No. The federal CMS Five-Star Quality Rating System (via Medicare Care Compare) only applies to nursing homes, not to adult care homes or family care homes. Instead, DHSR's Adult Care Licensure Section maintains its own 'Facility Inspections, Ratings and Penalties' search tool (info.ncdhhs.gov/dhsr/acls/star/search.asp), which provides a state-specific, compliance-history-based star rating along with raw inspection reports and penalty records, but it is not standardized against other states.
What this means in practice
This is one of the more consequential gaps families researching Raleigh-area assisted living run into: the polished, nationally comparable CMS Five-Star rating that makes nursing home shopping relatively easy simply doesn't exist for adult care homes. DHSR's own ACLS ratings tool fills part of that gap for facilities across the Triangle, from Cary to Chapel Hill, by publishing a compliance-based star score plus the underlying inspection reports and any penalties from the last 36 months — but it's a narrower, NC-only system that can't be used to compare a Raleigh facility against one in another state the way CMS Care Compare can for nursing homes. Families should treat the ACLS tool as the authoritative source for NC adult care home quality data, while understanding its scope and comparability are more limited than the nursing home equivalent.
Related questions
- How do I check if an assisted living community in Cary is actually licensed?
- Does North Carolina license assisted living facilities as Type A, B, or C like some other states?
- What's the difference between a 'family care home' and a regular adult care home in Durham?
- What has to be disclosed if a memory care unit in Wake Forest calls itself a 'Special Care Unit'?
- How do I find inspection reports and violation history for a nursing home in Durham?
- Is the same state agency in charge of licensing both nursing homes and assisted living communities in Raleigh?
- Where do I file a complaint about care quality at an adult care home in Apex?
