Two House members introduced a bipartisan bill on Monday that would delay the release of CMS' Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating program for at least one year.
Rep. James Renacci, a Republican from Ohio, and Rep. Kathleen Rice, a Democrat from New York, partnered to introduce the bill, which is now in the hands of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
This bill has already gained the support of stakeholder groups that have gone on record opposing the program.
The American Hospital Association applauded the bill because, "thus far, it is unclear whether [CMS'] star ratings actually provide accurate and reliable data to the public," Tom Nickels, AHA's executive vice president of government relations and public policy, said in a statement.
Similarly, the Association of American Medical Colleges supports the bill because the star rating system "may mislead patients in to making poor decisions about hospitals," Darrell Kirch, MD, president and CEO of AAMC, said in a statement. "The ratings generated by this flawed system could possibly steer patients away from some of the best hospitals for their conditions."
This bill is not the first attempt by Congress members to delay the release of the overall star rating system. In April, 60 senators sent a letter to CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt asking he delay the rollout of the program, and members of the House sent a similar letter.
CMS has not announced exactly when it will launch the full program, but did say last week it would do so "shortly." It also released some data last week from the program, namely the national distributions of how many hospitals received each rating.