102 hospitals will earn 5 stars in new Overall Star Ratings, CMS says
Teaching hospitals had slightly lower star ratings than non-teaching hospitals, while critical access hospitals showed high marks.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a breakdown of the upcoming overall hospital star ratings ahead of the highly anticipated facility-by-facility release.
Overall, 102 hospitals will earn five stars in the latest release, while 934 will score four stars, 1,770 will get three stars, 723 will get two stars and 133 will only get one star.
CMS said it will soon release facility-specific ratings on its Hospital Compare website.
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Utilizing hospital data from the this month's star ratings input file, and defining hospital characteristics based on the 2013 American Hospital Association annual survey of hospital characteristics and the 2016 CMS IMPACT file, CMS also broke down star ratings by five characteristics to examine the distribution of rated hospitals.
Hospitals of varying bed size -- classified as 1 to 99, 100 to 199, and 200 or more beds -- had similar average star ratings, CMS found. Hospitals with 1 to 99 beds had the highest percentage of five-star hospitals (2.3 percent) and the lowest percentage of one-star hospitals (0.3 percent). Hospitals with 200 beds or more had the highest percentage of one-star hospitals at 7.8 percent, while 45.7 percent of hospitals with between 100 to 199 beds earned three-star ratings.
In examining safety net versus non-safety net hospitals, CMS found that safety net hospitals had a slightly lower average star rating. Five-star facilities made up 2.8 percent of non-safety net hospitals, while only 0.5 percent of safety net hospitals boasted five stars. Non-safety net hospitals also had the highest percentage of four-star hospitals at 23.3 percent, and the lowest percentage of one-star hospitals, at 2.6 percent.
CMS also looked at star rating results based on disproportionate share hospital payment eligibility, and found a lower average star rating among DSH payment-eligible hospitals, with a standard mean of 2.92, compared to 3.47. While 9.6 percent of non-DHS eligible facilities had five stars, only 1.5 percent of all eligible hospitals had five.
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Teaching hospitals had slightly lower star ratings than non-teaching hospitals, with a mean of 2.87 versus 3.11 respectively.
Critical access hospitals, meanwhile, had a slightly higher rating than non-CAHs -- 3.31 mean, as opposed to 2.99 -- although non-CAHs had higher percentages of four- and five-star facilities -- 22.2 and 2.9 percent, respectively, compared to 15.8 and 0.1 for non-CAHs.
Star ratings are based on seven criteria: mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, effectiveness of care, timeliness of care, and efficient use of medical imaging.
Twitter: @JELagasse
