CODEWITHSUNDEEP
socratasoda
matisses
matisses

Reputation: 11

Open Payments - How to reconcile or explain differences between API data versus live site visual data

We are connected to the API for https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/. In some cases the data points differ (for example - quantity of general payments) between the raw API data versus what is seen on the live site.

What is the source for these data differences? Which is the correct data - the API or the live site? Best case scenario is the API is the correct data and the live site wasn't updated yet.
We'd like to reconcile this to pull the correct data, but if it can't be reconciled through the API then how can it best be explained? It seems almost like a dispute on the transaction(s) was initiated which changed one of the data points. If a dispute is initiated by the profile owner, does the API data change to reflect any updates?

This is my first attempt to reach out for an idea how these data differences occur.

Here's a random example. The profile URL: https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/physician/209169/

The quantity of general payments shown on the live site is: 139 The quantity of general payments pulled from the API is: 151

Upvotes: 1

Views: 85

Answers (1)

Tom Schenk Jr
Tom Schenk Jr

Reputation: 488

I see the issue here. Based on the API call https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/resource/bqf5-h6wd.json?physician_profile_id=209169&$$app_token=oXbsFwj7KElCMesuRAZEfTDfB&$select=total_amount_of_payment_usdollars,number_of_payments_included_in_total_amount&$limit=50000&$offset=0 you get a field called "number_of_payments_included_in_total_amount" which has a number associated with it. Most of these are "1", but the 136th entry has "13" assigned to it. You are summing across the field which equals 151.

However, the OpenPayments website appears to only be counting entries/rows. There are 139 entries/rows in the results.

Unfortunately, I don't know which one is accurate. It could be a misconfiguration of the OpenPayments website or it could be a misinterpretation of what number_of_payments_included_in_total_amount means. But, at least, it explains the difference in how you get your counts.

Upvotes: 0

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