Monday, October 27, 2025

CMS Five-Star Quality Acute Care Hospitals in Indiana

Using a five-star rating methodology, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) grades the quality of the more than 4,000 acute care hospitals that treat Medicare and Medicaid participants. The CMS rating methodology analyzes hospital-submitted data on various quality metrics, computes a score for each measure, and then aggregates the scores into a comprehensive quality grade on a 1 to 5-star scale, with 5-stars being the top score. The metrics examined for acute care hospitals include mortality rates, patient safety, the timeliness of care, patient experience, and readmission rates. As of October 25, 2025, twelve (12) acute care hospitals in the state of Indiana, including two devoted to veterans' care, earned a five-star quality rating from the CMS.  Listed in alphabetical order, here are the hospitals rated as CMS five-star quality acute care hospitals in Indiana:

CMS Five-Star Quality Acute Care Hospitals in Indiana

Friday, October 24, 2025

General Dentist Pay in the Great Plains Region

Nearly 122,000 general dentists were employed in the U.S. as of May 2024 according to data released earlier this year by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).  Per BLS data, just over 7,790 of those employed general dentists worked in the seven-state Great Plains region of the country.  Although home to three states ranked among the ten best in the nation for general dentist annual mean wages, on the whole the region was a subpar one in terms of pay, as nearly 64% of the region's dentists lived in states where the annual mean wage for general dentists was below the national average.  A closer examination of May 2024 BLS data details the following about general dentist pay in the Great Plains region:

General Dentist Pay in the Great Plains Region
General Dentist Pay in the Great Plains Region

State # Employed Annual Mean Wages Wage Rank*
IA 850 $216,520 6th
KS 1,240 $172,120 38th
MN 2,500 $224,700 3rd
MO 1,980 N/A N/A
NE 740 $185,360 26th
ND 210 $224,300 4th
SD 270 $166,690 40th
U.S. 121,940 $188,952 -------

(*) annual mean wage ranking among the 50 states

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data extracted on October 24, 2025