Medicare’s Online Compare Tool Just Got Better

POSTED ON: November 10, 2020

elder law

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have recently combined eight online Compare tools into one on Medicare.gov. This new tool, called Care Compare, has data about providers across different disciplines – making it easier for Medicare beneficiaries and their family members to get the information they need.

CMS’s eight separate Compare tools on medicare.gov were for hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, dialysis facilities, long-term care hospitals, in-patient rehabilitation facilities, physician offices, and hospice agencies. If you were planning to have bypass surgery, you had to visit Hospital Compare, Nursing Home Compare, and Home Health Compare individually to get information on providers to help you for the surgery through to the rehabilitation. But now with Care Compare, you just use this one online tool to compare providers for each of those phases.

Care Compare can help you:

  • Compare location, quality, and price information for health care providers, including hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, dialysis facilities, long-term care hospitals, in-patient rehabilitation facilities, doctor offices, and hospice agencies
  • Search for providers and facilities based on your needs. For example, when searching for a nursing home, the tool has a checklist of considerations that might be important to you.
  • Get a better idea of your out-of-pocket costs as the Procedure Price Lookup tool now includes physician fees and administration fees.

Care Compare provides all the information in one place, so you can make more informed decisions about where you get your health care. Visit medicare.gov/care-compare to use this enhanced tool.