Home health agencies will soon see its performance publicly scored with a 5-star system by CMS starting in 2015 as the federal Medicare agency seeks to adopt star rating systems for consumers across all of its Medicare.gov Compare websites.
 
CMS is proposing the new rating system as part of an effort outlined in the Affordable Care Act to make quality measures more transparent and easily accessible to the public, it says in a Dec. 11 press release.
 
An agency’s score (5 being the best) would be based in part on 10 of the 27 process and outcome quality measures currently reported on Home Health Compare, CMS says.
 
  • Process measures include: Timely initiation of care, drug education on all medications provided to patient/caregiver, influenza immunization received for current flu season and pneumococcal vaccine ever received.
  • Outcome measures include: Improvement in ambulation, improvement in bed transferring, improvement in bathing, improvement in pain interfering with activity, improvement in dyspnea and acute care hospitalization.
Under the proposal, an agency’s quality measure values will be compared to national averages, and their rating is adjusted to reflect the differences relative to other agencies’ quality performance, CMS says.
 
All certified agencies would be eligible to receive a star rating, but must have reported quality data for six of the 10 measures used in the calculation, the federal Medicare agency says. Remember, agencies currently must have at least 20 complete quality episodes for data on a measure to be reported on Home Health Compare. Completed episodes are paired start or resumption of care and end of care OASIS assessments.
 
CMS applied the rating system as a test to agencies using 2013 data and found nearly 1% had a one-star rating and more than 2% had a five-star rating. Most — 52% — had a three-star rating, while about 24% had four stars and 21% two stars.
 
Agencies and stakeholders will be able to provide feedback on the proposal’s star-rating methodology, including the measures proposed for inclusion, CMS says. The federal Medicare agency will solicit feedback from 1:30 p.m. - 3 p.m. EST, Dec. 17, in an Open Door Forum (see below for more details).
 
CMS will give a brief presentation on the proposed design of the rating system and then open the phones to comments. You’ll be able to send additional comments about the star ratings after the call to HHC_Star_Ratings_Helpdesk@cms.hhs.gov.
 
Also, CMS will post a Frequently Asked Questions document on the CMS website.
 
Related links:
 
  • More details about the Open Door Forum: Participant Dial-In Number: 1-800-837-1935, Conference ID#: 31480515. For the hearing impaired, dial 7-1-1 or 1-800-855-2880. A transcript and audio recording will be posted to the Special Open Door Forum at http://www.cms.gov/OpenDoorForums/05_ODF_SpecialODF.asp.