CMS Data Taxonomy

This page describes the purpose, structure, and content of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Data Taxonomy. This categorization scheme is a product of the Chief Enterprise Architect and collaboratively managed with Data Administration and Engineering Services. The Data Taxonomy is a hierarchical structure that describes the types of data that are necessary to accomplish the CMS mission. It is a three-level approach for conceptually grouping CMS data.

Subject Areas by Domain

The Subject Areas are the most stable level of the taxonomy, as they represent fundamental topics across CMS business lines. They reflect the overall information needs of the core mission and common business functions described in the CMS Business Reference Model (BRM).

Data Categories

Data categories provide recognizable subsets of the information needs represented by each subject area. They illustrate the major sets of information within a subject area. For select categories, a third level provides more business line-specific categorization.