An examination of hospital rankings from CMS and U.S. News & World Report suggests a notable overlap in organizations recognized for high performance.
All but three of U.S. News' 2024-25 Honor Roll hospitals also earned top marks in CMS' Overall Hospital Star Ratings released July 31.
While the results are closely aligned, CMS and U.S. News use different methodologies and criteria for their evaluations. CMS assessed more than 4,600 hospitals nationwide on 46 hospital quality measures, assigning 381 hospitals with five stars. Measures are divided into five categories: safety of care, mortality, patient experience, readmission rates, and timely and effective care. Data reporting periods range from July 2019 to April 2022, depending on the measure.
U.S. News published its annual "Best Hospitals" rankings July 16, naming 20 hospitals to this year's honor roll. The publication assessed hospital performance on healthcare structure, process and outcomes across 15 specialties and 20 procedures and conditions. To qualify for the honor roll, hospitals had to score at least 280 out of a maximum of 543 points. U.S. News used 2022 data from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey, 2020-22 Medicare claims data and 2022-23 HCAHPS data for its analysis, among other sources.
The CMS star ratings for U.S. News' 2024-25 Honor Roll hospitals:
Arizona
Mayo Clinic-Arizona (Phoenix) — Five stars
California
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles) — Five stars
Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital (Palo Alto) — Five stars
UCLA Medical Center (Los Angeles) — Five stars
UC San Diego Health-La Jolla and Hillcrest Hospitals — Five stars
UCSF Health-UCSF Medical Center (San Francisco) — Five stars
Illinois
Northwestern Medicine-Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago) — Five stars
Rush University Medical Center (Chicago) — Five stars
Maryland
Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore) — Four stars
Massachusetts
Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston) — Five stars
Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston) — Five stars
Minnesota
Mayo Clinic-Rochester — Five stars
New York
Mount Sinai Hospital (New York City) — Three stars
New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell (New York City) — Five stars
North Shore University Hospital at Northwell Health (Manhasset) — Four stars
NYU Langone Hospitals (New York City) — Five stars
North Carolina
Duke University Hospital (Durham) — Five stars
Ohio
Cleveland Clinic — Five stars
Pennsylvania
Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian (Philadelphia) — Five stars
Texas
Houston Methodist Hospital — Five stars