Updated Dialysis Facility Care Compare on Medicare.gov Data Now Available
April 26, 2023
Updated Dialysis Facility Care Compare on Medicare.gov (DFCC) Data Now Available
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is pleased to announce that new data about dialysis facilities are available on Dialysis Facility Care Compare on Medicare.gov—the website where patients and health centers can view and compare quality data about dialysis facilities. CMS uses these data, organized into a series of measures, to create a star rating system that helps ensure safety, quality, and transparency for dialysis facilities and that helps patients make educated decisions about where to get their dialysis treatments.
What is the April 2023 refresh?
The April 2023 refresh is one of a series of updates made each year to the data featured on DFCC. With the April 2023 refresh, patients and facilities can now see the latest data from dialysis facilities on Dialysis Facility Care Compare on Medicare.gov.
CMS has released the Payment Year (PY) 2023 End Stage Renal Disease Quality Incentive Program (ESRD QIP) public reporting files. The files contain scoring and measure performance for ESRD QIP measures as well as any associated payment reductions, for all eligible outpatient dialysis facilities in PY 2023.
What is in the April 2023 refresh?
With the April 2023 refresh, the following measures on Dialysis Facility Care Compare will be updated with data from July 2021-June 2022:
- Adult and child patients who had enough waste removed from their blood during hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis
- Adult patients who had too much calcium in their blood
- Hemoglobin management (Downloadable Data Only)
- Phosphorus concentrations in the blood (Downloadable Data Only)
- Adult patients who received treatment through an arteriovenous fistula
- Adult patients who had a catheter (tube) left in a vein for at least 3 consecutive complete months, for their regular hemodialysis treatments
- Measurement of nPCR for pediatric hemodialysis patients
- Patients who were on the kidney or kidney-pancreas transplant waiting list
CMS updated data on the Care Compare website and on the Provider Data Catalog website for the following measures:
Patient & Family Engagement
- In-Center Hemodialysis Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (ICH CAHPS)
Care Coordination
- Standardized Readmission Ratio (SRR)
- Standardized Hospitalization Ratio (SHR)
- Percentage of Prevalent Patients Waitlisted (PPPW)
- Clinical Depression Screening and Follow-Up
Clinical Care
- Kt/V Dialysis Adequacy (comprehensive)
- Vascular Access
o Standardized Fistula Rate (SFR)
o Long-term Catheter Rate
- Standardized Transfusion Ratio (STrR)
- Hypercalcemia
- Ultrafiltration Rate (UFR)
Safety
- National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Bloodstream Infection (BSI) in Hemodialysis Patients
- NHSN Dialysis Event Reporting
- Medication Reconciliation (MedRec)
The Overall Star Rating of ICH CAHPS Survey of patients’ experiences is also updated with this release:
- Kidney doctors’ communication and caring
- Dialysis center staff care and operations
- Providing information to patients
- Rating of kidney doctors
- Rating of dialysis center staff
- Rating of dialysis center
Who is affected by the refresh?
DFCC displays ratings of the quality of care provided by dialysis facilities based on a series of quality measures. Facilities have had their individual measure scores updated based on the latest data for a number of these quality measures. Facilities had an opportunity to review the data and raise any concerns with CMS before the refresh went live. The Quality of Patient Care Star Ratings will not be updated during the April 2023 refresh. Star Ratings from October 2020 will continue to be visible on Medicare.gov.
Medicare beneficiaries, facilities, stakeholders, and interested members of the general public can find this information on Care Compare, as well as the Public Reporting & Certificates page on the ESRD QIP section of CMS.gov.