The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finally released its list of star ratings for more than 3,600 hospitals.
Here's the breakdown of hospitals according to each rating, as per an analysis by Kaiser Health News:
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5-star rating: 102.
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4-star rating: 927.
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3-star rating: 1,752.
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2-star rating: 707.
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1-star rating: 129.
- No rating due to insufficient data: 1,047.
It appears that the ratings were based on somewhat of a curve. It's unclear whether CMS intended, like a college professor, to grade in a way that gave only a sliver with the highest or lowest marks.
Oftentimes ratings from public sector entities are heavily weighted in one way or another. For instance, it is not uncommon for a large percentage of schools to be poorly rated, just as it's often the case that the great majority of teachers will be given satisfactory ratings.
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Sixty percent of hospitals that train medical residents got either one or two star ratings, according to the Kaiser analysis. Some of the biggest name hospitals in the country got poor grades, including George Washington University Hospital in Washington D.C., the University of Virginia Medical Center, and Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.
The CMS ratings were vehemently opposed by the hospital lobby, which argue that the metrics upon which the ratings are based do not take into account significant differences in the populations served by different hospitals.
Those in low-income areas are more likely to score poorly on some measures, they argue, because their patients are less likely to get the recommended care following an operation, for instance, due to financial challenges, transportation challenges, and myriad other poverty-induced obstacles.
Many of the hospitals that got the highest ratings were obscure hospitals that specialized in certain services.
"The only 5-star hospital in Missouri is a relatively small hospital serving an affluent community," Dr. Clay Dunagan, senior vice president and chief clinical officer for BJC Healthcare, parent company of Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, told U.S. News and World Report. "All the safety-net hospitals are one stars."
Earlier this week, a bipartisan group in Congress drafted legislation to delay the implementation of the star ratings for a year. It appears poised to pass, considering that 60 members of the U.S. Senate and over 200 members of the House have signaled support.
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