The CMS home health star rating explained

The star rating summarises a set of process and outcome measures into 1–5 stars.

What goes into it

CMS combines measures such as how often care began promptly, whether patients improved at walking, moving around and bathing, whether breathing improved, how often patients took drugs correctly, flu and pneumonia vaccination rates, and how often patients were discharged to the community. Each measure has a national rate; the star rating summarises how the agency performs across them.

Reading the measures

Higher is not always better in the same direction: for "discharged to community" a higher rate means more patients went home; for "hospitalisation" or "ED visits" a lower rate is better. Each agency page lists the measures CMS publishes with the agency's rate, so read them next to the star.

Why some agencies are unrated

Agencies with too few patients in the reporting period do not get a star rating. "Not rated" is not a quality signal — check the measures and talk to the agency.