Star Ratings

The Star Ratings program, developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), provides an opportunity for pharmacies to affect their standings and grow their business. Each year, CMS conducts a comprehensive review of the measures that make up the Star Ratings, considering the reliability of the measures, clinical recommendations, feedback received from stakeholders, and data issues. Although pharmacies do not have a “Star Rating”, their performance is a major part of the payer’s overall Star Rating.

The Star Ratings measures span five broad categories:

  • Outcomes

  • Intermediate Outcomes

  • Patient Experience

  • Access

  • Process

Value Drug strives to help our members identify and embrace the best practices of a high-performing pharmacy. We have negotiated programs with partners such as:

EQuIPP™

EQuIPP provides pharmacies with a dashboard to track patient prescription data metrics identifying therapeutic areas with opportunities to improve Star Rating performance concerning critical measures focused on medication adherence and patient safety.

PrescribeWellness

PrescribeWellness provides a cloud-based platform that incorporates more than 80 software systems to make it easier for retail pharmacies to identify their patients within therapeutic areas. This allows pharmacists to target those patients who need to improve medication adherence through its StarWellness medication synchronization program, or those who need to manage a chronic disease more effectively, thereby positively impacting customer health outcomes while reducing overall costs to the healthcare system.

National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA)

The NCPA provides numerous programs that can positively impact your profitability, including its medication adherence program, Simplify My Meds. Value Drug primary members receive one free pharmacist membership and a discounted rate for any additional memberships to gain access to educational programs designed to improve Star Ratings.