Clear Insights Lead To Five Star Outcomes.

Star Ratings analytics, plus managed data and reporting, for Medicare Advantage plans and value based care organizations.

The Gap Is Not A Missing Report. It Is A Missing Method.

We exist because the people who carry quality work deserve numbers they can defend, while the measurement year is still open.

Quality teams are handed tools that describe the past confidently and the future not at all. By the time a rating is confirmed, the year is closed and nothing can be changed. Meanwhile the analytics team rebuilds the same model every year, breaks it whenever the methodology shifts, and carries the whole thing alone and undocumented.

Both problems have the same root. The method is not visible, so it cannot be trusted, maintained, or improved. A number nobody can reproduce has to be defended by authority rather than evidence, and that is a bad position for the person holding it.

Our mission is to bridge the gap between payer strategy, technical reality and clinical execution with the most trusted, deterministic analytics for population health and value based care. The vision behind it is a healthcare ecosystem where quality is automatic, data is transparent, and administrative noise never gets in the way of patient care.

What Changes

  • The quality leader can defend the number upward without needing the analyst in the room.
  • The analyst can hand the model to someone else, because the definitions are written down rather than remembered.
  • The clinical team gets a gap list tied to a patient in front of them, not a file from last quarter.
  • A methodology change becomes a version bump instead of a rebuild.

Who We Work With

Our Star Ratings analytics and managed data work serves three kinds of organization. Each starts in a different place, so each has its own page with the offers that fit it.

  • Managed care plans

    Health Plans

    Medicare Advantage plans see cut point exposure at the start of the measurement year, and take the report desk off their analytics team.

    Medicaid managed care Coming Soon

  • ACOs, IPAs and provider sponsored plans

    Value Based Care Organizations

    A short, prioritized list of care gaps tied to real patients, and a data team that keeps quality reporting current.

  • Data support behind your delivery

    Vendors And Consultants

    A managed data and Star Ratings analytics team behind your delivery, documented so your team stays in control.

Five Values, Each One A Promise.

Our mission is to provide data driven insights and resources that lead to proactive strategies and initiatives, not just to hand off reports and dashboards. These are the five commitments that mission rests on.

  • Precision Is Patient Care.

    A wrong number here is not a typo. It is a member who never gets the call, a gap that closes in January instead of October, a bonus payment that becomes a clawback. So we don't move fast and break things. We move deliberately and get it right, and we show you the math.

  • Signal Over Noise.

    You already have more data than anyone can read. You don't need another report. You need to know which measures move, which members matter this week, and what to do about it by Friday. We surface only what is impactable and urgent, and we leave the rest quiet.

  • First, Do No Harm To The Workflow.

    The people closing your gaps are clinicians, coordinators, and analysts with a full day before they open our software. If a task takes five clicks where one would do, we have failed. Everything we build fits the way your team already works, or it does not ship.

  • Radical Transparency, The Glass Box.

    Every score, every ranking, every recommendation comes with its logic exposed. You can trace any number back to the measure specification and the record that produced it. The same goes for our roadmap and our mistakes. When we are wrong, you hear it from us first, and fast.

  • Translate To Win.

    Quality speaks Stars. Analytics speaks SQL. Clinical speaks care plans. Most teams end up speaking one language and leaving the other two to guess. We sit at the center of the triangle and make sure strategy, data, and the exam room are describing the same patient. That is how a plan actually earns five stars.

The Same Four Moves, Whatever You Buy From Us.

Every product and every engagement follows the same shape: start with the least sensitive data that can answer the question, show the math at each step, and end with something your own team can run.

  • Platform

    Platform

    The QuaSAR Platform, our web application, starting free on published CMS data. No PHI, no BAA.

    1. Open the product on published CMS data. Nothing to sign.
    2. See every Star Ratings measure against the current cut points, ranked by weighted impact.
    3. Run scenarios against your target rating, with the computation trail attached.
    4. Step up to your own plan data, in your own cloud, when you are ready.
    See the platform
  • Service

    Managed Data And Analytics

    Your analytics team, extended, on our runbooks and a published cadence.

    1. Map the pipelines, the reporting, and the people who depend on them.
    2. Take over the movement of quality data and the measure reporting.
    3. Publish on a cadence, with the methodology attached to every output.
    4. Hand it back documented, so your team runs it after we are gone.
    See how managed data works

The List We Expect To Be Held To.

Every company publishes what it does. This is the other half, and it is more useful when you are deciding whether to trust us.

  • Not Magic.

    Our method is engineering, not a black box. It does not think, it does not feel, and it does not get to be wrong quietly. It shows its work, and you can audit it.

  • Not Vendor Number Forty Two.

