CMS Announces 2nd Star Ratings

With the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' goal to provide consumers with tools that will help them decide the best for their healthcare, they've turned to an easier format to understand: Star Ratings.

CMS recently launched a star rating version of the Home Health Compare that reflects the quality of care provided to patients based on data from assessments and outcomes or the OASIS. To better distinguish this star rating tool, it has been renamed to Quality of Patient Care Star Rating. This is also to lessen any possible confusion with the new star rating tool they just announced. The Quality of Patient Care Star Rating will be published on HHC beginning in mid-July this year, and will be updated every quarter.

The all new Patient Survey Star Ratings will be based on HHCAHPS survey data. It means that the star ratings are still reflective of patient experience. The ratings are scheduled for publication on HHC in January 2016. CMS is slated to conduct an open forum regarding the new star rating tool on May 7th at 1:30pm ET.

CMS has provided an FAQ document in their website that is constantly updated with new questions and answers.