CMS will retain Hospital Compare rating system until 2021

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its plan to use current methodology when it releases Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings on its Hospital Compare website in early 2020. In February the agency asked stakeholders for input on a methodology update that would make the site more useful to consumers and hospitals. Those comments will be used to inform changes to the methodology CMS plans to make next year and implement in 2021, the agency announced. The American Hospital Association (AHA) expressed disappointment with the CMS decision. “[The] hospital star ratings approach [is] plagued by longstanding concerns about its accuracy and meaningfulness,” said Ashley Thompson, AHA senior vice president for public policy analysis and development. “While we appreciate that CMS is working on potential improvements to the rating methodology, we strongly believe CMS should not refresh the ratings until those improvements have been vetted and are ready for implementation.” CMS will hold a public listening session Sept. 19 to receive additional input on potential changes to the rating methodology and has released a summary of comments received to date. The summary and the verbatim comments may be downloaded as a zip file. (CMS news release, 8/19/19)