About SunsetWell
An independent project that turns public government inspection data into clear, comparable information about senior care facilities — free, for everyone.
Who Runs SunsetWell
SunsetWell is built and maintained by an independent developer and data analyst. There is no large staff, no parent company, and no ownership stake from any senior care facility, chain, or referral network. We do not claim medical credentials we don't have — what we bring is careful work with public data and a methodology anyone can read and check.
That independence is the point. Most senior care websites are referral agencies paid by the facilities they recommend. SunsetWell is not. Our rankings are computed from public federal data with a published methodology, and no facility can pay to change them.
What SunsetWell Does
We help families, social workers, and discharge planners research and compare 73,000+ senior care facilities nationwide — nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home health agencies. For every Medicare-certified nursing home, we publish:
- SunsetWell Scores — a 0–100 quality score computed from CMS inspection, staffing, and clinical outcome data (see exactly how it works)
- Inspection histories — deficiency citations and federal fines from the past three years, drawn directly from CMS enforcement records
- Staffing and capacity details — nurse hours per resident per day, certified beds, and CMS star ratings
- Free tools and guides — side-by-side comparisons, plain-English guides, and downloadable datasets
Everything on the site is free to use. No account, no paywall, and no phone number required.
Where Every Data Point Comes From
We do not collect or invent our own facility ratings data. Every metric on SunsetWell traces back to a public source:
CMS Provider Data Catalog (data.cms.gov)
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publishes inspection results, deficiency citations, federal penalties, staffing levels, and quality measures for every Medicare-certified nursing home and home health agency. This is the same data behind Medicare.gov's Care Compare, and it is the backbone of our database and scores.
State licensing sources
Assisted living facilities are regulated at the state level, so our assisted living records come from state licensing agencies' public directories.
We refresh our database monthly as CMS releases new data. The current data was last refreshed in June 2026. You can download the datasets we use, free, on our data downloads page.
What SunsetWell Is Not
We are not a referral agency.
We don't sell your contact information to facilities, and no one will call you because you used this site.
Facilities cannot pay for rankings.
No facility can pay to change its SunsetWell Score, its ranking, or its inspection history as shown on this site. Scores are computed from public CMS data with a published methodology. How the site actually sustains itself is documented on our How We Make Money page.
We are not medical advice.
Our scores and data are research tools. Always visit facilities in person and consult healthcare professionals before making placement decisions.
Contact
Spotted an error in our data, or have a question about our methodology? We want to know.
- Privacy questions: privacy@sunsetwell.com
- Facilities and partners: partners@sunsetwell.com