I’m picky when it comes to eating out, choosing a restaurant. Ask my fiance! My go-to app on my phone is Yelp, a popular phone app that rates/reviews establishments. I check out these reviews/ratings before choosing, especially the most recent reviews. You can do the same when choosing a home health agency.
Home health is a competitive field. Star ratings are one way of choosing the right agency for you or your family member.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is responsible for overseeing the quality of care provided by home health care agencies. One way of assessing the quality of care is through its star rating system. There are two types of star ratings: quality of patient care and patient surveys. Quality of patient care is a summary of measures of the agency’s performance on multiple outcome measures. Patient surveys, distributed to the patient after their discharge, is their satisfaction with the agency.
Who uses these ratings? Families and the patient. Many people are using the Internet to find data. Some family members who are designated power of attorneys live away from their loved ones. They use the star ratings to find an agency in the patient’s city. Who else uses the star ratings? Payers such as Medicare Advantage or an accountable care organization, and health care systems (hospitals).
”The (families/patients) want to work with the best,” said Misty Kevech, MS, RN, CCP,CPTM via Medbridge.com. “They don’t want to work with a mediocre agency. And so it is important that you care about the home health care reports (ratings).”
The ratings are in ½ star increments, from 1 to 5. A 5 rating is the best, 1 is the worst. The national average is 3.5 stars. Specialized Home Care is currently a 4 to 4 1/2 star rating.
“SHC’s star rating of 4 stars in Missouri and 4.5 stars in Kansas shows how we strive to provide excellent, above-average care,” said Ben, SHC administrator, PT, DPT, LSVT BIG, GCS. “We believe that patient’s deserve and need high quality care to succeed. We are proud of achieving our rating, and strive to continue improving.”
Check out the star ratings at the following link: https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/?providerType=HomeHealth&redirect=true
Specialized Home Care (Leawood, KS) star ratings: https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/results?searchType=HomeHealth&page=1&query=specialized%20home%20care&city=Leawood&state=KS&zipcode=&sort=alpha
Specialized Home Care (Independence, MO) star ratings: https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/results?searchType=HomeHealth&page=1&query=specialized%20home%20care&city=Independence&state=MO&zipcode=&sort=alpha
-Michael, PTA
