Home Health & Hospice Week

Your Home Health Compare star ratings are up and running, but it’s already time to think about the next batch of star data. On July 16, the site began displaying home health agency star ratings based on nine of the 29 HHC measures.

Publishing the star ratings “is another step forward in our continuing efforts to empower consumers by providing more information to help them make health care decisions, while also encouraging providers to strive for higher levels of quality,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in a release.

If you’ve already downloaded the preview report for your star rating update in October, you may need to throw it out and start over.

CMS distributed the preview reports in HHAs’ CASPER folders June 30, but they contained a calculation error, CMS says in a message to providers. “Providers who have already downloaded and circulated these reports are urged to discard all copies,” the agency says. Replacement reports should be in your CASPER folders and named “Star2REV_prvw_for_Oct2015.”