In hospital-based selling, data-driven insight is a competitive edge. Commercial teams need to dive deeper, beyond product knowledge and market access mechanics, understanding the broader performance landscape in which hospitals operate. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) star rating system is a powerful tool.
The CMS hospital rating system, a national benchmark of hospital quality, provides a standardized, public view into how well hospitals perform across key measures, including¹:
Mortality
Safety of care
Readmission
Patient experience
Timely and effective care
Hospitals are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with higher ratings reflecting stronger performance.¹ While designed for patients, this information is equally valuable for account managers when they know how to use it strategically.
Quality ratings, and the factors that influence them, represent a significant opportunity for products that can address these drivers. Implementing this kind of strategy requires a deeper understanding of a hospital system’s current quality performance, the specific factors affecting its scores, and how the product can influence those factors to improve outcomes. Hospital quality teams often play a broad, strategic role as quality scores have become a key driver of a system’s financial health.
How can commercial teams use these ratings to sharpen account planning, customer messaging, and stakeholder engagement?
Commercial teams can tailor their approach and messaging based on the CMS star ratings by:
Segmenting accounts by their ratings to better identify opportunities
Strategizing their product or service strengths against the hospital gaps or hospital system quality drivers
Identifying how their product or service maintains or improves specific measures
Prioritizing what data to present to best align with the hospital’s star rating profile
Framing conversations for the right stakeholders
Fuel for thought
At OCTANE, we believe commercial excellence starts with teaching reps how to think, not just what to say. The CMS hospital rating system offers powerful insight into hospital performance, priorities, and pressures. With the right training, commercial teams can turn that insight into meaningful, customer-focused engagement.
Explore other topics in our hospital series
Reference
Medicare.gov. Overall star rating for hospitals. Updated 2025. Accessed May 2025.
