New CMS star ratings ignore socio-economic factors

In the latest preview of the CMS star ratings that will be released on Hospital Compare in February, the agency didn’t risk-adjust hospitals by peer groups based on their dual-eligible population as it currently does in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. As a result, hospitals in peer groups four and five of that program—or those with the largest percentage of dual-eligible stays—fared worse on average than other hospitals in the readmissions category of the star ratings, an analysis of the data by...