AHA comments on initial proposal for Hospital Compare star ratings

Commenting yesterday on proposed criteria for selecting measures to include in a Hospital Compare star rating system, AHA encouraged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to consider using star ratings for specific measure topics (e.g., heart attack care, patient experience) as opposed to a single star rating for all measures. “America’s hospitals were instrumental in the creation of Hospital Compare more than a decade ago, and remain strongly committed to sharing meaningful, accurate hospital quality information with the patients they serve,” wrote Linda Fishman, AHA senior vice president of public policy analysis and development. “…However, we question whether a single summary star rating will equip patients, families and communities with a meaningful, accurate picture of hospital quality that is relevant to their individual reasons for seeking care. Moreover, we are not confident that the measures available on Hospital Compare at this time will enable CMS to create a single, methodologically sound rating of all aspects of hospital quality.” The criteria were proposed by a CMS contractor, who is expected to issue for comment this spring a proposed scoring methodology for the system.