The Jackson Group

New HCAHPS News and Deadlines

June 2, 2008

CMS is seeking hospitals who may be interested in participating in an evaluation of the feasibility of two new candidate modes of HCAHPS survey administration: Active Speech Enabled IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and Internet. The mode experiment will include Active Speech Enabled IVR, Internet, and the existing Mail Only mode. Based on the results for these two candidate modes, including response rates, data quality and survey administration issues, CMS will evaluate whether these candidate modes should be considered for future adoption in HCAHPS.

The next publicly reported data for HCAHPS will be released in July (date still to be determined) and will report data collected for October 2006 through September 2007 discharges.

April 14, 2008

Summer 2008 Preview Period Begins April 14, 2008 (4/10/2008)

The Preview Period for the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) and Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU) initiatives is scheduled for April 14, 2008 through May 13, 2008. Preview Reports will be accessed through the HQA Preview Reports link located in the Reports section of My QualityNet. For detailed instructions on how to retrieve your HQA preview report, please refer to the QualityNet Reports User's Guide.

The Preview Report will reflect data for:

The Clinical Process Measures discharge data accepted into the QIO Clinical Warehouse for 4th Quarter 2006 through 3rd Quarter 2007.
The 30-day Mortality Outcome Measures data based on administrative data from hospitalized, fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries discharged between 3rd Quarter 2006 and 2nd Quarter 2007 for AMI, HF, and Pneumonia.
The HCAHPS Measures based on hospital discharges from 4th Quarter 2006 through 3rd Quarter 2007.

Important Suppression Information

To withhold publication of data, a provider must contact its QIO Hospital Public Reporting contact with its request to withhold and transmit a completed 'Request for Withholding Data from Public Reporting' form to that QIO contact no later than May 13, 2008 QIO COB. The QIOs have until 11:59 pm Central Time on May 15, 2008 to complete PRS data entry.

In order for their HCAHPS results to be publicly reported, hospitals must have an HQA Pledge on file. If a hospital chooses to suppress HCAHPS, then ALL of its HCAHPS results will be withheld for this public reporting (hospitals may not choose to suppress some HCAHPS results and publicly report others). If a hospital chooses to suppress HCAHPS results, it will receive a footnote in Hospital Compare indicating 'Survey results are not available for this reporting period'; however, state and national rates will display.

October 25, 2007

Public Reporting of Hospital Cleanliness and Quietness

Extensive consumer testing of HCAHPS reporting formats has been conducted by CMS in preparation for the initial public reporting of HCAHPS results on the Hospital Compare website in March 2008.

As a result of this testing, CMS has decided to report the former 'cleanliness and quietness' composite as two separate items: "Cleanliness of the Hospital Environment," and "Quietness of the Hospital Environment."

Public reporting of participating hospitals' HCAHPS results will therefore consist of the following ten items:

Six composite topics
Two individual topics ('cleanliness' and 'quietness')
Two overall ratings

In addition, CMS will report the 'number of completed surveys' and the 'survey response rate' for each participating hospital.

October 19, 2007

Upcoming deadlines for HCAHPS data submission are as follows:

January 9, 2008 is the data submission deadline for patients discharged in July, August and September 2007. September 2007 Dry Run data also must be submitted by this date.
April 9, 2008 is the data submission deadline for patients discharged in October, November and December 2007. December 2007 Dry Run data also must be submitted by this date.

All data submissions (XML file format and Online Data Entry Tool) must be successfully submitted by these dates.

Please continue to monitor the HCAHPS website, www.hcahpsonline.org for future data submission deadlines.

August 31, 2007

The FY 2008 Reporting Hospital Quality Data Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU) Notice of Participation Form has been posted on the QualityNet Exchange Website. The form must be completed and submitted to the hospital's QIO for their state by August 15, 2007.

Reminder: September 2007 Dry Run for Hospitals Who Have Not Yet Joined HCAHPS

A Dry Run of the HCAHPS survey is scheduled for hospitals that have not yet joined HCAHPS. This Dry Run will include eligible discharges from the month of September 2007. Survey data collected for the September 2007 Dry Run must be successfully submitted to CMS via QualityNet Exchange by January 9, 2008.

The Dry Run will permit hospitals and survey vendors to gain first-hand experience in collecting and transmitting HCAHPS survey data, without the public reporting of hospital results.

Please note that participation in the September 2007 Dry Run will not qualify as meeting requirements for the fiscal year 2008 Annual Payment Update. In addition, hospitals participating in this Dry Run must contract with an approved survey vendor.

Hospitals that participate in the September 2007 Dry Run should continue to collect data for HCAHPS eligible discharges in October 2007 and forward.

For more information, visit www.hcahpsonline.org.

May 15, 2007

Upcoming deadlines for HCAHPS data submission is as follows:

July 13, 2007 is the data submission deadline for patients discharged in Jannuary, February and March 2007. Data from the March 2007 Dry Run also must be submitted by this date.

October 10, 2007 is the data submission deadline for patients discharged in April, May and June 2007.

January 9, 2008 is the data submission deadline for patients discharged in July, August and September 2007.

All data submissions (XML file format and Online Data Entry Tool) must be successfully submitted by these dates. Revised XML file specifications have been posted on the HCAHPS website, and can be found on the Technical Specifications page. The revised file specifications apply to all data collected after October 1, 2006.

HCAHPS Reporting Date Announced

The first public reporting of HCAHPS results will occur in March 2008. Hospital results for patients discharged between October 2006 and June 2007 will be displayed on the Hospital Compare website. Participating hospitals will receive a "preview report" of their results and will have the option, on this occasion, to suppress their results. CMS anticipates that hospital results will be presented in a fashion similar to that currently used for the clinical quality measures.

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