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Health Line
07-07-2025
- Health
- Health Line
Medicare Nursing Home Ratings: What to Know
Medicare's nursing home rating system is designed to help consumers compare nursing homes, identify quality differences, and spot areas of concern. While Medicare usually doesn't cover long-term nursing home care, it may cover short-term stays in a nursing home under Part A. To help beneficiaries make informed decisions about care, Medicare created a rating system that you can use to evaluate and compare nursing homes. The rating system can offer a useful starting point for your research. But it should not replace an in-person visit to a prospective facility and conversations with staff, residents, and their family members. Learn how to use Medicare's nursing home rating system to make informed care decisions. How the rating system works Medicare rates nursing homes on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, where 1 star is the lowest and 5 stars is the highest. A rating of 3 stars means a facility is average. Ratings reflect a facility's performance in three key areas: health inspections staffing quality measures Medicare rates each facility on these three metrics and then aggregates scores into an overall rating. Health inspections The health inspection rating is based on yearly surveys performed by independent agencies over the past 3 years. There are three types of inspections that make up the health inspection star rating. These include: Health inspections: State inspectors evaluate whether a facility complies with Medicare and Medicaid regulations. Complaint inspections: State Survey Agencies follow up on complaints from residents or their family members and evaluate the quality of care at the facility in question. Infection control inspections: Inspectors evaluate a facility's infection control measures. Any reports resulting from these inspections are made available on the nursing home's Medicare page (see the 'How to use the ratings' section). Staffing The staffing rating reflects the daily hours worked by different types of staff members and staff turnover. The ratings include a breakdown of how much time each type of staff member can spend with each resident each day. Types of staff include: registered nurses licensed practical nurses and licensed vocational nurses nurse aides physical therapists These measures are designed to give you a sense of how much face time residents have with staff members based on the ratio of staff to residents. The turnover numbers convey how long a nursing home retains its staff. Low turnover indicates that employees stay longer, which reflects better on the facility. Quality measures The quality measures rating is based on data that Medicare collects regarding the care residents receive in nursing homes. It includes short-stay and long-stay resident outcomes on factors like falls, infections, pressure ulcers, and antipsychotic use. How to use the ratings has a Care Compare search tool that allows users to view a list of nursing homes in their area. To use the tool, enter your ZIP code and click 'Search.' It will return a list and a map of nearby facilities with their corresponding star rating. The 'Compare' feature allows you to compare three facilities side-by-side. This is a useful feature, as it presents key information in an easily digestible format. When you select an individual nursing home from the list, you can see a detailed breakdown of its star rating across the three metrics of health inspections, staffing, and quality measures. This breakdown includes reports from recent health inspections and comprehensive staffing information and quality information, which you can compare against national and state averages. Further, the facility profile page includes additional information such as COVID-19 vaccination rates, emergency preparedness, and penalty records. Warning icons If you see a circular red icon with a hand in its center beside a facility's name in the list of results, it indicates that the facility has been cited for abuse. If you see a triangular yellow icon with an exclamation mark in its center, it indicates that the facility has a history of significant quality issues. The information on this website may assist you in making personal decisions about insurance, but it is not intended to provide advice regarding the purchase or use of any insurance or insurance products. Healthline Media does not transact the business of insurance in any manner and is not licensed as an insurance company or producer in any U.S. jurisdiction. Healthline Media does not recommend or endorse any third parties that may transact the business of insurance.
LBCI
22-06-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
US orders departure of non-emergency personnel and families from Lebanon
The U.S. State Department issued an official order for the departure of non-emergency government personnel and their family members from Lebanon, citing heightened security concerns in the region. The decision was communicated to American citizens currently residing in Lebanon via email, as the State Department warned of a "volatile security environment" in light of the ongoing regional developments.
CTV News
18-06-2025
- CTV News
Czech police nab fake dentist with dozens of patients
Prague, Czech Republic -- A fake dentist and two assistants who treated dozens of patients after learning the trade on the internet have been charged in the Czech Republic, police said Wednesday. The three family members opened a fully equipped dentist's without a licence or the necessary expertise in the central Czech town of Havlickuv Brod in 2023, police said. A 22-year-old man posing as a dentist provided check-ups but also extracted teeth, gave root canal treatments and applied anesthesia, drawing on information obtained online. A 50-year-old woman worked as a nurse, while a 44-year-old man providing the premises produced prosthetic devices for patients. 'The woman, who worked in the health sector, provided anesthetics but also other dental material to which she had access, such as fillings, cleaning powder, glue, impression material and much more,' police said in a statement. Asked by AFP if some of the patients complained, local police spokeswoman Michaela Lebrova declined to comment. The illegal clinic treated dozens of patients and raked in a total of four million Czech koruna (US$185,500), police said. Police detained the trio earlier this month and charged them with doing illegal business, money laundering, attempted battery, drug dealing and theft. All three had a clean criminal record. They have been provisionally released after pleading guilty, and face up to eight years in prison, police said. Facing a shortage of dentists, the Czech parliament last year passed a bill facilitating the employment of dentists from countries outside the European Union, of which the Czech Republic is a member. AFP
