Image via Wikipedia
Medicare collects and publishes a lot of information about the performance of doctors, hospitals and nursing homes. To date, however, the organization hasn’t found a very easy way to sum that information up for consumers.
But times are changing. DMN reporter Bob Moos has a really interesting story about how Medicare plans to start rating nursing homes on a 5-star scale.
The site - www .medicare.gov/nhcompare - now draws 1.3 million page views each month, but consumer advocates complain that users must pore over confusing statistics to check on nursing homes.
Under the new rating system, nursing homes will receive one to five stars based on recent inspection results, staffing levels and a number of quality measures yet to be determined, said acting Medicare administrator Kerry Weems.
“Our goal is to take information already available to the public and present it in a format that’s easier for people to use,” he said.
Not everyone is happy with the proposed rating system, of course.
The American Health Care Association, which represents nonprofit and for-profit nursing homes, wants the agency to also use consumer and staff satisfaction survey results to determine the five-star ratings.
“We don’t believe that an index that relies upon a broken inspection system is an accurate way to measure quality,” said association president Bruce Yarwood.
Consumer advocates say the new rating system would have more credibility if it relied less on the staffing data and quality statistics supplied by the industry and more on outside, independent evaluations.
There is, I’m sure, plenty of room for improvement, but clear ratings are a good first step.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Entries (RSS)