Legion Diagnostics

CLIA deficiency benchmarks from public CMS survey data

See how your sites compare with similar labs on CMS citations, and explore what CMS surveyors cite laboratories for, using public CMS-2567 data.

Open the "Benchmarks" tab of "Inspections" to see how your sites compare with similar labs on CMS citations, and what CMS surveyors cite clinical laboratories for.

Where the data comes from

Benchmarks use public CMS records: the CLIA statements of deficiency (form CMS-2567) and the CMS Provider of Services file for clinical laboratories. The data is refreshed from CMS regularly, and each section names the data it used and how recent it is. Other laboratories are never named in the peer comparisons.

Your sites

The tab opens with a report on your own sites, built from the CLIA numbers on each site group's current CLIA certificate in site licensure. It covers every site group you can see and looks back over the last five years. It is the same report that labs can request from the public CLIA citation benchmark on the Legion Diagnostics website.

Each site is compared with a peer group of labs like it: the same facility type, annual test volume and state. If that group has fewer than 25 labs CMS surveyed in the window, it is widened step by step, dropping one part at a time, until it holds at least 25. The report names the group each site was compared with and says when it was widened.

For a single site, the report shows:

  • the deficiencies CMS cited, how many were condition-level, and how many CMS surveys are on record
  • the share of its surveyed peers that were cited more, and the peer group's median
  • the D-tags it was cited for, beside the share of peers cited for each
  • the D-tags most common for its peers
  • two practical first steps for the regulatory areas it was cited in most, or that its peers are cited in most when it has no citations

With several sites, the report shows totals across them, how many were cited more than their own peer group's median, a lab-by-lab table with each site's peer group, deficiencies, peer median and share of peers cited more, and the D-tags found across the sites beside how many would be expected. The lab-by-lab table shows 25 sites at a time; use "Previous" and "Next" to page through it.

Labs accredited by CAP, COLA, The Joint Commission or another accrediting organization are inspected by that organization, and those findings are not public. An accredited site that CMS has not surveyed is flagged as such and left out of the comparisons rather than counted as having no findings.

A note under the report lists any sites that are left out because they have no current CLIA certificate on file or because their CLIA number is not in the public CMS data. To bring a site in, record its CLIA certificate in site licensure.

Click "Download PDF" to save the report. Click "Explore peers" beside a site, or "Explore its peer group" when there is one site, to load that site's peer group into the explorer below.

Explore CMS peer groups

Under "Explore CMS peer groups", choose the years and filter by facility type, annual test volume and location to look at any group of labs. The explorer shows how many labs are in the group, how many have a CMS survey on file and how many were cited, then lists:

  • the regulatory areas cited
  • the most cited D-tags
  • instruments named in citations
  • citations by analyte

The share of labs for each item counts only labs in the group that CMS surveyed in those years. Instruments and analytes count only when a surveyor wrote the name in the finding.

Select any item to read the regulation itself, the 42 CFR Part 493 text from the official eCFR, alongside examples of how surveyors worded the finding at other labs. This makes it a quick way to check your own practice against the areas surveyors look at most.

What benchmarks are not

Benchmarks are counts and comparisons from the public record. They are not a rating or a score for your lab and do not predict the outcome of a survey.