Medicare is moving forward with new hospital quality ratings.
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The new ratings are star ratings, with the best rating being five stars and the worst rating of one star. The ratings will be based on 64 individual measures of hospitals.
These include things like:
- mortality rates,
- readmissions,
- patient opinions,
- frequency of medical scans like MRIs, and more.
The Obama administration is moving ahead with this controversial rating system, despite objections from the industry.
The ratings will be publicized for 3,662 hospitals.
Based on current data, 102 of the hospitals would receive five stars and 133 would get the lowest rating of only one star.
Teaching hospitals received lower scores on average. Many of the low scoring teaching hospitals include large academic medical centers that top the lists of best hospitals as released by Healthgrades and U.S. News & World Report.
The Association of American Medical Colleges has spoken out as to the misleading nature of the star rating. The American Hospital Association continues to express their concerns.
Medicare plans to move forward, with the belief that the program will offer consumers a tool to assess which hospital will provide them with the best care.
Medicare officials said the ratings will provide a broader picture of hospitals and the care they offer.
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