ParseForge
CMS Open Payments Scraper
parseforge/openpayments-scraper
AutomationDeveloper toolsOther
Scrapes payment records from the CMS Open Payments website by provider, teaching hospital, or company. Returns each payment as a flat row with amounts, dates, and party names.
- Total users
- 3
- Monthly active
- 0
- Total runs
- 274
- Bookmarked
- 0
- Rating
- 5.0 (1)
- Last modified
- 12 days ago
Overview
CMS Open Payments Scraper
Scrape CMS Open Payments records by provider, hospital, or company, up to a million per run. Each record includes payment amounts, dates, nature of payment, and the names of both parties. No API key or registration. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
The CMS Open Payments website lets you search for financial relationships between healthcare providers and drug or device companies, but manual searches are slow and the data cannot be downloaded in bulk. This Actor reads the public search results directly, filtering by provider type, name, location, or NPI, and returns every matching payment record in a consistent, flat schema.
| Who uses it | What they scrape CMS Open Payments for |
|---|---|
| Healthcare compliance officers | Auditing payments to a specific physician or hospital network. |
| Investigative journalists | Mapping industry payments across a city or specialty. |
| Pharma market analysts | Tracking competitor spending on speaker fees and consulting. |
| Academic researchers | Building datasets for studies on conflicts of interest. |
What it does
This Actor collects CMS Open Payments records by provider, teaching hospital, or company search, and returns each payment as a flat row.
- 🔍 Three search types: Individual Provider, Teaching Hospital, or Company, each with its own set of filters.
- 🌎 Country filter: Narrow results to a specific country from a list of 36 supported nations.
- 🏙️ Location filters: Filter by city or zip code to focus on a single metropolitan area.
- 🆔 NPI lookup: Search for a specific provider using their National Provider Identifier.
- 📊 Bulk collection: Set a maximum record count up to 1,000,000 and let the Actor paginate through all results.
Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.
What you can do with CMS Open Payments data
📋 Audit a single physician.
A compliance officer searches by last name and state to review all reported payments to a specific doctor before an annual review.
🏥 Map payments to a teaching hospital.
A researcher pulls all payments linked to a hospital by name and city to study industry influence on graduate medical education.
💊 Track a drug company's spending.
A market analyst scrapes all payments made by a pharmaceutical company in a given year to benchmark against competitors.
🌎 Compare payments across countries.
A journalist collects records for a single company across multiple countries to reveal global patterns in physician payments.
Why choose this scraper
| What you get | |
|---|---|
| No API key | Reads the public CMS Open Payments search, no registration needed. |
| Fixed schema | Every payment record arrives with the same fields, ready for analysis. |
| Flexible export | Save results as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML. |
| Targeted searches | Combine name, city, zip, and provider type to isolate exactly the records you need. |
How it compares
No other Store actor targets CMS Open Payments the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.
| CMS Open Payments Scraper | Build it in-house | By hand | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Run it now, zero config | Days of engineering | None, but hours per pull |
| When CMS Open Payments changes | Maintained for you | You fix it | You re-learn the page |
| Proxies, retries, anti-bot | Built in | Your problem | Browser only |
| Output | Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export | Whatever you build | Copy-paste |
| Cost | Pay per result | Engineering time | Analyst hours |
Configure the run
Drive the Actor from a direct API URL or by selecting a search type and filling in the corresponding filters. Filters are applied as the Actor reads results, so only matching records are collected. The Input tab lists every parameter.
A first run with the defaults:
{
"startUrl": "https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/search?searchType=Provider&Country=UNITED+STATES",
"maxItems": 10
}
A larger pull:
{
"startUrl": "https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/search?searchType=Provider&Country=UNITED+STATES",
"maxItems": 200
}
Pricing
Pay-per-result: $0.16 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.
| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $16.00 |
| 1,000 results | $160.00 |
| 10,000 results | $1600.00 |
New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.
Free users
Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.
Run it
- Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
- Open the CMS Open Payments Scraper.
- Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
- Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.
Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.
Use with AI agents (MCP)
Give an AI agent live access to CMS Open Payments through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:
claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/openpayments-scraper"
Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.
Troubleshooting
Why am I getting no results?
Check that your filters are not too restrictive. Try broadening your search by leaving some fields empty or selecting 'All Countries'. Also verify that the search type matches the filters you are using.
The Actor stops before reaching my maxItems limit.
This means the CMS website returned no more results for your query. Try relaxing your filters or using a different search type to find more records.
I get an error when using a direct URL.
Make sure the URL is a valid Open Payments search URL from openpaymentsdata.cms.gov. The URL must include the full query string. If the problem persists, try using the filter fields instead.
