Table of Content
The scheduled refreshes would have included data from the first half of 2020 in Care Compare’s quarterly updates for 2021. Thus, CMS decided to hold the star rating and quality measure updates for a time. Currently, there are two types of home health star ratings or tools helping customers make the best decisions about their health care.
The preliminary rating is then adjusted according to the statistical significance of the difference between the agency’s individual quality measure score and the national average for that quality measure. In other words, if there is no significant difference from the national average, a rating of 1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 3, 4 becomes 3, and 5 becomes 4. Each HHA gets provider preview reports showing the Quality of Patient Care Star Ratings and rating calculations about 3.5 months before the ratings are posted on Care Compare. On March 26, 2015, CMS sponsored awebinar to review the format of the report and the process for requesting a review of the Quality of Patient Care Star Rating.
Home Care Growth Kit: Recruiting + Retaining = Growth
You can download a sample report illustrating the format of the Quality of Patient Care Star Rating Provider Preview Report and instructions for submitting requests for review from theDownloadssection of this webpage. You can also see a sample report illustrating the format of the Quality of Patient Care Star Rating Provider Preview Report and the slides from thewebinar . Develop a written process for improving your ratings in the HHQRP.

Talk to your doctor or other health care provider about the information on Nursing Home Compare. Most of the candidate measures met the criteria of applicability to the home health population and ability to report for most home health agencies. One process measure, “Heart Failure Symptoms Addressed,” and one outcome measure, “Surgical Wound Healing,” did not meet an acceptable threshold for this criterion. The measure should apply to a substantial proportion of home health patients and have sufficient data to report for a majority of home health agencies.
Apr Home Health Care Compare is Back
Now, companies previously receiving 4 and 5 star ratings, are a rarity. For example, Humana with 3/4 of its plans receiving 4 or 5 stars last year, estimates that level at about 37% today. As a result, Humana stock prices took at immediate and spectacular hit. Although the prices are a bit more stable now, the “ride” was rather unpleasant for the stockholders and plan customers.

All Medicare-certified HHAs have the potential to receive a Patient Survey star rating. However, HHAs must have 40 or more completed surveys over the four-quarter reporting period to receive Star Ratings for that reporting period. Only by understanding the home health star ratings calculations can you hope to improve both your quality and patient-survey scores. Be sure to review your agency’s preview data and contact CMS if adjustments are needed.
Matrix Home Health Care Specialist
This proposed methodology was applied using Home Health Compare data for calendar year 2013. Only agencies that had data for at least 20 patients for six of the ten proposed measures were included in our analysis. Table 1 shows the distribution of star ratings among the HHAs when the proposed methodology is applied. The number of agencies with an overall rating of one star is less than one percent, while the number of HHAs receiving five stars is a little over two percent. HHCAHPS scores based on fewer than 40 completed surveys do not have sufficient statistical reliability to ensure that those scores measure true performance and not noise in the data for reporting star ratings.

HHA’s reaching four or more stars are better than average. Those with less than three stars performed below average. The measure should be stable and not show substantial random variation over time. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site. Alora helps agencies stay in the know with matters of compliance at the state and federal level.
Patient Survey Responses for CENTERWELL HOME HEALTH
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has built theCare Comparewebsite onMedicare.govas a key tool to help consumers choose a home health care provider. It's designed to be an easy-to-access, convenient official source of information about provider quality. For many HHAs, Quality Assurance practices evolved around this time. Thus, some providers will see changes in performance on OASIS measures on the next refresh. The push to get OASIS data submissions in on time could mean that agencies were not as careful about checking the performance measures.
Patient Survey Star Ratings are based on the Home Health CAHPS Survey. CMS first posted these ratings in January 2016 and CMS continues to update them quarterly based on new data posted on Care Compare. Our newProvider Data Catalogmakes it easier for you to search and download our publicly reported data. For rapid improvement, focus on one measure at a time. Do not try to address every weakness simultaneously.
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Public reporting is a key driver for improving health care quality by supporting consumer choice and incentivizing provider quality improvement. To help consumers and their families make choices about where they receive home health care, CMS currently reports 27 process, outcome, and patient experience of care quality measures on the Home Health Compare website. The proposed star rating would become an additional measure available on the website. Several alternative methods of calculating the star rating were considered, borrowing from the methods used for other care settings, such as nursing homes, dialysis facilities, and managed care. After consideration of these alternatives, we propose the methodology below for HHC Star Ratings.
This methodology will be updated periodically as additional refinements are made. Finally, quality star ratings can give false impressions due to the patient population home health cares for. Many conditions, such as CHF or diabetes, are not likely to be reversed even with the best possible care. And, if patients happen to live in a region lacking certain services, hospital visits will increase and lower the star rating.
The right technology solution also improves care outcomes and increases efficiency. If you think you have the right software but still aren’t seeing the ideal performance, think about how the staff uses their tools. Agency leaders should expect renewed interest from providers and referral sources in Care Compare. The April 2022 update will reflect performance on OASIS assessments and HHCAHPS surveys from October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2021. To predict what the new ratings might say about your agency, think back to how the business looked at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021.
All of the measures included in HHC are proportions that show what percentage of patients or episodes experienced the process or outcome being measured. For all measures, except acute care hospitalization, a higher measure value means a better score. Some family members who are designated power of attorneys live away from their loved ones. They use the star ratings to find an agency in the patient’s city. Payers such as Medicare Advantage or an accountable care organization, and health care systems .

Getting your OASIS and claims submissions right the first and every time is a big part of this equation. Remember, your quality score calculations use OASIS quality-of-outcome metrics reflecting how much patient conditions improve. Medicare assigned clinical star ratings based on agencies’ performance for patients receiving care from April 2012 through June 2015.
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