CMS adds quality measures to 5-star rating system

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has added six quality measures to the Nursing Home Compare website, bringing the total to 24 quality measures. Three of the new measures are based on Medicare claims data coming from hospitals instead of self-reported MDS data—a first for the site and its data-collection methods.

Four of the new measures focus on short-stay residents, including how many times they visit the emergency room. Two of the measures focus on long-stay residents and their mobility, functional status and use of antianxiety medications.

1. Percentage of short-stay residents who were successfully discharged to the community (data from Medicare claims and MDS reporting)
2. Percentage of short-stay residents who have had an outpatient emergency department visit (data from Medicare claims and MDS reporting)
3. Percentage of short-stay residents who were re-hospitalized after a nursing home admission (data from Medicare claims and MDS reporting)
4. Percentage of short-stay residents who made improvements in function (data from MDS reporting)
5. Percentage of long-stay residents whose ability to move independently worsened (data from MDS reporting)
6. Percentage of long-stay residents who received an antianxiety or hypnotic medication (data from MDS reporting)

With today’s quality measure updates, CMS is nearly doubling the number of short-stay measures, which reflect care provided to residents who are in the nursing home for 100 days or less, on Nursing Home Compare.

Nursing Home Compare's five-star rating system will begin to include most of the measures as early as July 2016. The measure for antianxiety/hypnotic medication will be postponed as benchmarks are further explored.

Read the CMS release about the additions here.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.