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CMS 5-Star Rating

The federal rating system for every Medicare-certified nursing home, on three components: health inspection, staffing, quality measures.

What they don't tell you

It's the only national, comparable, free dataset on nursing-home quality. It's also gameable, lagging, and incomplete. Use it as a screen, not a verdict. A 5-star home with a recent fine matters less than a 3-star home that's been steady.

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