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CMS launched a remodeled website Thursday that consolidates its eight online consumer tools to one platform. The redesigned site is an attempt by CMS to give users a more streamlined experience using its platform, called Compare tools. CMS has published information online about healthcare providers and care settings for Medicare beneficiaries and their caregivers for more than 15 years. One of the elements for the hospital version to convey quality, the star ratings, has come under fire for producing inconsistent results and CMS recently proposed changes to the methodology as a result. (Castellucci, 9/3)

Nine months after initially floating the idea, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched Care Compare, a consumer-facing database of provider quality information.The agency announced the launch on Thursday. CMS originally announced its plan to merge Home Health Compare with the seven other Compare sites in January. Agency officials said the goal was to create one tool that would feature data about providers across the continuum, streamlining information for Medicare beneficiaries and their family members. (Famakinwa, 9/3)

The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed another victim: Medicare’s trust fund. The Congressional Budget Office released a report Wednesday projecting that Medicare’s federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which helps pay for Medicare beneficiaries’ hospital bills, will be insolvent by fiscal year 2024. That means there won’t be enough money in the trust fund to fully pay hospitals, doctors, and nursing homes for the care they provide to Medicare beneficiaries. (Jacobson, 9/3)

CMS released its annual Inpatient Prospective Payment System final rule Sept. 2, which raises Medicare payment rates for acute care hospitals. The rule, which affects approximately 3,200 acute care hospitals, applies to discharges occurring on or after Oct. 1, 2020. Here are seven takeaways from the 2,160-page final rule. (Elllison, 9/3)