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research studies
Everything you need to cite Fonteum Research, embed our dataset findings, or scope a B2B data request — in one place. Free to cite with attribution.
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Fonteum is an independent research organization. We publish source-cited research and provider data across U.S. healthcare provider categories, anchored on 22 federal source families, including CMS NPPES, CMS PECOS, CMS Care Compare, OIG LEIE, HRSA HPSA, BLS OEWS, BEA Regional, and CMS Open Payments.
Every cited fact carries a source · last-checked date · limitations. The graph is built once, in public, and refreshed from public records on a known cadence.
Read more: /about · /methodology · /sources · /research
Full doctrine at /editorial-policy.
Francis Po
Founder, Fonteum
Francis founded Fonteum in 2026 to build the source-of-truth research layer for U.S. healthcare provider data — the rigor of capital-markets coverage applied to a sector that has lived for decades on opaque vendor directories. He writes most of the research personally and edits every piece before publish.
Reach Francis directly at frank@fonteum.com.
Three editorial desks group every published study by the kind of question it answers — not by the underlying source dataset. Each desk page lists the studies, the source families, and the doctrine guardrails for that beat.
Three studies a desk can run with today. Each ships a downloadable dataset, a prebuilt copy-paste citation block, and a one-click link to the limitations panel.
Source: Fonteum indexed dataset + CMS NPPES + 2 more · Snapshot: Q1 2026 indexed snapshot
Fonteum Research, "Dermatology Access and Practice Density Report 2026 — Indexed Practice Coverage Across the United States," May 1, 2026. https://fonteum.com/research/dermatology-access-density-2026 Dataset: https://fonteum.com/research/data/dermatology-access-density-2026.csv
Six highest-pitch datasets, each with source attribution, snapshot date, row count, and a citation link to the underlying study (which carries the full limitations panel). Free to cite with attribution.
Full catalog at /data.
Source: CMS Care Compare + Nursing Home Compare · Snapshot: 2026-04 (CMS publication) — snapshot fetched 2026-05-03 · Limitations
Every published study is free to cite. Please include attribution and a link back to the study URL. The limitations panel on each study page is the source of truth for what the data does and does not cover — please reference it when summarizing findings.
Copy-paste citation template
Fonteum Research, "{Study Title}," {Month YYYY}.
https://fonteum.com/research/{study-slug}
Dataset: https://fonteum.com/research/data/{study-slug}.csvDrop the “Dataset:” line if the study has no downloadable CSV; the linked study page still renders the full limitations panel and methodology.
AP-style short citation (inline)
(Fonteum Research, {Month YYYY})Suggested attribution
Five story angles drawn from current Fonteum Research datasets. Each links to the study or source surface that backs the angle, with the source family already attributed.
Pitch desk: press@fonteum.com
Source: CMS NPPES + HRSA HPSA + U.S. Census Bureau
Lede
Skin-cancer incidence has been rising for two decades while the dermatologist supply has barely kept pace — and the gap is not evenly distributed. With melanoma now the fifth most common cancer in U.S. adults, where you live increasingly determines whether a suspicious mole gets seen by a board-certified dermatologist within weeks or months.
Data point
Fonteum Research counts NPI-1 records flagged with dermatology taxonomy (CMS NPPES) at the state level and normalizes against the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent state population estimate. The state-by-state distribution sits in the published CSV at /research/data/dermatology-access-density-2026.csv. Multiple states have HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area exposure overlapping their lowest-density quartile.
So what
Where a person's ZIP code falls inside a low-density state has direct downstream effects: longer wait times for routine screenings, more travel for biopsies, and higher rates of patients defaulting to non-specialist care. For a healthcare reporter, this is the rare access story that travels — every state has a different answer.
If you are evaluating Fonteum for research, enrichment, or B2B use cases, the data-platform page is the right starting point — it lists every available dataset, the source family it's anchored on, and four sample B2B export concepts.
Data platform → /data
Live dataset catalog (CSV + JSON where available), four sample B2B export concepts, and a doctrine block describing what we explicitly do not provide.
License or scoping inquiries: press@fonteum.com · /contact
Fonteum logos for use in coverage. SVG originals; scale losslessly to any size. Do not recolor the mark or alter the wordmark letterforms.
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Free to cite with attribution. Every number here is reproducible from our published datasets. Counts are derived live from the research registry and snapshot — never hardcoded on this page.
No external coverage yet. Research assets are available for citation.
The press kit, citation templates, and downloadable datasets above are everything a desk needs to run a story today — without a press mention. When external coverage publishes, it will be listed here as an itemized link list, not a stock logo strip.
