For the first time in a long time, the number of agencies earning five stars in patient satisfaction has remained relatively stable.
 
In April 2018, there were 1,129 agencies nationwide that earned five stars in HHCAHPS.
 
In January 2018, there were 1,138 5-star HHCAHPS agencies nationwide.
 
Unlike star ratings in quality of care, the patient satisfaction star ratings have previously fluctuated significantly each quarter. Every quarter “there are fluctuations in the cutpoints that make up the four measures for the summary star rating,” a CMS official told HHL in April 2016. “This means that one quarter for the ‘care of patients’ measure, for example, a score of over 97 might correlate to five stars. Whereas the next quarter a score of 96 might correlate to five stars.”
 
In October 2017, 542 agencies earned 5-star HHCAHPS ratings.
 
While there wasn’t much movement this quarter in terms of the number of 5-star agencies in HHCAHPS, there also wasn’t movement in terms of the industry’s performance on HHCAHPS.
 
For several years, the industry hasn’t had any positive or negative changes in any of the five major HHCAHPS categories: percent of patients who reported that their home health team gave care in a professional way (88%); percent of patients who reported that their home health team communicated well with them (85%); percent of patients who reported that their home health team discussed medicines, pain, and home safety with them (83%); percent of patients who gave their home health agency a rating of 9 or 10 on a scale from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest) (84%) and percent of patients who reported YES, they would definitely recommend the home health agency to friends and family (78%).
 
 
5-star agencies in HHCAHPS
About 1,129 agencies nationwide earned five stars in the ratings system involving HHCAHPS, according to the ratings released in April 2018. That’s a slight decrease from January 2018.
Star rating
Number of agencies, April 2018
Number of agencies, January 2018
Number of agencies, October 2017
Number of agencies, July 2017
5 stars
1,129
1,138
542
1,522
4 stars
2,385
2,088
2,129
2,191
3 stars
1,481
1,617
2,098
1,307
2 stars
552
678
768
633
1 star
84
147
182
66
No rating
5,972
6,010
6,022
6,082
 
Source: Home Health Compare