CMS to add star rating system to its 'Compare' consumer websites

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to simplify and enhance the process of choosing a health care provider with the addition of its Five-Star Rating system to its Compare websites, the agency said in a blog post.

The Compare websites, which include Hospital Compare, Dialysis Facility Compare, and Home Health Compare are offered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as consumer resources to facilitate educated health care decisions. The sites, which are located on the Medicare.gov site, offer search engines that help consumers to find providers and facilities in their areas, and feature checklists pertaining to services offered by each provider.

“It can be overwhelming when consumers are faced with having to choose a health care provider, such as a hospital, nursing home, or physician,” Patrick Conway, MD, CMS chief medical officer and deputy administrator for innovation and quality wrote on the CMS site. “Providers differ in the safety and quality of care they give, and having quality ratings available to compare providers can help consumers make more informed health care decisions. That’s why CMS is committed to making it easier to use the information on our Compare sites.”

The Five-star rating system will be introduced to the sites later in 2014 and early in 2015, and will be based on “established scientific standards of rigor and accuracy,” CMS reported in the blog post. A Five-star ratings system is already in place for the Nursing Home Compare website, and offers ratings ranging from one star (“much below average”) to five stars (“much above average”).

“While consumers are the main audience for the Compare sites, stakeholders and partners can visit Data.Medicare.gov and use the same data that power the Compare websites in easy-to-use formats,” Conway wrote. “We’re excited to make this available so that you can use the same set of authoritative data in your work. CMS is committed to providing useful and current quality performance data. The star ratings empower consumers with information to make more informed health care decisions, encourage providers to strive for higher levels of quality, and drive overall health system improvement.”