Five Star Rating
(Photo: IvelinRadkov, Getty Images/iStockphoto)Hospitals are bracing for a new Medicare rating system that's designed to give patients more information but has some industry leaders questioning how the scores are calculated.
The overall hospital quality star system was expected last week from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, but it was delayed after pushback from Congress and concerns in the health care sector about whether the methodology accurately reflects the complexity of care given at facilities around the country. The system gives equal weight - 22 percent each - to mortality statistics, patient experience, readmissions and safety. The remaining percentage consists of measuring medical imaging, effectiveness and timeliness.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and other university-affiliated hospitals, are particularly concerned about the calculations - in part because they see larger numbers of patients with complex problems that could lead to high readmissions. The star rating looks only at Medicare data, from people ages 65 and older, and does not reflect care or outcomes in programs for younger people.
Read the rest of the story from our news partner, The Tennessean, here.