The American Hospital Association has sent a letter to CMS, urging the federal agency to rethink the approach it takes to build its hospital quality star rating, according to AHA News Now.
Although the AHA supports the general concept behind making hospital quality measures more accessible to patients and community members, the association is "concerned that CMS is trying to retrofit the existing [quality] measures into telling patients and consumers something meaningful when those measures were not chosen with this goal in mind, and many are not constructed in such a way that they can accurately depict the kind of distinctions in care CMS wants to depict."
CMS' Hospital Compare launched its five-star rating system in April as a way to streamline hospital ratings for patients trying to make healthcare decisions. The ratings are based on a five-star scale, with one being the lowest rating and five being the highest rating of excellence and quality. CMS publishes 12 different star ratings on website for each facility: 11 of the ratings are based on individual HCAHPS measures and the 12th is a composite star rating.
Listed below are five recommendations the AHA made to CMS in its letter.
1. Consider a system in which star ratings are only applied to specific measure topics, like cardiac care, rather than one overall rating for each hospital.
2. Reconsider using readmission and mortality measures in the star rating system since they frequently misclassify hospitals and misinform for patients.
3. Re-examine whether weighing outcome measure categories and the patient experience category more than the process measures and imaging efficiency category is scientifically sound or justified.
4. Move forward with the goal of a creating a comprehensive assessment of hospital care, but do so over the next few years rather than all at once.
5. Build the star rating system using HCAHPS metrics, and then add condition-specific assessment measures that can provide important insights into overall performance.
The letter was authored by Ashley Thompson, AHA's acting senior executive for policy. To read the full letter, click here.
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Hospital Compare launches star ratings: Industry leaders react
Physician-owned hospitals fare well in Hospital Compare star ratings