CMS updates annual Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services July 31 updated the Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings at its Care Compare website and Provider Data Catalog. CMS assigns the ratings annually and are based on safety of care, readmission rates, patient experience, timeliness of care and mortality rates.

"As expected, this year's CMS Hospital Overall Star Ratings distribution looks largely like 2023 given that the methodology that hospitals are rated on has remained stable for the last few years," said Akin Demehin, AHA senior director of quality and patient safety. "Multiple factors could contribute to a hospital experiencing a shift in ratings, including changes to underlying measures used to calculate the ratings, the time periods used to calculate performance and minor coding changes. This year's ratings also continue to include data reflecting the profound effect the COVID-19 pandemic had on hospital operations.

"As with any ranking or rating methodology, star ratings reflect only available measures, and as a result, the relevance of the rating to a particular patient's care needs could vary. That is why the AHA continues to encourage patients to complement information from star ratings and other hospital rankings with discussions with clinicians who know their care needs to help make fully informed decision about their care. Lastly, while AHA appreciates CMS's work in recent years to make the ratings more transparent and easier to interpret, we have continued to encourage CMS to make improvements to the methodology to ensure hospital performance is portrayed accurately and fairly."