A new Senate bill aims to make Care Compare easier to find and more user-friendly for those seeking nursing home care.
The SEE Care Compare Act, S 2112, requires the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to make the website and its data more findable online by reviewing and updating search engine optimization practices. It also asks the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to study user analytics and submit a report on those to the Senate.
While the site has been criticized frequently since its launch, its searchable database provides consumers an ideal one-stop shop to compare facilities. Many nursing home operators, however, have blasted it for lack of context and frequently outdated measures and calculations that rely too heavily on old findings to provide accurate assessments.
The SEE Care Compare Act’s report analytics would be benchmarked against analytics a year later to see if search engine and other changes are changing consumer behavior. The bill also demands that CMS research what users would like to see changed about Care Compare’s design, structure and content.
The bill was introduced Thursday by Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). Braun is the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee; Stabenow and two other co-sponsors are members.
Last month, a Braun spokesman told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News the senator was concerned the site was not “easily findable online” and its reviews used less than other online tools. The site’s Five-Star quality ratings and access to health inspections and other metrics are supposed to be user-friendly tools to help seniors or families choosing a skilled nursing provider.
“Choosing a nursing home is a tough decision that many older Americans and their loved ones have to make,” Braun said in announcing the legislation late last week. “This bipartisan bill would make the Care Compare website more accessible and up-to-date so Americans can make informed decisions about nursing home care.”
