The ratings aim to encourage continuous improvement in the patient experience, says CMS. But the AHA says the ratings come with "a risk of oversimplifying the complexity of quality care" in hospitals.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Thursday rolled out its first and long-awaited five-star rating system for patient experience in hospitals. The ratings are based on responses to 11 of the questions in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey.
Of the 3,553 hospitals on Hospital Compare that received star ratings, only 7% received the highest rating of five stars. Most (40%) got three stars. Ratings were not available for 1,102 hospitals.
Source: HCAHPS |
The HCAHPS survey is mandated by CMS and administered by contracted and CMS-approved survey companies to adults who have received inpatient care within the last six weeks.
In a statement Thursday, CMS's Acting Principal Deputy Administrator for CMS and Deputy Administrator for Innovation and Quality, Patrick Conway, MD, said the star ratings "will make it easier for consumers to use the information on the Hospital Compare website and spotlight excellence in health care quality."
Conway added that the ratings "also encourage hospitals and clinicians to strive to continuously improve the patient experience and quality of care delivered to all patients."
AHA Reaction
An official at the American Hospital Association was lukewarm to negative on the rollout.
"While star ratings could be an effective way to make quality information easier to understand, the devil is in the details," said Akin Demehin, AHA senior associate director of policy.
"There's a risk of oversimplifying the complexity of quality care or misinterpreting what is important to a particular patient, especially since patients seek care for many different reasons. Hospital rating systems also need to keep up with the rapidly evolving nature of the quality measures underlying them."
Demehin urged patients to "use all available resources at their disposal, including their healthcare providers, to identify which health care decisions are right for them."
CMS officials have said they are working on an overall star rating for hospital quality that would include all of the more than 100 quality measures listed on Hospital Compare, not just HCAHPS. No release date has been announced.
The HCAHPS star rating system, will be updated each quarter as new survey responses are obtained, CMS said.
Star ratings are used for Medicare Advantage plans, nursing homes, and dialysis facilities, and for certain physician group practices. A star rating system will be rolled out later this year for home healthcare agencies that contract with Medicare, the agency said.