Nursing Homes: Consumers Could Benefit from Improvements to the Nursing Home Compare Website and Five-Star Quality Rating System, GAO-17-61: Published: Nov 18, 2016. Publicly Released: Dec 6, 2016.

“Millions of Americans are cared for in nursing homes each year, and that number is expected to increase as baby boomers age. So how do you choose a nursing home? Nursing Home Compare is an online tool that allows people to research and compare nursing homes using a rating system. We found that most people think the site is helpful, but it’s not perfect. For example, it lacks some key information, such as consumer satisfaction scores. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services runs the site, and we recommended four ways CMS can improve it and make it a better tool for consumers, including adding consumer satisfaction scores.”