In a press release, OHCA indicated that the satisfaction survey results show the inaccuracy of the Five-Star rating system rushed into public view last week by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). “CMS arbitrarily put their thumb on the scale by dictating that twice as many skilled nursing facilities have to be one-star as five-star,” said OHCA Executive Director Peter Van Runkle. “Then they distorted the formula even further by saying a facility can be rated two stars higher than another facility with the exact same inspection and clinical results just because it has higher staffing, and without considering what patients and families think of the care provided.” This caused such erroneous results as half or more of the skilled nursing facilities in certain Ohio counties being at the bottom of CMS’s five-star scale.” CMS did not wait to include customer satisfaction data, even though the agency has plans to collect it, and did not verify staffing data, despite its importance in the Five-Star formula. OHCA has also sent a letter to members of the Ohio General Assembly, Ohio’s US Senators and US Representatives decrying the hurried implementation of the Five-Star system. See related stories under National News.

OHCA recommends that Ohio’s long-term care consumers visit facilities, and use the Department of Aging’s online ‘Consumer Guide,’ which gives detailed data on survey results, quality measures, and most importantly, the opinions of actual consumers, and does it in a usable fashion. Even CMS says the Five Star system should not be used to rule out facilities when conducting a search.