Another STARS Decision

Beckers Payer Issues notes,

• “CMS must recalculate the Medicare Advantage star ratings for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, a federal judge ruled June 10.
• “The judge ruled partially in favor of Elevance Health, which sued to challenge CMS’ star ratings methodology in December. The insurer sought new ratings for several of its subsidiaries, but the judge ruled CMS needs to recalculate ratings only for BCBS of Georgia.
• “Elevance’s challenge focused on CMS’ use of the Tukey method, a change announced by CMS in a 2020 final rule and implemented in 2024 star ratings. The method removes extreme outliers from measure scores to prevent outliers from affecting all MA contracts, making it more difficult for plans to earn a high star rating. In 2022, a final star ratings rule from CMS did not mention the new change, which the agency added back in the 2023 rule, citing an inadvertent removal.
• “CMS also limits scoring changes to 5% annually. In the lawsuit, Elevance said CMS should have factored in those limits before adding the Tukey change back in 2023 versus the other way around.

“Randolph Moss, a judge for the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C, ruled CMS violated the Administrative Procedure Act in applying the Tukey methodology. However, Mr. Moss ruled Elevance proved the Tukey method affected the star rating only for BCBS of Georgia and not the other plans for which it sought revised ratings.”

This opinion and last week’s Scan Health opinion may wind up before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.