Trust & Transparency

A single page summarizing what DocTransparency does, what it does not do, and how to verify both.

This is what an investor, regulator, or skeptical journalist would want to see in 90 seconds.

What we do

  • Re-present four federal CMS public datasets (NPPES, Open Payments, Medicare Provider Utilization, PECOS) in a single, readable physician profile.
  • Provide a Transparency Score that measures how much public federal data exists for a provider — not clinical performance.
  • Give patients, journalists, and researchers a free, account-free public resource. Effective 2026-08-08, the site will carry standard programmatic display advertising (Google AdSense) to help sustain free access — see "Our funding" below for exactly what that does and does not change.
  • Link every data point on every profile back to the original CMS source record so anyone can verify.

What we do NOT do
❌ Quality ratings or stars We do not score physicians on quality. The Transparency Score is data-completeness only.
❌ User reviews / comments / testimonials No user-generated content about providers. Ever. Deliberate editorial choice.
❌ Industry funding for editorial decisions No money from pharmaceutical, medical device, insurance, hospital, or provider entities ever influences what appears on a profile, our methodology, or any editorial decision. This does not change.
❌ Sponsored/native content or affiliate links tied to profiles No paid placement, sponsored content, or affiliate links to medical services on or around provider data. Standard programmatic display advertising (Google AdSense), unrelated to any specific profile, begins 2026-08-08 — see "Our funding" below.
❌ Unmanaged user data sale or sharing We do not sell visitor data. Starting 2026-08-08, ad-serving may involve limited data processing by our ad partner (Google) for advertising purposes; visitors get a GDPR-compliant consent choice (EEA/UK) and a "Do Not Sell or Share" opt-out honoring the Global Privacy Control signal (US). Until 2026-08-08, none of this applies — no advertising cookies, no ad-related data sharing.
❌ "Claim your profile" upsell No B2B product. Providers cannot pay to alter, hide, or favorably present their data.
❌ Aggregation with private sources We do not blend federal public data with malpractice records, board actions, or other non-public sources without separate transparent methodology.
❌ Editorial influence by request Corrections must be factual against CMS source, not preference-based.

Our funding

Operator self-funded, transitioning to ad-supported on 2026-08-08.

DocTransparency is operated by Yoel Castaño (sole proprietor, US legal entity formation pending). Infrastructure costs have been paid out of pocket since launch. Starting 2026-08-08, the site will run standard programmatic display advertising through Google AdSense to help sustain free public access to the data. This may include ads from healthcare-sector advertisers.

This is announced here now, ahead of the change, consistent with our 30-day prior-notice commitment on /privacy.

What this does not change:

  • No industry money influences editorial decisions. Advertising revenue is programmatic and untargeted to any specific profile — no pharmaceutical, device, insurance, hospital, or provider entity can pay to alter, hide, or favorably present any physician's data. That line remains absolute.
  • No "claim your profile" upsell. Providers still cannot pay for anything.
  • No sponsored content or affiliate links on profiles.

What changes on 2026-08-08:

  • The site displays third-party ads served by Google AdSense.
  • Ad-serving may use cookies and limited visitor data processing by Google. We will offer a consent choice for EEA/UK visitors (GDPR) and a "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" opt-out that honors the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal for California and other US residents. See /privacy for full detail.

Until 2026-08-08, none of the above applies: no advertising cookies, no ad partners, no ad-related data sharing.

If funding arrangements change further (e.g., additional reader-supported options, philanthropic grant), it will be disclosed here and on /about before it takes effect.

Our editorial principles

  1. Data fidelity above all. Every number on every profile traces verbatim back to a federal CMS source. We do not augment, edit, or "interpret" the federal records — we re-present them.
  2. Provenance over polish. Every data point includes a "verify on CMS" link. If we ever can't show provenance, we don't show the data.
  3. Disclosure of limits. What the data does NOT cover (private patients, Medicaid, cash-pay, recent practice changes) is stated as prominently as what it does cover.
  4. No quality judgment. We measure data availability, not clinical merit. Patients should use this as one input, never as the sole basis for choosing a provider.
  5. Accessibility of correction. Providers have a defined channel (Provider Portal) with stated SLAs (5d acknowledgment, 7d correction notice, 48h identity-theft suppression).
  6. Reproducibility. Methodology and source pipeline are documented. Any researcher with access to the same federal datasets can recreate our profiles.

