Exchanges to display star ratings for 2020 health plans

Beginning with open enrollment for plan year 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will require all health insurance exchanges to display its star rating for each qualified health plan. Under CMS’s quality rating system for the exchanges, health plans are given a rating of one to five stars based on 38 measures, including 28 clinical quality measures that assess the quality of the health care services provided by the plan’s network and 10 survey measures that assess enrollees’ experience with the health plan. CMS has been pilot testing the ratings on the exchanges in certain states since the 2017 open enrollment period. The agency has posted star ratings data from the 2019 plan year in a public file and expects to release star ratings data for the 2020 plan year closer to open enrollment, which begins Nov. 1. For more information, see the CMS announcement.