Editorial Process
Every figure on PlainDoctor traces back to a named public source, documented in our methodology. The publisher is accountable for the data framing, methodology, and corrections you read here.
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Healthcare Providers Editorial Process · Editorial Process
PlainDoctor is an independent data-journalism portal that analyzes public government data on healthcare providers, including their services and performance metrics. The portal's content is compiled by our editorial process from official source data, and the team does not accept payment from entities it covers to ensure impartiality. Through neutral reporting, the team delivers data-driven insights to help the public understand provider operations.
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According to the federal CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES), the registry PlainDoctor publishes covers 7,090,243 healthcare providers across 690 specialties and 56 states and territories, refreshed as of the 2026-08-27T01:55:34.848Z federal release. Every figure on this site is rendered straight from that public dataset, combined with the CMS Medicare Part D, MIPS Quality Payment Program, and Open Payments files, and checked against its source methodology before publication. According to the federal National Provider Identifier Registry (CMS NPPES), PlainDoctor compiles more than 7 million U.S. healthcare-provider records, a registry maintained since May 2007, adding Medicare Part D prescribing from 2024 and CMS MIPS quality scores where reported, which you can search and compare; our methodology documents every federal source.
PlainDoctor is a data-journalism publisher: we compile public datasets, verify them against their official sources, and present them in plain language. Editorial standards, sourcing, and how we handle corrections are described on our about and methodology pages.
Download the specialty-by-state provider counts cited on this page: plaindoctor-specialty-by-state.csv (CMS NPPES · public domain). When reusing the table, name PlainDoctor as the compiler.