For the second year in a row, the nation's top two kidney-care providers performed at significantly different levels of quality, according to CMS data released Thursday. DaVita beat out competitor Fresenius in the four- and five-star categories.
The CMS began publicly posting one- to five-star ratings for nearly 6,000 U.S. dialysis facilities in January after a delay as providers including DaVita and Fresenius continue to battle CMS' methodology in achieving the ratings.
The scale is meant to help dialysis patients evaluate quality at treatment centers. But experts say the ratings are difficult to understand and are not consistent with other online public-rating systems.
Patients whose kidneys stop working require dialysis—a process to filter toxins from their body—three times a week for several hours at a time. Studies and ratings such as those released Thursday show that hemodialysis patients in the U.S. continue to receive substandard care despite longstanding best practices.
A total of 5,841 dialysis facilities received a star rating from the CMS, 261 more facilities than the previous report, a Modern Healthcare analysis of the newly released data found. Of the 586 top performers in the five-star category, DaVita owned 202 while Fresenius owned 110. On the low end of the rating scale, Fresenius had 279 facilities of the 575 total in the one-star category, compared with DaVita, which had only 38. The disparity is consistent with previous findings.
A total of 1,169 U.S. facilities fell into the two-star range, 2,339 in the three-star range and 1,172 in the four-star range. This is consistent with the CMS' methodology, which structures the ratings so that only facilities in the top and bottom deciles would receive five stars and one star respectively. Those in the next highest 20% received four stars, the middle 40% got three stars and those in the next 20% were given two stars.
Kidney-care providers continue to challenge this structure, which they say does not offer fair competition. No matter how well facilities do, they argue, the curve will always force facilities into the lower-star categories.
An 18-member panel met this spring to discuss the rating program and make recommendations.
A report released Tuesday summarized their findings. A panel member agreed with statements made by former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who said using a bell curve has "inherent flaws,” according to the report.“The last thing we want to do is have an arbitrary bell curve just for the sake of having a system.”
While not perfect, the federal push to report publicly their performance in some areas and to provide transparency should be encouraging facilities to step up to the plate, advocates have said.
