Any day now, the CMS plans to unveil the new hospital star rating system on its Hospital Compare website. And hospitals are concerned.
The rating will reflect the average of 11 measures from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, which measures patients' hospital experiences. It's part of the CMS' initiative to roll out star ratings for all types of healthcare providers.
The CMS first applied star ratings in 2008 to nursing homes. Last year, it posted stars for home health providers, large physician group practices and dialysis facilities. There has been controversy about its methodology and whether the ratings will truly help consumers. The American Hospital Association said it has concerns about star ratings based purely on HCAHPS scores. This “has the potential to oversimplify the information about quality that might be most relevant to patients,” said Akin Demehin, AHA's senior associate director of policy.
The CMS is developing an additional star methodology that would incorporate other measures, including readmission rates, complication rates and spending per beneficiary. If the CMS settles on “a methodology that is a significant departure from what will be publicly displayed this month, it can actually lead to a great deal of confusion among providers and patients,” Demehin said.
The HCAHPS survey asks patients about factors such as hospital staff responsiveness, care transitions, communications about medications, and cleanliness and quietness of the facility. Hospitals were able to preview their rating last fall. The first star ratings will be based on patients discharged between July 2013 and June 2014.