Hospital-based care coordination strategies linked to CMS star ratings

Editor's Note

Care coordination strategies were found to be associated with high overall hospital quality star ratings from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in this study.

A total of 710 general acute care noncritical access hospitals that received star ratings and responded to the 2015 American Hospital Association Care Systems and Payment Survey were analyzed.

Compared with hospitals with 0-2 strategies, those with 3-4, 5-7, or 8-12 strategies had 2.5 times the odds of receiving a top rating (4 or 5 stars).

Care coordination strategies were positively associated with lower 30-day readmission rates for patients with chronic medical conditions, but not for surgical patients.

Medication reconciliation, visit summaries, outreach after discharge, discharge care plans, and disease management programs were individually associated with top ratings.

In this era of value-based payment models and pay for performance, hospitals need strategies capable of improving their performance on quality measures, the authors say.