Five Star Rating System: Clarity or Confusion?

You recall Medicare’s 5 Star Rating System to aid consumers in making choices regarding services and facilities. Kaiser Health News (KHN) ran a story on February 23, 2016 about the difference between how consumers rate facilities vs. how Medicare rates facilities.  Dueling Star Ratings May Confuse Some Home Health Patients explains that Medicare assigns stars “primarily based on Medicare’s assessment of how often patients got better. But [looking] further … may lead to confusion. Medicare also posts stars to convey how patients rate agencies after their care is over.”

KHN did a survey on the frequency of these disparities  and found that “[s]uch contradictory results between how patients view home health agencies and how the government rates them are hardly unusual.”  

In a statement, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service said the different star ratings should not be confusing. “CMS stresses that website users should look at all of the different types of measures available for a given provider type, including for home health care agencies,” the statement said. “By providing both clinically based and survey-based measures, CMS hopes to make available to the public a range of perspectives and information that consumers can evaluate to help inform their decision about an agency.”

The disparity at least in part is explained: “[s]ome of the differences between home health care patient experience and clinical quality stars can be chalked up to the fact that the two domains focus on different facets of home health care.” The article goes on to quote elder care experts on their views about the reasons for the differences in the rankings.  The article wraps up noting it is unknown how many Medicare beneficiaries use the 5-star rating system, and understand them.