CMS Five-Star Quality Rating System Supports Patient Choice

Patients have many choices when it comes to dialysis treatment, and making a decision of where to receive care can be confusing. A recently updated tool from the federal government simplifies that process, making it easier for patients, their families and caregivers to compare the quality of kidney care providers.

Patients can review star ratings at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Dialysis Facility Compare website – medicare.gov/dialysisfacilitycompare. These star ratings, in their second year and based on seven quality measures, are easy to understand and an excellent resource when considering where to receive dialysis treatment.

At DaVita, we are committed to transparency and improving patient care. That’s why I’m proud the latest CMS ratings show DaVita Kidney Care continues to outperform other major dialysis providers, both in clinical and patient outcomes. For the second year in a row, DaVita leads providers in the number of top-ranked, four- and five-star dialysis centers.

CMS first released ratings for dialysis centers in January 2015, based on 2013 data. Going forward, CMS plans to update ratings annually in October. The patient-friendly rating system covers all centers providing in-center hemodialysis, except for hospital-based locations.

What do these ratings mean for patients? Here are a few things you should know:

• DaVita operates 46 percent of four- and five-star centers, compared with an average 23 percent for other large providers.
• DaVita bested other major kidney care providers in Medicare’s Quality Incentive Program (QIP), with more than 98 percent of its centers ranking in the top clinical performance tier.
• DaVita led the QIP with a top ranking in three of four clinical measures and received the fewest penalties.

Because our incredible care teams, medical directors and attending nephrologists strive to better our patients’ clinical outcomes by caring for the whole patient, I’m not surprised by DaVita’s success in CMS’ Five-Star Quality Rating system.

We have long focused on and are committed to improving patient care and have developed innovative programs to meet those goals.

For example, in 2013, DaVita developed a Patient-Focused Quality Pyramid1 to improve care by focusing on the fundamentals of dialysis: access, adequacy, blood-level monitoring, target weight and parathyroid hormone. The metrics CMS uses for the star ratings include many of the fundamentals of the Patient-Focused Quality Pyramid. DaVita then launched next-generation clinical initiatives to reduce infection and better manage medication and diabetes.

DaVita supports patient choice and strives to ensure patients and caregivers have the best information possible to make an educated decision. We applaud CMS’ intention to make quality clinical care more transparent and accessible to dialysis patients, and we will continue to work with CMS to help improve these measures.

1Nissenson, Allen R., Improving Outcomes for ESRD Patients: Shifting the Quality Paradigm. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2013. doi: 10.2215/CJN.05980613.