🔔 CMS LCD Policy Revision Ledger

One structured revision record per filed LCD revision-history entry from the official CMS Medicare Coverage Database — the LCD policy id, version, revision number, revision effective date, and the revision description (HTML stripped), joined to the policy title where the policy is in the current snapshot. Built for coverage-policy, reimbursement, and compliance teams who need an auditable ledger of how Local Coverage Determinations have changed over time.

Differentiation: most tools dump the current LCD text; this ledger extracts the filed revision history as discrete facts, keyed on a source-native composite id (lcd_id:version:rev_num), deduplicated, with CPT/HCPCS descriptors excluded and the CMS licence carried on every row.

Output is one cms_lcd_revision row per result; billing is pay-per-event, the value event being one policy revision record (a $0.02 start fee per run, then $0.02 per policy revision record). Source: downloads.cms.gov, www.cms.gov.

No login, no API key and no CAPTCHA solving are involved: the source is read logged-out with an identified contact User-Agent.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run E8q58ZXtnF9wdToeG on build 0.1.9 (2026-09-19), the same input as the Quick start below — every value is as the source published it (emails masked, long text shortened):

lcd_id	lcd_version	rev_hist_num	rev_hist_date	revision_description	license
32553	4	1	2015-10-01	R1 Revision Effective: N/A Revision Explanation: Accepted revenue code	CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is c
32553	5	2	2015-10-01	R2 Revision Effective: N/A Revision Explanation: Annual review no chan	CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is c
32553	6	3	2015-10-01	R3 Revision Effective: 10/01/2015 Revision Explanation: Icd-10 code in	CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is c
32553	7	4	2015-10-01	R4 Revision Effective: 10/01/2015 Revision Explanation: group 2 had a	CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is c
32553	8	5	2015-10-01	R5 Revision Effective: 10/01/2015 Revision Explanation: Added J30.81 t	CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is c
32553	9	6	2015-10-01	R6 Revision Effective: N/A Revision Explanation: annual review no chan	CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is c
32553	10	7	2015-10-01	R7 Revision Effective: N/A Revision Explanation: Annual review no chan	CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is c
32553	11	8	2015-10-01	R8 Revision Effective: N/A Revision Explanation: Annual review no chan	CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is c

The run finished with the status message: CAPPED: delivered 50 of 7832 unique rows (maxRecords=50). billable=50

✅ What you get

Each row is flat JSON with these fields (from the dataset schema and the sample run; a field the source does not publish for a given row is null):

• record_type (string/null) — e.g. cms_lcd_revision
• lcd_id (string/null) — e.g. 32553
• lcd_version (string/null) — e.g. 4
• display_id (string/null) — null in every sample row
• policy_title (string/null) — null in every sample row
• rev_hist_num (string/null) — e.g. 1
• rev_hist_date (string/null) — e.g. 2015-10-01
• revision_description (string/null) — e.g. R1 Revision Effective: N/A Revision Explanation: Accepted revenue code descripti
• source (string/null) — e.g. cms-policy-revision-ledger
• release_date (string/null) — null in every sample row
• source_url (string/null) — e.g. https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/
• observed_at (string/null) — e.g. 2026-09-19T00:27:52Z
• license (string/null) — e.g. CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is copyright A
• attribution (string/null) — e.g. U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Coverage Database (https
• terminal (string/null) — null in every sample row
• reported_total (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• raw_seen (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• duplicates (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• unique_found (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• delivered (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• scope (string/null) — null in every sample row
• note (string/null) — null in every sample row

✅ What you get

• record_type (string/null) — e.g. cms_lcd_revision
• lcd_id (string/null) — e.g. 32553
• lcd_version (string/null) — e.g. 4
• display_id (string/null) — null in every sample row
• policy_title (string/null) — null in every sample row
• rev_hist_num (string/null) — e.g. 1
• rev_hist_date (string/null) — e.g. 2015-10-01
• revision_description (string/null) — e.g. R1 Revision Effective: N/A Revision Explanation: Accepted revenue code descripti
• source (string/null) — e.g. cms-policy-revision-ledger
• release_date (string/null) — null in every sample row
• source_url (string/null) — e.g. https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/
• observed_at (string/null) — e.g. 2026-09-19T00:07:37Z
• license (string/null) — e.g. CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is copyright A
• attribution (string/null) — e.g. U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Coverage Database (https
• terminal (string/null) — null in every sample row
• reported_total (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• raw_seen (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• duplicates (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• unique_found (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• delivered (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• scope (string/null) — null in every sample row
• note (string/null) — null in every sample row

