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Home Health & Hospice Week

Quality:

Medicare's New 5-Star Rating System Could Hit Home Health

Published on Fri Jan 02, 2009

Nursing homes are the first providers ranked by the system. If you're not too worried about your Home Health Compare standing, you soon may change your mind. The five-star rating system for nursing homes that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched last month is likely to soon come to home health agencies and hospices, predicts consultant Lynda Laff with Laff Associates in Hilton Head Island, S.C. "If the rating system proves both popular and not subject to serious challenge, it seems a move to home health would be inevitable," agrees Bob Ward-well with the Visiting Nurse Associations of America. As CMS moves toward pay-for-performance reimbursement, a rating system would make even more sense, Laff believes. How it works now: CMS bases its five-star system for nursing homes on survey results, staffing levels, and quality of care information, the agency says in a release. The agency uses only a [...]
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