CMS Five Star – Friend or Foe?

PentaStar Collaborative published a survey of 356 nursing home administrators on the CMS Five Star Rating System and how they felt it would effect their facilities.

Find the survey here.

Two items stood out for me. When asked what effect their rating would have on the perception of their facility by consumers, 51% felt that consumers would not care. Some answered this way because they felt that they had no competition geographically.

Asked how the rating would effect the facility overall, 50% were neutral; 23% said it would effect positively and 27% said negatively.

In this age of transparency where educated boomers are the caregivers, perhaps facilities need to pay more attention to Nursing Home Compare Five Star however flawed. And as these results become tied to pay for performance there is even more reason to pay attention. Another wild card is that health care in this day and age is not necessarily local any longer. Witness Mexican border state residents choosing Mexican nursing homes because of their low cost and amenities.

Transparency is here to stay.