Key points
- NPALS is the National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study.
- NPALS estimates the supply and use of post-acute and long-term care services.
- NPALS uses both surveys and existing data from post-acute and long-term care services providers.
Overview
The National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study (NPALS) collects and analyzes data from U.S. providers serving people who need continuing care after urgent medical treatment (post-acute care) or who cannot care for themselves for a long period (long-term care). The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has conducted NPALS every two years since 2012.
The main goals of NPALS are to:
- Estimate the supply and use of paid, regulated, post-acute and long-term care services providers
- Estimate key policy-relevant characteristics and practices
- Produce national and state-level estimates, where feasible
- Compare estimates among sectors
- Monitor trends over time
NCHS works with RTI International, a non-profit research organization, to conduct NPALS.
What's collected
NPALS
- Provides information on seven major sectors of paid, regulated, post-acute and long-term care services, providers, and services users
- Uses existing Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data for five sectors:
- Nursing homes
- Home health agencies
- Hospices
- Inpatient rehabilitation facilities
- Long-term care hospitals
- Collects data directly from two other sectors—adult day services centers and residential care communities—through provider surveys, when CMS data are not available
- Allows comparisons among sectors at a similar point in time and over time
Adult Day Services Center Survey
Residential Care Community Survey
Survey status
Fielding of the 2025 Adult Day Services Center and Residential Care Community surveys ended in July 2025.
Data and documentation
NPALS provides detailed reports and documentation to support analysis and use of NPALS data. In producing these resources, NPALS staff prioritizes protecting the privacy of patients and clients, centers, communities, and their administrative and medical staff.
Reports and survey documentation
Findings from NPALS waves are available from the Results and Publications pages. Questionnaires from the 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2025 waves can be found on the Questionnaires, Datasets, and Documentation page.
Public-use and restricted data files
Public-use files (PUFs) from the 2018 and 2022 Adult Day Services Center and Residential Care Community surveys are available to download from the NPALS website. All potentially identifiable information about providers and users were removed from PUFs to ensure the confidentiality of respondents.
Restricted data files for the 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2025 Adult Day Services Center and Residential Care Community surveys are available through NCHS's Research Data Center (RDC) for a fee.
What's new from NPALS
- 2025 Adult Day Services Center Survey weighted national estimates and standard errors (07/10/2026)
- 2025 Residential Care Community Survey weighted national estimates and standard errors (07/10/2026)
- Personal Care Aides in Adult Day Services Centers and Residential Care Communities: United States, 2022 (07/29/2025)
- Overview of Post-acute and Long-term Care Providers and Services Users in the United States, 2020 (08/27/2024)
- State estimate update: Biennial Overview of Post-acute and Long-term Care in the United States: Data from the 2020 National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study (08/2024)
Data tell stories. Tell us yours!
Has information from NPALS helped you? Your stories help us showcase the value of NPALS. Email a brief description of how you've used NPALS data to LTCSBFeedback@cdc.gov. Use "My NPALS data use example" as the subject of your message.
Resources
Visit these websites to learn more about current healthcare provider surveys, and retired surveys that looked at long-term care sectors.
National Health Care Surveys Program