Medicare to start comparing nursing homes with star ratings

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If restaurants and hotels can be rated, Medicare figures that nursing homes can, too.

And the federal agency says it will launch a five-star rating system on its Nursing Home Compare Web site by December to help families tell top-performing nursing homes ({star}{star}{star}{star}{star}) from problem-plagued facilities ({star}).

The site – www .medicare.gov/nhcompare – now draws 1.3 million page views each month, but consumer advocates complain that users must pore over confusing statistics to check on nursing homes.

Under the new rating system, nursing homes will receive one to five stars based on recent inspection results, staffing levels and a number of quality measures yet to be determined, said acting Medicare administrator Kerry Weems.

Dallas News