Five Star Rating System for Home Health Agencies

Five Star Rating System for Home Health Agencies

We know that trusting someone to enter your loved one’s home to take care of them properly is a big deal. One step you can take to ensure that your loved one is receiving high quality care is by comparing home health care agency ratings prior to choosing one. You can compare different agencies in your area on www.medicare.gov, using their five star rating system. If you are a client of ours, you can also call and speak with us and we can recommend providers that our clients have had good results with.

Agencies are rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. The agency’s ratings increase when they follow recommended care practices or when more patients show improvement. Medicare.gov explains that most agencies receive a score of 3 to 3.5 stars. Agencies that receive 4 or 5 stars are considered above average and those receiving 1 or 2 stars are considered below average. The agencies are all rated based on 9 quality measures within the following categories of managing daily activities, managing pain and treating symptoms, treating wounds and preventing bed sores, preventing harm, and preventing unplanned hospital care.

If you would like to compare home health care agencies click on the following link: https://www.medicare.gov/homehealthcompare/search.html. Once you are there, enter the zip code and you will be presented with a listing of agencies in the area. You can now browse the list of agencies and click “add to compare” next to the ones you are interested in. You can choose up to three agencies at a time to compare. Once you have selected the agencies, scroll back up to the top of the page and click “compare now.” By clicking on the “quality of patient care tab” you will be able to access and review the current ratings for the agencies you have selected.

For more information about Medicare.gov’s Home Health Compare please visit https://www.medicare.gov/HomeHealthCompare/About/What-Is-HHC.html