The Five-Star Freeze Is Over
On Dec. 4th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in memo QSO 21-06-NH that it will resume calculation of the Health Inspection and Quality Measure domains of the Five-Star Quality Rating System on Care Compare.
The January 2021 refresh due Jan. 27th will include recalculations for all three domains (Health Inspection, Staffing, and Quality Measures), which has not occurred since the January 2020 refresh.
Infection Control survey data will be used to recalculate the Health Inspection star rating using the complaint survey methodology. The Staffing star rating will be recalculated using Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) data from July 1st through Sept. 30, 2020, which was due for submission on Nov. 14th. The Quality Measures star rating will be recalculated using a data collection period ending June 30, 2020, excluding the Quality Reporting Program (QRP) measures.
More details will be known when the updated Five-Star Users’ Guide is published on Jan. 15, 2021.
Contact: Susan Chenail, schenail@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8383 ext. 116