Data license terms
These are the standing terms for every CareCost dataset. They are written to be read once, by a person, before a purchase order goes out. Nothing here is a surprise later.
This page states the terms we offer. The signed order form is what actually binds us, and it names the datasets, the quarters and the price. Where an order form and this page differ, the order form wins. If your legal team needs redlines, send them — we would rather negotiate once than sell you something you cannot use.
What you are licensing
A named set of datasets, at a named quarterly vintage, delivered as files. You are licensing the data itself, not access to a service, so nothing stops working if we do. The files you have received stay yours to use under these terms for as long as you hold them, including after the license ends.
- The datasets and quarters are listed on your order form. Nothing outside that list is included.
- Delivery is Parquet and CSV with a manifest that records the vintage, the row counts and a checksum for every file.
- A subscription adds each new quarter as it ships. A one-time purchase does not.
Who may use it
The licensee is your organisation, meaning the legal entity named on the order form and any entity it controls or is controlled by. Everyone who works there may use the data. We do not count seats, meter queries or charge per user, and we do not audit your usage.
Contractors and professional advisers may use it while working for you, on the same terms, and stay your responsibility. They may not keep a copy once that work ends.
What you may do
Use it however you want internally
Analysis, modelling, benchmarking, pricing work, internal dashboards and tools. There is no restriction on internal purpose.
Build things from it
Derived works — models, indices, scores, forecasts — are yours. We claim nothing in what you build, and you owe us nothing for it.
Publish what you find
Publish findings, charts and figures drawn from the data, crediting CareCost Data and naming the quarter you used. No prior approval and no review.
Show it to the people you work for
Consultants and advisers may present findings to a client, including figures and charts, as part of advisory work. Handing the client the files themselves is redistribution and is covered below.
What you may not do
Four restrictions, and they are the whole list.
- Do not redistribute or resell the files. Not as a dataset, not as a feed, not as a substantial extract. What makes this a business is that people license it from us; a copy passed onward is the one thing that breaks it.
- Do not present it as your own collection. Publish what you find and take credit for the analysis. Do not describe the underlying data as something you assembled.
- Do not embed it in a product you sell without an embedding license. Putting the data inside something your customers use is a different economic arrangement for both of us, and it is priced separately. Tell us what you are building and we will quote it.
- Do not use it to make decisions about named individuals — hiring, credentialing, eligibility, or anything a consumer reporting agency would do. This is not a consumer reporting product under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and may not be used as one.
Where the data comes from, and what that means
Every source is a document an insurer or the federal government was required to publish: insurer price filings, insurer coverage policies, hospital price filings and CMS public datasets. We do not license patient data because none of it goes into the pipeline — no claims, no medical records, no enrolment files. There is no protected health information in the product and no business associate agreement to negotiate.
Because the sources are public, we do not and cannot grant you exclusivity over the underlying facts. What you are paying for is the collection, normalisation, benchmarking and verification work — and that work is what these terms protect.
Accuracy, and what we do not promise
We publish what the source documents say, and we tell you how confident we are. Every coverage rule carries the insurer’s own sentence and a link to the document it came from, precisely so you can check us.
- The data is provided as it is. We do not warrant that it is complete, or that it fits a particular purpose, and insurers file errors that we pass through rather than silently correct.
- It is not medical, legal, billing or financial advice, and it does not tell you what an individual patient will be charged.
- A rate is what was filed, not a guarantee of what will be paid. Coverage rules describe published policy, not an adjudication outcome.
- If you find a number that is wrong, tell us. We check it, and if it is wrong we publish the correction in the changelog against the quarter it affects rather than quietly changing it.
Term, renewal and ending it
- A subscription runs for the period on the order form and renews only if you say so. We do not auto-renew and we do not send a cancellation deadline you have to catch.
- You can stop at any time. We do not refund the current period, and we do not chase you for the rest of it either.
- When a license ends you keep every file already delivered and may keep using it under these terms. You stop receiving new quarters.
- We can end a license for a breach of the four restrictions above, and would raise it with you first. That is the only reason we would.
Security and your details
How files reach you
Delivered to a private cloud storage location you control, or pulled from ours with a credential we issue. Encrypted in transit and at rest either way.
Credentials
One per organisation, scoped to what you licensed and nothing else, revocable by you at any time.
What we hold about you
Your contact details and your license scope. We do not store, and cannot see, what you build with the data.
SOC 2
Not certified, and we will not imply otherwise. There is no protected health information in the product, which is why most security reviews clear quickly — but if your process requires the certificate, say so early rather than late.
Liability
Our liability is limited to what you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses — lost profits, denied claims, pricing decisions or coverage determinations made using the data. This is the ordinary limit for a data license and we will not pretend otherwise, but it is also why we publish our sources: you can verify anything that matters before you act on it.
Questions your legal team will have
Redistribution scope, embedding, security review and vendor onboarding are answered on the FAQ. Anything else, ask a person.