title: Changes in Consumer Demand Following Public Reporting of Summary Quality Ratings: An Evaluation in Nursing Homes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Limited consumer use of health care report cards may be due to the large amount of information presented in report cards, which can be difficult to understand. These limitations may be overcome with summary measures. Our objective was to evaluate consumer response to summary measures in the setting of nursing homes.
  
  
  METHODS
  2005-2010 nursing home Minimum Data Set and Online Survey, Certification and Reporting (OSCAR) datasets.
  
  
  METHODS
  In December 2008, Medicare converted its nursing home report card to summary or star ratings. We test whether there was a change in consumer demand for nursing homes related to the nursing home's star rating after the information was released.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The star rating system was associated with a significant change in consumer demand for low- and high-scoring facilities. After the star-based rating system was released, 1-star facilities typically lost 8 percent of their market share and 5-star facilities gained over 6 percent of their market share.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The nursing home star rating system significantly affected consumer demand for high- and low-rated nursing homes. These results support the use of summary measures in report cards.
authors: Division of General Internal Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.|Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia VAMC, Philadelphia, PA.|Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
authors: Rachel M
authors: RM
authors: Werner
authors: Department of Health Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors: R Tamara
authors: RT
authors: Konetzka
authors: Division of General Internal Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.|Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Polsky
mesh_terms: D003258:Consumer Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000592:standards*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D058028:Research Report / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States
keywords: Quality of care; nursing home; public reporting; quality measures