Previews of your hospital’s star rating, quality data now available

Hospitals in CMS’s Inpatient Quality Reporting, Outpatient Quality Reporting and Prospective Payment System-Exempt Cancer Hospital Quality Reporting programs can take an early look at the star rating and quality data before the public gets to see it later this year.

The data can be accessed at the QualityNet Secure Portal. CMS recommended hospitals access their data early to allow enough time for thorough reviews.

As noted by the American Hospital Association (AHA), some fiscal year 2018 data from won’t be included.

“The inpatient preview reports, hospital-specific reports and overall hospital quality star ratings will not include Patient Safety Indicator (PSI) results for (2018) due to a PSI software issue,” the AHA said. “As a result, the overall hospital quality star rating for July will be updated using fiscal year 2017 PSI results. CMS anticipates that updated FY 2018 PSI results will be available for the October preview period, and incorporated into the October 2017 public release of star ratings.”

The AHA has been highly critical of the star ratings, asking President Donald Trump to suspend the program. Other organizations, like the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), said its own analysis found the ratings didn’t offer a true “apples-to-apples” comparison of hospital quality.

Hospitals have until May 5 to download their preview data. It’s scheduled to be posted on the Hospital Compare site in July.