What do these ratings mean for kidney care patients?

Five-Star Quality Rating System: The Five-Star Quality Rating System is a mechanism created by CMS to give consumers access to clinical quality information and to help them make informed and educated decisions about where to receive dialysis care. For the first time, these ratings are now made up of two scores: the Quality of Patient Care Star Rating and the Patient Experience Rating.

• Quality of Patient Care Star Rating: DaVita remains a clinical leader in quality of patient care for the seventh year in a row.* To learn more about the CMS' Five-Star Quality Rating System, check out these frequently asked questions.
• Patient Experience Rating: The Patient Experience Rating reflects patient experience scores from the CMS In-Center Hemodialysis Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (ICH CAHPS) survey. The optional survey is given twice a year to eligible dialysis patients (patients who received in-center hemodialysis at the center for at least 3 consecutive months, are at least 18 years old, and are not living in a skilled nursing facility or other long-term facility such as a jail or prison). For a center to receive a Patient Experience Rating, at least 30 patients had to complete the survey over the course of the year. Only about half of the centers across the industry met the eligibility requirements to receive this rating. 

Quality Incentive Program (QIP): QIP is a pay-for-performance rating system also developed by CMS to encourage dialysis centers to meet or exceed certain performance standards. Centers that do not meet these standards are penalized between 0.5 percent and 2 percent on their Medicare reimbursement. DaVita centers outperform the industry in the top clinical performance tier.

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* According to October 2020 data (for 2019 year) from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Five-Star Quality Rating System.

Resources

• Dialysis Finder
• Dialysis Facility Compare
• More about the Five-Star system
• One patient's story