The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have released a one- to five-star rating system of home health agencies nationwide, as it had previously done for hospitals, nursing homes, physicians, dialysis centers and the Medicare Advantage plan finder. The grading system assesses the responsiveness and thoroughness of nurses, aides and therapists who make house calls to the elderly to provide care. The rankings are based on 29 quality measures, nine of which were featured in the website report.
CMS also updated data for Patient Survey Results, reporting data for the calendar year 2014. Quality of Patient Care measures were not updated, still reporting data for following time periods:
1. Managing daily activities measures (3): 2014Q1_2014Q4
2. Managing pain and treating symptoms measures (5): 2014Q1_2014Q4
3. Treating wounds and preventing pressure sores (bed sores) measures (4): 2014Q1_2014Q4
4. Preventing harm measures (6): 2014Q1_2014Q4
5. Preventing unplanned hospital care (2): 2013Q4_2014Q3