✅ What you get

• record_type (string/null) — e.g. cms_lcd_revision
• lcd_id (string/null) — e.g. 32553
• lcd_version (string/null) — e.g. 4
• display_id (string/null) — null in every sample row
• policy_title (string/null) — null in every sample row
• rev_hist_num (string/null) — e.g. 1
• rev_hist_date (string/null) — e.g. 2015-10-01
• revision_description (string/null) — e.g. R1 Revision Effective: N/A Revision Explanation: Accepted revenue code descripti
• source (string/null) — e.g. cms-policy-revision-ledger
• release_date (string/null) — null in every sample row
• source_url (string/null) — e.g. https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/
• observed_at (string/null) — e.g. 2026-09-18T21:23:52Z
• license (string/null) — e.g. CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is copyright A
• attribution (string/null) — e.g. U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Coverage Database (https
• terminal (string/null) — null in every sample row
• reported_total (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• raw_seen (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• duplicates (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• unique_found (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• delivered (string/integer/null) — null in every sample row
• scope (string/null) — null in every sample row
• note (string/null) — null in every sample row

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. Quick start — the Store example (this is what the sample above came from)

{
  "lcdIds": [],
  "maxRecords": 50
}

The sample run charged exactly: 4 × $0.02 apify-actor-start + 50 × $0.02 policy_revision_record = $1.08 on the Free tier — every delivered row was billed.

2. A smaller, narrowed run

{
  "lcdIds": [],
  "maxRecords": 5
}

Caps the run at 5 rows — about $0.12 on the Free tier ($0.02 start + 5 × $0.02).

3. A full-size run

{
  "lcdIds": [],
  "maxRecords": 2500
}

Up to 2500 rows (the schema default for maxRecords) — about $50.02 on the Free tier ($0.02 start + 2500 × $0.02) if the source has that many.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run E8q58ZXtnF9wdToeG, exactly as it lands in the dataset (emails masked, long text shortened):

{
  "record_type": "cms_lcd_revision",
  "lcd_id": "32553",
  "lcd_version": "4",
  "display_id": null,
  "policy_title": null,
  "rev_hist_num": "1",
  "rev_hist_date": "2015-10-01",
  "revision_description": "R1 Revision Effective: N/A Revision Explanation: Accepted revenue code description changes.",
  "source": "cms-policy-revision-ledger",
  "release_date": null,
  "source_url": "https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-19T00:27:52Z",
  "license": "CMS Medicare Coverage Database — U.S. Government public data; CPT is copyright American Medical Association (CPT/HCPCS long/short descriptors are excluded from this output).",
  "attribution": "U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Coverage Database (https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/)"
}

🔧 How it works

Source. The actor reads downloads.cms.gov, www.cms.gov — endpoints: https://downloads.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/downloads/exports/current_lcd.zip, https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/. Public pages and feeds only; nothing behind a login.

Transport. Plain HTTPS from the Apify platform, no proxy. robots.txt is read first and a disallowed path is never fetched. Every request carries an identified contact User-Agent. Pacing: CRAWL_DELAY=0.0.

Terminal states. A run ends NORMAL, CAPPED (your cap was reached), PARTIAL (something was withheld and the message says what), GENUINE_EMPTY (the source was read and truly had nothing in scope) or BLOCKED (the source refused or changed shape — the run FAILS loud and bills nothing). A zero-row run is never reported as a silent success.

Charging. Each policy revision record is charged at the moment it is pushed (policy_revision_record); a row that fails to charge is not delivered, so the dataset count always equals the charged count.

