Forbes Names 259 Five-Star Hospitals in 2026 State Rankings

Forbes has published its Top Hospitals by State list for 2026, and 259 hospitals earned its highest mark of five stars, according to Becker's Hospital Review. The list, released July 14, draws on the broader Forbes Top Hospitals 2026 national ratings.

The methodology scores general acute-care hospitals on measures pulled from the CMS Provider Data Catalog across four areas. That reliance on federal data gives the rankings a consistent, publicly sourced foundation, and the state-by-state framing lets patients compare hospitals against local peers rather than only against the largest national systems.

Hospital ratings from Forbes, CMS, and others increasingly shape reputation, patient choice, and marketing. For operators, a strong showing is a signal worth promoting; a weak one points to specific CMS-tracked metrics to improve. As consumers lean more on published scores to choose where they get care, transparent, data-driven rankings carry growing weight in how health systems are perceived and where volume flows.