Home health agencies in Massachusetts
How CMS rates the state's 287 Medicare-certified agencies delivering skilled care at home, how much CMS actually reports about them, and how that compares with the national dataset.
At a glance
- Home health agencies
- 287
- Medicare-certified
- With a CMS star
- 122
- of 287
- Report ≥1 measure
- 176
- meaningful data
- Cities
- 115
How Massachusetts compares
The state's CMS star profile against the full national dataset, in the half-star steps CMS publishes.
CMS quality-of-patient-care star distribution
How Massachusetts's Medicare-certified agencies spread across the CMS quality star rating, compared with the national dataset.
View as a table
| Rating | Providers | Share | National |
|---|---|---|---|
| CMS quality star 5 | 4 | 1.4% | 3.7% |
| CMS quality star 4.5 | 11 | 3.8% | 8.4% |
| CMS quality star 4 | 13 | 4.5% | 10.4% |
| CMS quality star 3.5 | 26 | 9.1% | 10.8% |
| CMS quality star 3 | 22 | 7.7% | 10.9% |
| CMS quality star 2.5 | 16 | 5.6% | 7.8% |
| CMS quality star 2 | 7 | 2.4% | 6.3% |
| CMS quality star 1.5 | 11 | 3.8% | 4.8% |
| CMS quality star 1 | 12 | 4.2% | 1.3% |
| No star | 165 | 57.5% | 35.8% |
| Total | 287 | 100.0% | 100.0% |
State shares are calculated from the 287 Medicare-certified agencies in Massachusetts; national shares from all 12,392 in this dataset. The CMS quality-of-patient-care star is published in half-star steps and is shown here without rounding. Agencies CMS does not rate are counted separately and never treated as zero.
CMS-reported data
Massachusetts’s largest divergence from the national dataset is at 4★: 4.5% of the state’s agencies against 10.4% nationally (-5.9 points). This reflects what CMS publishes for these agencies and is not a judgement about care quality in either population.
What CMS reports here
For home health, how much CMS publishes about an agency is the first thing to understand — coverage varies widely.
Of the 287 agencies in Massachusetts, CMS assigns a quality star to 122 and reports at least one quality measure for 176. 111 have neither — usually because the agency was too small or too new for CMS to report reliably. Each agency page states plainly which of the 17 CMS measure slots are filled for it.
Where agencies are concentrated
The cities holding the largest share, with the full directory available below.
The 8 largest cities hold 30% of the state’s 287 agencies, across 115 cities in total.
- Worcester23 · 8%Search →
- Springfield11 · 4%Search →
- Chelmsford11 · 4%Search →
- Lawrence10 · 3%Search →
- Brockton9 · 3%Search →
- Quincy8 · 3%Search →
- Stoughton7 · 2%Search →
- Methuen7 · 2%Search →
Browse all 115 cities
Nursing homes
Nursing homes and Medicare-certified home health agencies use different CMS quality systems and are never combined into one ranking.
Related research
Frequently asked questions
How many home health agencies are in Massachusetts?
The current CMS Home Health Care dataset lists 287 Medicare-certified agencies across 115 cities in Massachusetts, of which 122 carry a CMS quality-of-patient-care star rating.
Why do some Massachusetts agencies have no star or limited data?
CMS only publishes results it can report reliably. An agency that served too few Medicare patients in the reporting window may have no star rating and few or no quality measures. In Massachusetts, 111 of 287 agencies have neither a star nor a reported measure. A missing rating is a gap in the public record, not a negative result, and is never shown as a zero.
How does Massachusetts compare with the national dataset?
122 of 287 Massachusetts agencies carry a CMS star (43%), against 64% nationally across 12,392 agencies. The distribution above shows both on the same half-star scale. Differences reflect what CMS publishes and are not a judgement about care quality.
How can I verify a home health agency in Massachusetts?
SeniorCareRating.com organizes public CMS data and is not affiliated with CMS. Confirm current details on the official Medicare Care Compare site and with the agency directly.