CMS updates hospital performance data, consumer resources

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated hospital performance data on the Hospital Compare website and on data.medicare.gov to empower patients, families, and stakeholders with important information they need to compare hospitals and make informed healthcare decisions. This data includes specific measures of hospitals’ quality of care, many of which are updated quarterly, and the Overall Hospital Star Ratings, which were last updated in December 2017. The data are collected through CMS’s Hospital Quality Initiative programs.

The Star Ratings drive systematic improvements in care andsafety as hospitals strive to achieve and maintain high ratings. In order toharness competition to lower costs and improve quality, patients needmeaningful, actionable information. Consumers and patients point to HospitalCompare and the Star Ratings as important resources and rely on the latestdata. Many hospitals rely on these ratings to identify areas for improvement.

CMS also posted potential changes to the Hospital StarRatings for public comment. These changes under consideration, intended torespond to stakeholder feedback, seek to enhance the Star Ratings methodologyby making hospital comparisons more precise and consistent, and by allowingmore direct, “like-to-like” comparisons. One potential change, recommended bysome hospitals, would place hospitals with similar characteristics into “peergroups” allowing, for example, small hospitals to be compared to other smallhospitals instead of all hospitals. CMS developed these potential changes withfeedback from hospitals and other stakeholders through a series of listeningsessions and by considering input from a technical expert panel. The agencylooks forward to public comments on the potential changes, due March 29, 2019.

First available in 2005 and closely aligned with CMS’srecently launched eMedicare initiative to unlock the power of information forconsumers, Hospital Compare provides access to quality measures on more than4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals as well as Veterans Health Administrationand Military Health System hospitals. Easy-to-understand and based on more than100 rigorously tested measures, Hospital Compare is the go-to resource foranyone deciding where to schedule a surgery or other inpatient or outpatientservice. Users can compare hospitals based on patient experience, thetimeliness and effectiveness of care, complication rates, and other factors.Information is also organized by medical condition, such as heart attack,pneumonia, or type of surgery. Before each update of Hospital Compare,hospitals can preview their data, including their Star Rating, for 30 daysbefore updates are published.