A five-star rating system was released last week by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in order to appraise nursing homes across the U.S.

"Our goal in developing this unprecedented quality rating system is to provide families a straightforward assessment of nursing home quality, with meaningful distinctions between high and low performing homes," said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services acting director Kerry Weems. Additionally, this way nursing homes will be challenged to improve their quality of care.
 
The star rating system will not only assess results of state health inspection surveys and state investigations of complaints, but also draw comparisons between nursing homes and examine the staff member-to-resident ratio. Every single home will be rated from a low of one star to a high of five stars based on three fields: quality measures, health inspection results and staffing levels.

Data released by the CMS shows that, of nation’s Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing homes, 27 percent received a single star, in contrast with 13 percent of those not-for-profit. Whereas nineteen percent of non-profit such medical units were five-star, just 9 percent of for-profit units earned the highest rating.

On the other hand, local nursing home operators claim the new system is faulty and inequitable. According to Steve Wolf, who operates the Calvin Johnson nursing home in Belleville, the Columbia Convalescent Center in Columbia and Eldercare of Alton, it will mislead people. “You can't compare state inspections from Illinois to those of another state that looks for different things and has different standards," he said.