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Vizient Applauds CMS Decision to Delay July Update to Overall Hospital Star Ratings

Vizient applauds the recent decision by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to delay its update to the Overall Hospital Star Ratings that was planned for July. This decision by CMS is supported by data that Vizient provided to the Agency related to methodology issues that negatively affect hospital ratings. Vizient’s feedback to CMS focused on specific technical details identified in the July 2018 preview reports. The issues raised were related to significant swings in measure loading coefficients from the December 2017 release in addition to the negative loading coefficients for certain safety group measures that would result in poorer ratings for higher performing hospitals and better ratings for worse performers. Additionally, the main weight for the safety domain is focused on total hip and knee complications and while we applaud minimizing PSI-90 we do believe additional metrics should have more weight in this domain.

In addition to previous public comments providing feedback on the Star Ratings methodology, Vizient offered five recommendations for improving the star rating in an article recently published by The Hill. The recommendations included rating hospitals by type, procedures/specialties, better data, transparency in methodology and weighting of quality measures. The recommendations are intended to improve the rating’s accuracy and clarity for consumers as well as to create an important feedback loop for providers for performance improvement. As the nation’s largest health care performance improvement company, Vizient serves a diverse membership that includes academic medical centers, pediatric facilities, community hospitals, integrated health care delivery networks and non-acute health care providers. – Medical Buyer Bureau

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