    We do not hand over software and disappear. We document everything, we train your team, and we build so you can take it in-house any time you want. We earn the renewal. We never lock you into it.

  • Not Dashboards.

    You have plenty. We are answers: which measures, which members, what to do next, and why.

  • Not A Guarantee.

    We do not guarantee ratings we cannot control, and we do not tie a fee to a rating outcome. We influence a number that many hands touch.

  • Not A Hidden Method.

    If a projection cannot be reproduced from its stated inputs, it is not finished. The method behind the output is published, not gated.

  • Not A Certified Measure Engine.

    We are not a certified measure engine and not an accredited measure vendor, and we will never imply otherwise. The day that changes, this page says so.

A Lean Team, And A Deliberate Division Of The Work.

Bert leads technology, engineering, and product. Pedro leads project management and executive operations, and the two partner on marketing and sales. Naming that split tells you who owns the thing you are about to ask about.

  • Bert J. Rico, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ClearStars

    Bert J. Rico

    Founder and Chief Executive Officer

    Bert J. Rico, Founder and CEO of ClearStars, is a Medicare Advantage Stars and quality analytics leader with nearly two decades of experience who has contributed to three 5 Star CMS contracts, including a regional plan's first ever 5 Star rating.

    Read the full bio
  • Pedro Cerrate, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of ClearStars

    Pedro Cerrate

    Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder

    Pedro Cerrate, COO and Co-Founder of ClearStars, is a decorated U.S. Army veteran, former M1 Abrams tank crew leader, and Fort Riley Noncommissioned Officer of the Year who leads the company's project management and executive operations.

    Read the full bio

Channel Partnerships

A team this size does not pretend to have built everything itself. Where an engagement needs cloud scale or around the clock security operations, we deliver it through a partner we name.

  • Program member

    Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program

    Our cloud work is delivered inside the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, which is how a team this size stands up a foundation for a client on infrastructure they already trust.

  • Managed security channel partner

    Huntress

    We are a Huntress channel partner for managed detection and response. When an engagement needs endpoints and identities watched around the clock, that is the partner behind it rather than a promise we improvise.

Operators Who Have Carried This Work Themselves.

We are advised by people who have run the plan, owned the clinical outcome, or defended the number to a board. They are named in conversation and in the data room, not here.

  • A former chief executive of two health plans.

  • A former chief medical officer at a health plan.

  • A health-system VP of Quality Improvement.

  • A senior finance consultant in SaaS.

What We Hold Today, And What We Do Not Claim.

Anonymized data only in development and demos. No protected health information is collected on this website. Client derived data stays summary level, and where a client engagement is confidential we do not reference it at all, anonymized or otherwise.

We would rather lose a questionnaire scoring round than imply a certification we have not earned. The Trust Center carries the current posture in detail, and it is the only place we describe it.

Built To WCAG 2.1 AA.

Accessibility is a commitment we make to every reader of this site and every user of the products, not a setting we turn on at build time. Five things we hold ourselves to.

  • Body text meets AA contrast. The brand gold is used at display sizes, in fills, and on calls to action with dark text, never as body copy.
  • Touch targets are at least 44 by 44 pixels.
  • Every meaningful image carries alt text, and every input carries a label.
  • Meaning is never carried by color alone. It is paired with an icon or text.
  • The full site is navigable without a mouse, with a visible focus indicator throughout.

If something on this site does not work for you, write to us and we will fix it. Corrections are published, not absorbed.

Questions About ClearStars

Star Ratings analytics, and managed data and reporting, for Medicare Advantage plans and value based care organizations. The QuaSAR Platform starts free on published CMS data with Meteor. Beside it sits one service, Managed Data and Analytics, which includes Meteor.

Two founders, our team and an advisory board. Bert J. Rico, Founder and CEO, leads technology, engineering and product. Pedro Cerrate, COO and Co-Founder, leads project management and executive operations. The advisors, described by background on the leadership page, include a former chief executive of two health plans and a former health plan chief medical officer.

No. The platform starts on published CMS data, with no PHI and no BAA. Patient level work comes later, in your own cloud, under a business associate agreement put in place before any data moves.

No. ClearStars is not certified to calculate quality measures and is not an accredited measure vendor, and nothing we deliver is presented as a certified result. The day that changes, this page says so.

No. CMS calculates and publishes Star Ratings, and many hands touch the number. We show where each measure stands against the current cut points and which gaps are worth closing first, and we never tie a fee to a rating outcome.

HIPAA compliant today. Our Trust Center carries the current security and compliance posture in detail, and it is the only place we describe it. This website collects no protected health information.

See How The Glass Box Works.

The methodology behind our projections is public and ungated. It is the fastest way to judge whether our numbers hold up.

HIPAA compliant today. See our Trust Center for our security and compliance posture.

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