Some fields are empty in my results.
Not every payment record includes all fields. If a field like City or Zip is blank, the CMS website did not have that data for that specific payment.
The run is taking a long time.
Large record counts take longer because the Actor must paginate through many pages. Reduce the maxItems limit or narrow your filters to speed up the run.
FAQ
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need a CMS Open Payments account to use this? | No. The Actor reads the public search pages on openpaymentsdata.cms.gov, so no login or account is required. |
| Can I scrape all payment records for an entire year? | Yes. Set a high maximum record count and use broad filters, or provide a direct API URL that covers the year you need. The Actor will paginate through all available results. |
| What is the difference between the three search types? | Individual Provider searches for payments to a specific person, Teaching Hospital searches for payments to an institution, and Company searches for payments made by a drug or device manufacturer. Each type unlocks its own set of filters. |
| Can I search by NPI number? | Yes. When you select the Individual Provider search type, an NPI field appears. Enter the 10-digit National Provider Identifier to find payments to that exact provider. |
| How do I filter by city or zip code? | After choosing a search type, fill in the City or Zip/Postal code field. The Actor will only return records that match that location. |
| What export formats are supported? | You can export your dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML directly from the Apify platform. |
| Can I use a direct URL instead of the filters? | Yes. Paste a full Open Payments search URL into the startUrl field. When you use a direct URL, the filter fields are ignored. |
| How many records can I collect in one run? | You can set the maximum up to 1,000,000 records. The Actor will stop when it reaches that limit or when no more results are available. |
| Does this Actor handle pagination automatically? | Yes. It navigates through all pages of search results until it collects the requested number of records or reaches the end. |
| Is the data returned in real time? | The Actor reads whatever is currently published on the CMS Open Payments website, so your results reflect the latest available data. |
Related actors
Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.
🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.
⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.
Input
| Field | Type | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| startUrl | string | Direct API URL to scrape. Cannot be used together with filter parameters. Leave empty to use filters instead. | https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/search? |
| searchType | string (3 options) | Select the type of search to perform. Only one search type can be selected at a time. The corresponding filter section will be used. | not set |
| maxItems | integer | How many payment records to collect per run. | 10 |
| individualProviderCountry | string (37 options) | Filter by country name. Only used when searchType is 'individualProvider'. | not set |
| individualProviderFirstName | string | Filter by provider first name. Only used when searchType is 'individualProvider'. | not set |
| individualProviderLastName | string | Filter by provider last name. Only used when searchType is 'individualProvider'. | not set |
| individualProviderCity | string | Filter by city name. Only used when searchType is 'individualProvider'. | not set |
| individualProviderZip | string | Filter by zip/postal code. Only used when searchType is 'individualProvider'. | not set |
| individualProviderType | string (3 options) | Matches the Open Payments Type filter (e.g., 'Covered Recipient Physician'). Only used when searchType is 'individualProvider'. | not set |
| individualProviderNpi | string | Filter by National Provider Identifier. Only used when searchType is 'individualProvider'. | not set |
| teachingHospitalName | string | Filter by hospital name. Only used when searchType is 'teachingHospital'. | not set |
| teachingHospitalCity | string | Filter by hospital city. Only used when searchType is 'teachingHospital'. | not set |
| teachingHospitalZip | string | Filter by hospital zip/postal code. Only used when searchType is 'teachingHospital'. | not set |
| companyName | string | Filter by company name. Only used when searchType is 'company'. | not set |
| companyCountry | string (37 options) | Filter by country name. Only used when searchType is 'company'. | not set |
Pricing
from $8.00 per 1,000 results
| Charged for | What it is | Price each |
|---|---|---|
| Actor Start | Charged when the Actor starts running. Number of events charged depends on Actor memory (one event per GB, minimum one event). | $0.05 to $0.16 |
| result | Single result in the default dataset. | $0.008 to $0.012 |
Tiered: the lower figure is the price on a higher Apify plan. Billing and the free credit live on Apify.
API
One POST returns the dataset directly. Same shape for every scraper in the library, so swapping the slug is the only change.
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/parseforge~openpayments-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"helloWorld": 123
}' Examples
Input that runs as-is.
{
"helloWorld": 123
} Reviews
Rated 5.0 out of 5 across 1 review. Read them on Apify.
Issues
We build and maintain this scraper, so a problem with it comes to us. Report it on the Apify listing and the thread stays attached to the scraper where the next person can find it: open an issue.
Broken and urgent, or you would rather not post in public? Write to parseforge@protonmail.com and it reaches the people who wrote it.