Covered Fonteum research? press@fonteum.com · /contact
Source: CMS Care Compare + Nursing Home Compare · Snapshot: 2026-04 (CMS publication) — snapshot fetched 2026-05-03
Fonteum Research, "Nursing Home Quality by State 2026 — CMS Care Compare State-Level Snapshot," May 3, 2026. https://fonteum.com/research/nursing-home-quality-by-state-2026 Dataset: https://fonteum.com/research/data/nursing-home-quality-by-state-2026.csv
Source: CMS Care Compare + Home Health Compare · Snapshot: 2026-04 (CMS publication) — snapshot fetched 2026-05-03
Fonteum Research, "Home Health Quality by State 2026 — CMS Care Compare State-Level Snapshot," May 3, 2026. https://fonteum.com/research/home-health-quality-by-state-2026 Dataset: https://fonteum.com/research/data/home-health-quality-by-state-2026.csv
Source: CMS Care Compare + Home Health Compare · Snapshot: 2026-04 (CMS publication) — snapshot fetched 2026-05-03 · Limitations
Source: CMS Care Compare + Dialysis Facility Compare · Snapshot: 2026-04 (CMS publication) — snapshot fetched 2026-05-03 · Limitations
Source: CMS Care Compare + Hospice General Information · Snapshot: 2026-04 (CMS publication) — snapshot fetched 2026-05-03 · Limitations
Source: Fonteum indexed dataset + CMS NPPES + 2 more · Snapshot: Q1 2026 indexed snapshot · Limitations
Tension
The counterintuitive angle: density does not always track urbanization. Several mid-density Sun Belt states show worse per-capita supply than parts of Appalachia once HRSA shortage exposure is layered in. The simple urban-vs-rural framing breaks.
Suggested external experts (independent of Fonteum)
Source: CMS Care Compare Home Health (6jpm-sxkc)
Lede
Home-health spending is one of the fastest-growing segments of Medicare, projected to keep climbing as the boomer cohort ages in place. Yet star ratings — the only public-facing CMS quality signal a family can act on — are heavily concentrated in some states and missing in others.
Data point
Fonteum's snapshot of the CMS Care Compare Home Health Care Agencies dataset (6jpm-sxkc) builds state-level aggregates: mean Quality-of-Patient-Care star rating, count of rated vs unrated agencies, and ownership mix (For Profit vs Non Profit vs Government). The full state aggregate sits at /research/data/home-health-quality-by-state-2026.csv.
So what
A family choosing a home-health agency for a parent should be looking at the star rating. In states where 30%+ of agencies are unrated, that decision happens with no public quality signal — and the for-profit/non-profit ownership mix shifts materially across state lines, which has been associated with outcome variation in the academic literature.
Tension
The home-health industry has lobbied to reduce CMS rating frequency on grounds that small samples produce noisy stars. The data shows that rating gaps cluster geographically — and the states with the thinnest rating coverage are also the states with the highest for-profit market share. Whether that is causation or correlation is an open question.
Suggested external experts (independent of Fonteum)
Source: CMS Care Compare Provider Data
Lede
Nursing-home quality variation between U.S. states is wider than most readers assume. CMS publishes overall star ratings for every certified facility, and when those are aggregated to the state level, the spread between best and worst quartile states is dramatic — large enough that an aging parent's options are heavily shaped by which side of a state line they live on.
Data point
Fonteum's CMS Care Compare Provider Data snapshot calculates state-level mean overall star rating, component sub-rating distributions, ownership mix, and rated vs unrated counts. The state-by-state breakdown is at /research/data/nursing-home-quality-by-state-2026.csv. Several states cluster well below the national-average star rating; several others cluster above.
So what
Aging-in-place is a cliché until a fall, a stroke, or a dementia diagnosis forces a placement decision. At that point the star rating is the only standardized public signal. State-level variation is the headline a national reporter can localize anywhere.
Tension
The contested element: ownership-mix correlation with rating. The for-profit chain consolidation of the past decade has been associated with rating shifts that critics characterize as deterioration and operators characterize as measurement-methodology change. Both interpretations have proponents inside CMS; the data alone does not settle it.
Suggested external experts (independent of Fonteum)
Source: Fonteum sources registry + provenance graph
Lede
Most provider directories you've encountered as a consumer are either (a) backfilled from Google Business Profile with no source citation or (b) a paid lead-gen list dressed up as a directory. A small but growing category — academic-grade provider graphs — does the opposite: every field on a profile is anchored to a federal or state public-record source, and the source citation is rendered visibly to the reader.
Data point
Fonteum's provenance graph stamps four pieces of metadata on every published field: the originating source (e.g. CMS NPPES, CMS Care Compare), the last-checked ISO date, a Fonteum confidence tier, and the public/restricted display permission. Those four show up on every profile via the ProvenanceCard component, with the same contract documented at /data-provenance and /data/schema.
So what
The methodology story is the better business story than the directory itself. Local-services data has been a wild west for two decades; the question of who is allowed to sell what about whom — and how — is moving back into regulatory focus (FTC click-to-cancel, CMS provider-directory accuracy, state UPL enforcement). A reporter can use Fonteum as a worked example of the alternative pattern.
Tension
The doctrine has tradeoffs. Source-cited is not the same as pre-vetted, and a buyer who wants a quality stamp will not find one. Several state-board datasets are restricted from redistribution and will never appear in this graph. Whether 'public record cited, never overclaimed' is a defensible long-term posture — or an unstable middle ground — is a real disagreement inside the industry.
Suggested external experts (independent of Fonteum)
