VA health care outperforms non-VA care in two independent, nationwide quality and patient satisfaction reviews

Patient Satisfaction Survey: VA outperformed non-VA hospitals in the most recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems star ratings, with 79% of VA facilities receiving a summary star rating of 4 or 5 stars compared to 40% of non-VA hospitals. This represents the ninth consecutive quarter in which VA facilities have outperformed non-VA counterparts.

Hospital Quality Ratings: In this year’s CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings, more than 58% of VA hospitals included received 4- or 5-star ratings compared to 40% of non-VA hospitals. This is only the second year VA hospitals have been included in this review, and VA has outperformed non-VA health care in both years.

These findings come at a time when Veteran trust in VA outpatient care has reached an all-time record high of 92%, based on a survey of more than 440,000 Veterans. Additionally, these findings are consistent with a recent systematic review that found that VA health care is consistently as good as — or better than — non-VA health care.

Providing the world-class care that Veterans deserve is a top priority for VA and the entire Biden-Harris administration. Over the past year, VA has ensured that as many Veterans can access this care as possible by increasing night and weekend clinics, decreasing wait times, and making millions of Veterans newly eligible for VA care. VA encourages all eligible Veterans to apply for VA care today.

“We’ve made millions more Veterans eligible for VA health care under the PACT Act – and now, we want to make sure that every one of them gets timely access to the world-class care they deserve,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “Whenever a Veteran sets foot in a VA facility, we want them to know that they are getting the very best care this nation has to offer – and we won’t ever settle for anything less.”

“It’s our commitment that every eligible Veteran not only can choose VA health care, but when they do, that they get the very best and safest care possible,” said VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal, M.D. “For the second year in a row, VA care has been shown to be some of the best in the nation. We are dedicated to continuously improving as we strive towards always providing the highest quality of care to Veterans.”

These ratings come as VA continues to deliver more care to more Veterans than ever before. In the two years following the enactment of the PACT Act, nearly 740,000 Veterans have enrolled in VA health care, representing a 33% increase over the previous two-year period. VA is on pace to deliver 127 million health care appointments in 2024, surpassing last year’s record of 120 million.

Both CMS ratings aim to improve patients’ ability to make informed decisions about where they receive care. CMS awards Overall Star Ratings to hospitals based on five categories: mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, and timely and effective care. CMS’ HCAHPS summary star ratings combine information across ten measures of patient experience, including staff communication and responsiveness, hospital environment, willingness to recommend the hospital, and overall hospital rating. This year’s Overall Star Ratings are based on data collected between July 2019 and March 2023, and this quarter’s HCAHPS star ratings are based on data collected between October 2022 and September 2023.

VA is committed to delivering the timely, world-class health care Veterans deserve and will stop at nothing less. The rating of your local VA hospital can be found via CMS’ Care Compare tool.

For more information about VA care, visit VA’s health care website. For more information about Veteran trust in VA, visit the VA trust website. To enroll in VA care, visit https://www.va.gov/health-care/how-to-apply/.

Valerie Harwood, Public Affairs Officer

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