From: McKnight’s
A Pennsylvania senator is calling for the federal government to investigate Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Five-Star Quality Rating System.
In a letter to the Government Accountability Office, Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) asked for the agency conduct an assessment into the Five-Star system’s accuracy and reliability. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) joined Casey’s push for closer scrutiny. The Five-Star system is part of the CMS’ Nursing Home Compare web tool.
According to CRE, CMS’s Hospital Star Ratings contains transparency gaps, lack of adherence to notice-and-comment rule-making procedures, burden cost issues.
Source: CRE Backs Reform Process of CMS Hospital Star Ratings System – RevCycleIntelligence
From: lohud | The Journal News
A quick Internet search of most Lower Hudson Valley doctors returns rave reviews. Surgeon photos appear on websites beside star-ratings and glowing testimonials about everything from skill to good looks, creating a virtual experience similar to choosing a restaurant or vacation spot.
A closer look reveals that some of those doctors have the highest complication rates in New York for certain low-risk, common elective surgeries.
From: Health Affairs Blog
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Well-honed clinical and performance measurement now and “big data” analytics in time should drive quality improvement, value purchasing, and meaningful transparency. We must assure patients and their loved ones that when they choose a hospital or find themselves in an emergency room, that every facility is considered, as Garrison Keillor would say, “above average.”
says:
One of the Data Quality Act’s requirements is that information disseminated by CMS and other agencies needs to be useful to its intended users. Since the agency’s measures of health care quality have the potential to assist better decision making by consumers and health care providers, biased, arbitrary or otherwise unreliable data has potential to lead to poor choices and adverse health outcomes.