U.S. News has released its list of ‘Best Nursing Homes 2013‘ using data published by CMS in January 2013. Homes in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., are included. By default, homes within a given state or city are grouped into tiers by overall star rating—all five-star homes, all four-star homes, and so on. Homes that did not receive an overall rating from CMS in January appear below one-star homes. Within each tier, homes are listed alphabetically.
The data behind Best Nursing Homes come from Nursing Home Compare, a website run by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CMS sets and enforces standards for nursing homes enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid, as most are. The agency also collects information from states and individual homes and assigns each home (other than a few too new to have built up enough months of data) a rating of one to five stars in each of three categories: state-conducted health inspections, nursing and physical therapy staffing, and quality of medical care. The ratings are combined to produce an overall rating of one to five stars.