Wilmington-based Well Care Home Health has received the highest possible level in an assessment based on a new rating system and report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Medicare-certified home health agencies recently received provider preview reports from CMS notifying them of their rating scores, which will be published on the Medicare website's Home Health Compare page this month, according to a news release from Well Care.

"Consumers searching for the best home health providers will now have a succinct, user-friendly option for choosing quality care in the home," the release stated. "The CMS five-star system will be used like rating systems for other industries such as film, restaurant and hospitality."

The ratings, according to the release, are based on an agency's performance on patient outcomes in CMS' nine clinically relevant quality indicators:

• Timely initiation of care;
• Improvement in bathing;
• Improvement in bed transferring;
• Education on patient medications;
• Current flu immunization;
• Improvement in pain interfering with activity;
• Improvement in ambulation;
• Acute care hospitalization;
• Improvement in shortness of breath.