Home Health & Hospice Week

Ratings Web site drops HHA section.

You may still have Home Health Compare to worry about, but a rating of your home health agency from HealthGrades.com is no longer a concern. HealthGrades.com dropped its ratings of HHAs at the same time Medicare's Home Health Compare Web site, which compares 11 patient outcomes among agencies, went up last November. And Woodinville, WA-based Northwest Healthcare Alliance Inc., also known as Assured Home Health, recently settled its lawsuit against the ratings company, Northwest President Richard Block tells Eli. The suit originally was filed in October 2000. "No money changed hands" in the settlement, which took place in the last month, Block reveals. But the Lakewood, CO-based ratings company agreed not to rate HHAs on its site anymore and to publish only accurate information, according to Block. HealthGrades won't comment on the suit or settlement announcement, but CFO Allen Dodge tells Eli the company's move to discontinue rating HHAs was "a business decision" made "several months ago." Pressure from Northwest's suit was bound to play a role in the move, Block insists. Northwest decided to the settle the suit after spending $100,000 and years of legal wrangling over where the suit would be held -- federal court in Northwest's home state of Washington or in Colorado (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XI, No. 41). The U.S. Supreme Court last year even declined to hear an appeal of the jurisdiction issue. Northwest was satisfied with a no-money settlement after so long because it is convinced the company soon will be out of business anyway, Block claims. Northwest filed a suit after discovering it had only an "average" three-star rating from HealthGrades.com and that its physical location information was incorrect. After filing the suit, HealthGrades bumped its rating up to a "best" five-star rating, Block contends. HealthGrades.com continues to offer ratings of hospitals, physicians and nursing homes, and it offers demographic information only for hospices -- no ratings.