Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Senators Seek To Delay Administration's Release Of Overall Hospital Star Ratings
Morning Consult: Senators Push CMS To Delay Hospital Star Ratings Release
Sixty senators say the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should delay the release of overall hospital quality star ratings because they do not account for hospitals that treat patients from lower socioeconomic groups or multiple complex chronic conditions. The senators note in a letter that the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on issues related to Medicare, and other researchers have said ... that the ratings system does not appropriately consider socioeconomic status and patient complexity. They add that they support the implementation of the ratings overall, but argue more work should be done to consider those factors. (McIntire, 4/12)
Reuters: Medicare 'Hospital Star Rating’ May Correspond To Patient Outcomes
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been letting patients grade their hospital experiences, and those “patient experience scores” may give some insight into a hospital’s health outcomes, a new study suggests. Some people have been concerned that patient experience isn’t the most important factor to measure, said coauthor Dr. Ashish K. Jha of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. (Doyle, 4/12)
