U.s. News & World Report Debuts Best Home Health Agency Rankings

On Tuesday, U.S. News & World Report released its first-ever ratings for the best home health agencies in the U.S.

After evaluating over 12,000 Medicare-certified home health agencies, U.S. News identified more than 1,300 that exceeded expectations in care quality and patient experience. Over 5,280 agencies met the standards for “as expected” care quality and patient experience.

“For patients recovering from surgery or managing a chronic condition, the quality of care they receive at home can be the difference between a successful recovery and a costly rehospitalization,” Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News, said in a statement. “Families often must make crucial post-acute care decisions during stressful times and on very short notice. These new ratings are intended to serve as a helpful starting point, offering a clear view of agencies that have demonstrated a track record of positive patient outcomes and satisfied consumers.”

U.S. News measured home health agencies using 16 quality measures based on publicly reported data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The “high performing” agencies scored well on fast care initiation times, with 99% of patients beginning care on time, beating the national average of 94%. They also saw higher rates of improved mobility, with 93% of patients who received care from these agencies seeing improvement, compared to the national average of 83%. Additionally, these agencies were more likely to help their patients improve their ability to perform their own activities of daily living, like getting out of bed and bathing themselves.

While using CMS data, U.S. News’ ratings relied on an independent methodology, and its ratings, therefore, may not align with CMS Quality of Patient Care Star Ratings or CMS Patient Survey Ratings.

The ratings also take into consideration a patient experience survey, which polled patients and their family members to ask about their home health agency’s professionalism, communication and overall satisfaction, among other measures.

U.S. News plans to update its home health ratings annually. See the ratings list here. 

The post U.S. News & World Report Debuts Best Home Health Agency Rankings appeared first on Home Health Care News.