🔧 How it works

🔧 How it works

Source

The official CMS export current_lcd.zip from downloads.cms.gov. The .mdb member is not read — the CSV members are parsed (lcd_x_revision_history.csv, joined to lcd.csv), with header layout canaries that fail loud (unbilled) on any shell body, header drift, or zero-parse.

Compliance & licence

• CPT/HCPCS descriptor fields are excluded by position and never emitted. CPT is copyright the American Medical Association; only codes/ids that CMS publishes as public data are carried, and descriptor text is dropped.
• Every record carries the CMS licence notice (license) and attribution (attribution): U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Coverage Database.

What is not done. No login, no cookie or CAPTCHA bypass, no private or personal-account data, no browser automation.

💰 Pricing example

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Policy revision record (policy_revision_record)	$0.02	$0.018	$0.016	$0.0134

Worked at the live Free-tier price:

• 8 policy revision records: $0.02 start + 8 × $0.02 = $0.18
• 25 policy revision records: $0.02 start + 25 × $0.02 = $0.52
• 2500 policy revision records: $0.02 start + 2500 × $0.02 = $50.02

A run that delivers zero rows charges the $0.02 start fee only. A BLOCKED run (source refused) fails loud and charges no value event. The start fee is charged once per GB of run memory; the default run memory is 4096 MB.

Yield on the sample run: CAPPED: delivered 50 of 7832 unique rows (maxRecords=50). billable=50. maxRecords is a hard ceiling on what is delivered and billed, never a target.

⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads public, logged-out pages and feeds published by downloads.cms.gov, www.cms.gov. It collects only what the source publishes to any visitor, keeps to the source's robots rules (checked on every run), identifies itself with a contact User-Agent, and does not access accounts, private data or anything behind authentication. Use the output in line with the source's terms and your local law; the intended use is B2B research and monitoring.

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or a login?
A: No. The source (downloads.cms.gov, www.cms.gov) is read logged-out; the input schema has no key field and the actor carries no secrets.

Q: Why did my run return 0 rows?
A: Read the run's status message. GENUINE_EMPTY means the source was read and had nothing in scope for your input; BLOCKED means the source refused and the run failed without billing a value event — retry later or narrow the input. A zero-row run bills the start fee only.

Q: How many rows can one run return?
A: Up to maxRecords (default 2500). Raise the cap for a bigger run; you pay per delivered row.

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Every run reads the source live at run time; nothing is cached between runs. Put it on a schedule for a continuous feed.

Q: What formats can I export?
A: The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the run's Dataset tab or the Apify API, and any run can push to a webhook or integration.

Q: How is this different from the other NexGen Watch actors actors?
A: Same output shape and billing model; this one covers downloads.cms.gov, www.cms.gov. The siblings under Related Actors cover the other sources or slices — run several on one schedule for a combined feed.

Q: Are there rate limits?
A: The actor paces itself against the source (CRAWL_DELAY=0.0) and honours its robots rules; there is no per-buyer limit beyond your Apify plan's concurrency.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• Run FAILED with BLOCKED → the source refused the request or changed its page shape → nothing was billed beyond the start fee; retry after a while, and if it persists open an Issue with the run id.
• Status says CAPPED → your cap (maxRecords) was reached → raise it for a bigger run.
• Input validation error on start → a field is outside the schema's allowed values → start from the Quick start block and change one field at a time.
• Run TIMED-OUT → a very wide request on a slow day → raise the run timeout in Run options or narrow the input; what was delivered before the timeout is still in the dataset.

🔗 Related Actors

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• CMS Medicare Coverage Policy Master — One structured policy_record per coverage policy across all three CMS document families — Local Coverage Determinations (LCD), Articles, and National…
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• Czech ARES Company Registry — One record per requested ICO — company name, legal form, DIC, registered address, NACE and last-updated date from the official register. Honest scope…
• DC Basic Business Licenses — One record per DC Basic Business License (category/type, status, effective/expiry dates, premise address, entity + owner/agent names, ward) from the…
• 🏢 About NexGenData — NexGen Watch is NexGenData's fleet of more than 300 public data actors built on official sources, pay-per-result. Browse the catalog at apify.com/nexgenwatch.

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