provider Number
The six-digit identifier CMS assigns to every Medicare-participating provider. The primary key of the U.S. hospital data world.
Every facility that participates in the Medicare program gets a six-digit CMS Certification Number (CCN, formerly called the Medicare Provider Number). The first two digits encode the state; digits 3–6 are a sequence number assigned by CMS.
CCN ranges by facility type:
- 00xxxx–01xxxx: General short-term hospitals (most common range, alphabetical-ish by state)
- 1xxxxx: Critical Access Hospitals (rural, ≤25 beds)
- 2xxxxx: Long-term care hospitals
- 3xxxxx: Rehabilitation facilities
- 4xxxxx: Psychiatric hospitals
- 5xxxxx: Children's, religious non-medical, etc.
CCN is the join key across HCRIS, CMS Care Compare, the Provider of Services file, Medicare claims, and dozens of CMS datasets. Almost every hospital-level analysis you'll see in U.S. healthcare research starts with a CCN.
Note: CCN is distinct from NPI (the federal-tax-ID-style identifier used by all healthcare providers, billed entities, and clinicians). Most hospitals have both. CCN identifies the facility as a Medicare-participating institution; NPI identifies the billing entity.
▸ EXAMPLE
100006 = Orlando Health (Florida). 240010 = Mayo Clinic Hospital Rochester (Minnesota). 050224 = Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian (California).← Back to glossary · 23 terms total