How we differ from comparable sites

DocTransparency Healthgrades / Vitals ProPublica Dollars for Docs (retired 2019) CMS openpaymentsdata.gov
Federal data integration 4 datasets unified NPPES + scraped Open Payments only Open Payments only
User reviews / ratings ❌ Never ✅ Hosted ❌ ❌
Quality scores ❌ ✅ Star ratings ❌ ❌
Industry funding for editorial decisions ❌ Zero, always ✅ Health-industry partners ❌ Foundation-funded N/A (gov)
Provider "claim profile" product ❌ ✅ Premium tier ❌ N/A
Verify-on-CMS link per data point ✅ Always ❌ N/A N/A (is the source)
Correction SLA 5d ack / 7d notice Varies N/A (retired) CMS dispute window
Single-page provider view across 4 CMS sources ✅ Partial ❌ ❌

The legal and journalistic moat is exactly the row "user reviews / quality scores": Healthgrades and similar sites take ongoing defamation hits because users post unverifiable opinions. DocTransparency has zero exposure on that vector — we display only verifiable federal records.

Source code & reproducibility

The data pipeline is open-sourced. Researchers can audit our methodology and reproduce our profiles independently. Code: github.com/yoelcastano/doctransparency (repository link will be live at launch).

Technical infrastructure

  • Hosting: Hetzner Online GmbH (Germany). Data processed within the EU.
  • CDN / DDoS: Cloudflare (US, with Standard Contractual Clauses for international transfer).
  • Analytics: None as of this writing. If added (privacy-respecting only, e.g., Plausible), 30-day prior notice on /privacy.
  • Cookies: None until 2026-08-08. From that date, Google AdSense may set advertising cookies, gated by consent (EEA/UK) and by a "Do Not Sell or Share" / Global Privacy Control opt-out (US). See /privacy §4.
  • Search index: Static JSON file generated from our SQLite DB. No server-side query logging.
  • No accounts: No login, no registration, no personal data forms (other than optional contact email).

Security commitments

  • HTTPS enforced (HSTS preload), valid TLS certificate auto-renewed.
  • Server logs (IP, user-agent, referrer) retained 14 days for security only. See /privacy.
  • No third-party advertising trackers until 2026-08-08. From that date, Google AdSense is our sole ad partner, disclosed in advance here and on /privacy, with consent management (GDPR) and an opt-out honoring Global Privacy Control (CCPA/CPRA and other US state privacy laws).
  • Designated DMCA agent for takedown notices.
  • Vulnerability disclosure: [email protected].

Legal position

Publication of this data is grounded in:

  • Physician Payments Sunshine Act (§6002 ACA, 42 U.S.C. §1320a-7h) — Congress mandates public disclosure of industry payments to physicians.
  • Freedom of Information Act — NPPES and Medicare data are public records.
  • First Amendment — Publication of truthful, lawfully-obtained public-record information about matters of public concern is constitutionally protected (Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514 (2001); Smith v. Daily Mail, 443 U.S. 97 (1979); Florida Star v. B.J.F., 491 U.S. 524 (1989)).

For full legal terms see Terms and Privacy. For methodology see Methodology. For provider concerns see Provider Portal.

Audits and oversight

  • Internal audit (April 2026): 6-team adversarial audit + 5 sprints of remediation (87 findings → 84 resolved). See docs in repository.
  • Legal review (April 2026): Three independent perspectives (US healthcare YMYL, US publisher law, US+EU privacy) reviewed Methodology, Terms, and Privacy. All non-escalation findings applied.
  • External counsel: US healthcare publisher attorney engagement targeted within 60–90 days of public launch.
  • Public methodology changelog: /methodology/changelog.

Contact

Last reviewed

2026-07-09 (updated to disclose the 2026-08-08 advertising change, 30 days in advance). Next scheduled review: 2026-08-08 or upon any material change.

Data Disclaimer — Data sourced from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS): National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES), Open Payments program, Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data, and Provider Enrollment & Certification data (PECOS). Published under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This website is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by CMS, HHS, or the U.S. Government. Data may contain errors as reported to CMS by providers and reporting entities. Payments from industry are legal and do not indicate wrongdoing. Medicare data reflects only patients aged 65+ or those with qualifying disabilities. For corrections, contact CMS directly. This information does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as the sole basis for choosing a healthcare provider. Procedure descriptions use plain language and do not reference CPT® codes, which are copyrighted by the American Medical Association. Full methodology → · Report a data error → · Privacy policy →