What The CMS Hospital Rating System Really Means
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Do ratings really reflect quality of care?
The Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services recently unveiled a rating system designed to help healthcare consumers compare quality at different facilities, help patients make informed decisions when selecting a hospital, and understand the quality of care each delivers. It also builds upon a larger initiative by HHS, “To build a healthcare system that delivers better care, spends healthcare dollars more wisely, and results in healthier people.” The ratings list can be viewed on Hospital Compare, the agency's public information website.
The Hospital Compare star ratings are based on HCAHPS survey evaluations of patients’ experiences at 3,500 Medicare-certified acute care hospitals across the U.S. The ratings relate to provider communication and responsiveness, and facility cleanliness and quietness and are to be updated quarterly.
According to Dr. Patrick Conway, Acting Principal Deputy Administration for CMS and Deputy Administrator for Innovation and Quality, “The patient experience Star Ratings will make it easier for consumers to use the information on the Hospital Compare website and spotlight excellence in healthcare quality. These star ratings also encourage hospitals and clinicians to strive to continuously improve the patient experience and quality of care delivered to all patients.”
But not everyone is convinced that the ratings are a good idea.
Modern Healthcare reviewed the ratings and noted 101 hospitals received one star; 582 received two stars; 1,414 received three stars; 1,205 received four stars; and only 251 received the top ranking of five stars. That equates to only 7 percent of hospitals earning the highest rating and 19 percent earning one or two stars.
“The devil is in the details,” wrote the American Hospital Association in an emailed statement to the Critical Infrastructure Alliance. The CMS runs the risk of oversimplifying the complexity of quality care and what is important to a particular patient, the AHA said. The group also expressed its skepticism in the value of the ratings, with Akin Demehin, the AHA's senior associate director of policy saying, “The reasons that patients seek care from hospitals are varied. We are not confident that a star-rating approach – especially one that would encompass all of the measures on Hospital Compare and roll them up into a single overall star rating – is going to give patients the insight on the quality of their hospitals that CMS is hoping for.”