CMS Physician Compare Scraper

Extract physician and healthcare provider data from the CMS Physician Compare dataset — the official Medicare provider database maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Search by name, specialty, state, or NPI number across 2 million+ providers. No API key or account required.

Whether you are building provider directories, conducting healthcare market research, or verifying practitioner credentials, this actor delivers structured, export-ready data from CMS's public API.

---

What You Can Scrape

• Physician profiles — Name, specialty, credentials, graduation year, medical school
• Practice location — Address, city, state, zip code, phone number
• Medicare participation — Whether the provider accepts Medicare assignment
• Telehealth availability — Providers offering telemedicine services
• Secondary specialties — Additional board certifications beyond the primary specialty
• NPI lookup — Direct lookup by 10-digit National Provider Identifier

---

Key Features

• Search by last name and/or first name
• Filter by medical specialty (65+ specialties as dropdown)
• Filter by US state or territory (all 50 states + DC, PR, GU, VI, AS, MP)
• Filter by gender
• Filter to providers accepting Medicare assignment
• Direct NPI number lookup (getByNPI mode)
• Browse all providers in a specialty (searchBySpecialty mode)
• No authentication or API key required

---

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Default
mode	Select	What to search: by name/filters, by NPI, or by specialty	searchPhysicians
lastName	Text	Provider last name to search	—
firstName	Text	Provider first name filter	—
specialty	Select	Medical specialty (65+ options)	—
state	Select	US state or territory (2-letter code)	—
npi	Text	10-digit NPI number (getByNPI mode)	—
gender	Select	Provider gender: Any, Male, Female	—
acceptsMedicare	Boolean	Only show providers accepting Medicare	false
maxItems	Integer	Maximum records to return (1–200)	50

Supported Medical Specialties (sample)

Addiction Medicine · Anesthesiology · Cardiac Surgery · Cardiovascular Disease (Cardiology) · Chiropractic · Clinical Psychologist · Dermatology · Emergency Medicine · Endocrinology · Family Practice · Gastroenterology · General Surgery · Hematology/Oncology · Infectious Disease · Internal Medicine · Nephrology · Neurology · Neurosurgery · Nurse Practitioner · Obstetrics/Gynecology · Ophthalmology · Orthopedic Surgery · Pain Management · Pediatric Medicine · Psychiatry · Pulmonary Disease · Radiation Oncology · Rheumatology · Urology · Vascular Surgery · and 35+ more

---

Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
npi	String	National Provider Identifier (10 digits)
lastName	String	Provider last name
firstName	String	Provider first name
middleName	String	Provider middle name
suffix	String	Name suffix (e.g. MD, DO)
credentials	String	Professional credentials (e.g. MD, FACC)
gender	String	Provider gender (Male / Female)
medicalSchool	String	Medical school attended
graduationYear	Integer	Year of graduation
specialty	String	Primary medical specialty
secondarySpecialties	Array	Additional specialties (when available)
offersTelemedicine	Boolean	Whether the provider offers telemedicine
facilityName	String	Practice facility or group name
address	String	Street address
city	String	City or town
state	String	State code (e.g. CA, NY)
zipCode	String	5-digit ZIP code
phone	String	Phone number (formatted as (XXX) XXX-XXXX)
acceptsMedicareAssignment	Boolean	Individual Medicare assignment status
groupAcceptsMedicareAssignment	Boolean	Group/practice Medicare assignment status
sourceUrl	String	Link to provider profile on CMS Provider Data
recordType	String	Always physician
scrapedAt	String	ISO timestamp when the record was scraped

---

Example Use Cases

1. Provider directory building — Find all cardiologists in California by setting specialty=CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE (CARDIOLOGY) and state=CA.
2. Credential verification — Look up a specific provider by NPI number to verify their specialty and Medicare participation status.
3. Healthcare market research — Count providers by specialty and state to analyze market density.
4. Medicare network analysis — Filter by acceptsMedicare=true to identify Medicare-participating providers in a region.
5. Telehealth provider discovery — Find telemedicine-capable providers in a specialty by combining specialty and acceptsMedicare filters.

---

Data Source

This actor uses the CMS Provider Data Catalog (Physician Compare dataset, resource ID mj5m-pzi6), maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Data covers Medicare-enrolled physicians and other eligible professionals. The dataset is updated regularly by CMS and is freely available without registration.

---

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need an API key or CMS account? No. The CMS Provider Data Catalog is a public API that does not require authentication.

What is an NPI number? The National Provider Identifier (NPI) is a unique 10-digit identification number for covered healthcare providers. It is required for electronic transactions and uniquely identifies each provider.

How many providers are in the database? The Physician Compare dataset covers over 2 million Medicare-enrolled healthcare providers.

Can I filter by city? The CMS API supports filtering by state and zip code, but not directly by city name. Use the state filter to narrow results geographically.

What does "accepts Medicare assignment" mean? A provider who accepts Medicare assignment agrees to accept Medicare's approved payment amount as full payment. This means lower out-of-pocket costs for patients.

Are all doctor types included? The dataset includes physicians and other eligible professionals: nurse practitioners, physician assistants, chiropractors, physical therapists, psychologists, and many other healthcare provider types.

Why might a provider not appear in results? Providers who are not enrolled in Medicare or who have voluntarily opted out will not appear in this dataset.

Is name matching case-sensitive? The actor automatically converts name input to uppercase to match the CMS database format.

Can I get providers in US territories? Yes. Puerto Rico (PR), Guam (GU), Virgin Islands (VI), American Samoa (AS), and Northern Mariana Islands (MP) are included in the state filter.