Dive Brief:
- Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its second round of hospital star ratings.
- The number of five-star hospitals has increased from 251 to 548 since the initial ratings were released in April.
- CMS plans to release new star ratings quarterly.
Dive Insight:
The star ratings are published on Hospital Compare, the CMS public information website, and more than 3,500 hospitals were rated. Although the number of five-star hospitals has more than doubled since April, one-star ratings held fairly steady at 102 this quarter, compared to 101 in April.
It's still questionable whether the star ratings will have much of an effect on consumers' choice of hospitals unless CMS puts forth an aggressive effort to raise awareness. However, Healthcare Finance News believes the CMS quality ratings carry more weight than some of the other hospital ratings systems since they are often tied to value-based Medicare reimbursement levels. That may be one explanation for why the number of 5-star hospitals has increased so dramatically in just three short months.