Dueling Star Ratings May Confuse Some Home Health Patients

(By – Jordan Rau, Kaiser Health News)

Patients looking for home health care services will be impressed if they check out the federal government’s ratings of Brookdale Senior Living. Four of the company’s home health agencies — in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island — each earned five stars, the top quality score, primarily based on Medicare’s assessment of how often patients got better.

But further research may lead to confusion. Medicare also posts stars to convey how patients rate agencies after their care is over. There, these same four Brookdale agencies earned no more than two stars.

“We understand that we have work to do on our patient perception results,” Kristin Puckett, a Brookdale spokeswoman, said in an email. “It is vital that our patients’ perception of their care is as positive as the outcomes from the quality care we provide.” Read more…

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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