title: Risk adjustment and public reporting on home health care.
abstract: Risk adjustment is a critical tool in public reporting of quality measures. Its aim is to level the playing field so that providers serving different patients can be meaningfully compared. We used a theory and evidence-based approach to develop risk-adjustment models for the 10 publicly reported home health quality measures and compared their performance with current models developed using a data-driven stepwise approach. Overall, the quality ratings for most agencies were similar regardless of approach. Theory and evidence-based models have the potential to simplify risk adjustment, and thereby improve provider and consumer understanding and confidence in public reporting.
authors.affiliation: Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Center for Home Care Policy and Research, New York 10001, USA. chris.murtaugh@vnsny.org
authors.forename: Christopher M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Murtaugh
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Hakan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aykan
authors.forename: Gil
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maduro
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019985:Benchmarking; D002568:Certification; D006302:Health Services Research; D018574:Home Care Agencies / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D019221:Mandatory Reporting; D006278:Medicare / Q000592:standards*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020379:Risk Adjustment / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States