Florida Nursing home shoppers beware: That five-star facility, as ranked by a new federal rating system, may not be the best of the best.
That’s because the system only compares the homes against their peers statewide, instead of against the 15,800 nationwide. And it automatically assigns five stars, the highest possible, to the top 10 percent, a system that one critic likened to being “graded on a curve.”
“I’d just prefer the straight data,” said Barbara Hengstebeck, director of the Tallahassee-based advocacy group Families for Better Care and a former statewide ombudsman for Florida’s long-term care program. “When you’re in school, a 90 to a 100 is an A.”
Experts say that the ranking system should serve only as a starting point in a consumer’s assessment of a nursing home. Even the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the rating system’s operator, warned in a statement at the time of the system’s Dec. 18 debut that the database is “not intended to be the only tool families use.”
The five-star system is aimed at giving would-be nursing-home residents and their families a one-glance overview of a home’s quality, said Lee Millman, a Centers for Medicare spokeswoman.
Consumer groups and nursing-home resident advocates praise the system for making a once-opaque industry more transparent. If you have a loved one looking for a nursing home you must ask as many questions as possible regarding the care they will receive. Jacksonville nursing home lawyers advise that ratings should never be the only thing looked at when deciding on a facility.