People who need or who are receiving home health care can now look up star ratings for home health care agencies using the new Home Health Compare tool from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The new tool is part of a suite of tools to compare other aspects of health care, including hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, Medicare plans, and suppliers.
Just like other compare tools, Home Health Compare rates agencies using the standard scale of one star to five stars, with five being the best rating. Agencies are rated on a variety of areas, including care of patients, communication between providers and patients, specific care issues, and the overall rating of the care provided. The tool contains over 11,000 agencies. To date, about 6,000 agencies have ratings. CMS is still collecting data on the other agencies and will continue to update the tool with new ratings.
According to CMS, “[The] announcement on Home Health Compare is the latest example of how CMS is committed to transparency and helping patients and their family members make informed health care decisions through an initiative to simplify the quality of care information across all CMS Compare websites. It also supports the larger effort across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to build a health care system that delivers better care, spends health care dollars more wisely, and results in healthier people.”
From: Medicare Rights Center