We have previously covered another of CMS’ transparency initiatives—its hospital star ratings—and some of the concerns industry has with the program. After a delay, CMS released the star ratings amid significant industry criticism. At the same time, a recent bipartisan bill would require CMS to take down overall hospital quality star ratings. Of note, according to a recent analysis, these rankings have been found to actually further confuse consumers, rather than provide actionable data to improve health care choices and the market overall.
Bill in Congress
Reps. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) and James Renacci (R-Ohio) introduced the bill (Hospital Quality Rating Transparency Act of 2016, H.R. 5927) that would require CMS to remove its newly published overall hospital quality star ratings from its Hospital Compare website and delay the ratings’ release for one year. On July 25, it was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Tom Nickels, the American Hospital Association’s executive vice president for government relations and public policy, in a statement said, “We continue to urge CMS to work with hospitals and health systems to provide patients with a rating system that accurately reflects the quality of care provided at their facilities, and will work with Reps. Renacci and Rice to move this legislation forward”
225 members of Congress previously wrote to CMS in April with their concerns over the hospital ratings system. Part of the letter states, “Many prominent hospitals that are in the top echelon of other quality rating reports, and handle the most complex procedures and patients, will receive one or two stars (out of possible five), indicating that they have the poorest quality in comparison to other hospitals”.
The lawmakers’ specific concerns included CMS’ insufficient disclosure of its methodology and the possibility the rating system gives excessive weight to the “patient experience of care” category, as reported by patients, which accounts for 25 percent of a hospital’s score, according to CMS’s Quality Net website. The remaining criteria categories are outcome (40 percent), efficiency (25 percent), and clinical process of care (10 percent).
The Ratings
According to CMS, the methodology for the new Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating was developed with significant input form a Technical Expert Panel and refined after public input. CMS says it will continue to analyze the star rating data and consider public feedback to make enhancements to the scoring methodology as needed. The star rating will be updated quarterly, and will incorporate new measures as they are publicly reported on the website as well as remove measures retired from the quality reporting programs.
The agency notes it hosted two opportunities for public input and hosted two National Provider Calls with over 4,000 participants. Hospitals had an opportunity to review their Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating, ask questions, and provide feedback during a “dry run” in July and August 2015.
Ultimately, 3 out of a possible 5 stars was the most common rating, earned by 1,770 hospitals, or about 39 percent. The ratings summarize the findings from 64 existing quality measures already reported on the Hospital Compare website and summarize them into a unified rating of one to five stars. The ratings include measures for care provided when treated for heart attacks and pneumonia, as well as hospital-acquired infections.
Industry Reaction to Ratings
Hospital groups were strongly opposed to the ratings, writing in July to CMS the following: “We urge CMS to share additional information with hospitals and the public about how accurately star ratings portray hospital performance. We also urge CMS to address several significant underlying methodological problems with its star ratings. Until CMS has taken the time to address these problems and share information with hospitals and the public demonstrating that its star ratings methods offer a fair and accurate assessment of hospital quality, we strongly urge the agency to continue to withhold publication of the flawed star ratings.”
The letter was signed by the American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, America’s Essential Hospitals, and the Federation of American Hospitals.
Despite their objections, the ratings were released. Rick Pollack, President and CEO of the American Hospital Association released a statement strongly opposing CMS’ move. “The new CMS star ratings program is confusing for patients and families trying to choose the best hospital to meet their health care needs. Health care consumers making critical decisions about their care cannot be expected to rely on a rating system that raises far more questions than answers. And it adds yet another to a long list of conflicting rating and ranking systems,” said Pollack.
He added, “We are further disappointed that CMS moved forward with release of its star ratings, which clearly are not ready for prime time. As written, they fall short of meeting principles that the AHA has embraced for quality report cards and rating systems. We want to work with CMS and the Congress to fix the hospital star ratings so that it is helpful and useful to both patients and the hospitals that treat them.”
Lack of Utility and Fairness
A recent report in Health Affairs looks at the Hospital Compare ratings from the perspective of a 5-star hospital. The results are highly critical of the CMS program. While supportive of using public disclosure of provider quality data, the article notes, “as currently constructed the scores are unlikely to achieve this goal for the following reasons: roll-up scores across conditions/procedures obfuscate quality at the level of the condition or procedure where gains in quality could happen; grading on a curve fails to identify whether quality is good or bad; and measurement is incomplete and/or imbalanced both in terms of the application of existing measures across hospitals and the absence of important measures in the set.”
The continue by summarizing: “the current scores don’t help consumers pick a high-quality hospital for specific conditions or procedures and don’t promote meaningful quality improvement across hospitals. In fact, in a value-based market where financial rewards are given only to the highest performers rather than providers that achieve high quality, defining quality based on a curve rather than a meaningful threshold will prevent some high-quality hospitals from being rewarded and could discourage hospitals from sharing best practices.”
It has also been repeatedly pointed out that the CMS ratings unfairly penalize teaching and safety net hospitals. For example, the ratings fail to account for socio-demographic factors such as patients’ education, race, economic status and regular access to medical care which all have a tremendous impact on health. As a result, many urban hospitals that provide stellar patient care and pioneer groundbreaking therapies, in addition to caring for large numbers of poor patients, received fewer stars than hospitals in affluent suburbs that treat fewer complex patients.