The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced major revisions to the Nursing Home Compare website and the Five-Star Quality Rating System.

The Medicare Compare tool, which is also available for other providers like physicians and home health agencies, is a tool intended to help consumers considering different Medicare services. The ratings system and the data on which it depends has been revised for provider groups over the years and some industry associations have disputed the methodology CMS uses. In the case of hospitals,  there have been reports of CMS considering to do away with that provider group’s hospital rating system.

According to a technical users guide released in April, CMS stated their belief that the Five-Star Quality Rating System “offers valuable and comprehensible information to consumers based on the best data available.”

The nursing facility rating system itself features an Overall Quality Rating of one to five stars based on nursing home performance on three domains, each of which has its own individual rating:

• Health Inspections
• Staffing
• Quality Measures

For more info, see the Nursing Home Compare website here.