Last verified: October 2026
What sources does Pittsburgh Senior Advisor rely on?
We cite primary sources only: the Pennsylvania Code (55 Pa. Code Chapters 2600, 2800 and 20), the Department of Human Services, the Department of Aging, the Department of Health, the Department of Revenue, CMS, the VA and CareScout's Cost of Care Survey.
When a figure circulating online cannot be traced to one of those sources, we say the figure is unavailable rather than repeat it.
Why does the site show no Pittsburgh cost figure or memory-care median?
CareScout publishes Pennsylvania statewide medians only, and it does not survey memory care as a category; no primary source publishes either a Pittsburgh price or a memory-care median, so printing one would mean inventing it.
How are facility ratings handled?
We show CMS Five-Star ratings for nursing homes exactly as CMS publishes them, labelled as CMS ratings, and we never compute or display a rating of our own for any facility; Pennsylvania publishes no rating for personal care homes or assisted living residences.
How do I report an error on Pittsburgh Senior Advisor?
Email advisors@pittsburghsenioradvisor.com with the page address and what is wrong; we check the correction against the primary source and update the page, and data pages also refresh whenever we re-pull the DHS and CMS rosters.
How often is the facility data refreshed?
The facility data is pulled in bulk from the Pennsylvania DHS provider directory and the CMS Provider Data Catalog and rebuilt into every page; the current pull is dated October 28, 2026 for DHS and October 1, 2026 for CMS, and each page shows its data date.
Because licenses, ratings and inspection reports change, always confirm a home's current status on the agency site before signing.
What does Pittsburgh Senior Advisor never publish?
We never publish invented prices, a Pittsburgh cost median, a memory-care median, our own facility ratings, reviews we cannot verify, or facility claims drawn from marketing material; when the public record is silent on something, the page says so.
Do partner communities influence what is published?
No. Partner communities pay referral fees but have no say over facility data, inspection reports, CMS ratings or guide content, and non-partner homes appear in the directory with exactly the same fields as partners.
Our standard: what we publish and what we do not
| We publish | We do not publish | |
|---|---|---|
| Costs | CareScout state medians with the survey year | local or memory-care figures nobody measured |
| Facilities | state and federal roster data | unverifiable marketing claims |
| Ratings | CMS ratings, labelled | our own scores |
