Ratings to Help Consumers Compare and Choose Among Home Health Agencies

On Thursday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for the first time published star ratings on Home Health Compare, CMS’s public information website for Home Health Agencies (HHA).

According to a report compiled by Fazzi using dated collected as of July 16th, Minnesota averaged 3.0 stars, tying the national average.  According to the report, only 239 agencies nationwide scored 5.0 stars.

CMS plans to use the star ratings to help consumers more quickly identify differences in quality and make use of the information when selecting a health care provider. In addition to summarizing certain data about HHA performance for consumers, star ratings can also help the agencies identify areas for improvement.

Each Home Health Agency will receive a single summary Quality of Patient Care Star Rating encompassing that agency’s relative performance on 9 of the 29 quality measures already posted on Home Health Compare, including:

• How often the home health team began their patients’ care in a timely manner.
• How often the home health team made sure that their patients have received a flu shot for the current flu season.
• How often the home health team taught patients (or their family caregivers) about their prescribed drugs.
• How often home health patients got better at walking or moving around.
• How often home health patients got better at getting in and out of bed.
• How often home health patients had less pain when moving around.
• How often home health patients got better at bathing.
• How often home health patients’ breathing improved.
• How often home health patients had to be admitted to the hospital.

Click here to see how Minnesota ranks against the national average.

The measures are calculated using information from patient assessments performed by the HHA and from Medicare claims submitted by the HHA. When calculating patient outcomes, statistical models are used to adjust for differences in the types of patients served by different agencies.

The star ratings will be updated each quarter as more recent data becomes available. In addition, CMS plans to introduce additional star ratings based on a patient experience of care survey (the Home Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HHCAHPS) instrument) in January 2016. It is the sixth star rating system that has been added by this Administration toMedicare.gov.

Star ratings are currently publicly displayed on Nursing Home Compare, Physician Compare, Dialysis Facility Compare, the Medicare Advantage Plan Finder, and Hospital Compare.