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Recent HH-CAHPS Press, News, and Updates

11/1/2010 - CMS has issued an announcement to HHAs on Requesting a Participation Exemption for the HHCAHPS Survey and Participating in the September Dry Run. Read the full report here.

9/16/2010 - CMS and the Coordination Team are posting this announcement based on questions received during the September 2010 Update Training. During this training session, CMS stated that Medicare-certified home health agencies participating in the Home Health Care CAHPS (HHCAHPS) Survey may inform all patients during the intake phase or in the agency’s admission materials that they may be contacted and asked to respond to a patient experience survey. If this information is conveyed to all patients during the intake phase, this is acceptable. It is not acceptable, however, to send letters or otherwise contact patients to let them know that they have been selected for the HHCAHPS and that their responses would be appreciated. Nor is it acceptable for home health agency provider staff (skilled staff, aides, etc.) to engage in discussions with their patients about the HHCAHPS Survey. Home health agencies may not contact patients in advance to ask them if they want to participate in the survey.

For patients currently receiving care, including long-term patients, it is appropriate to inform them during their next scheduled assessment that they may be asked to respond to a patient experience survey.

As stated during training sessions and in the Protocols and Guidelines Manual, patients selected into the HHCAHPS Survey sample have the right to refuse when contacted via mail or telephone.

4/30/2010 - Many HHA professionals that we have spoken with have expressed concern over the completely anonymous nature of the HHCAHPS survey. The question that keeps coming up is, "How can I solve a patient-specific problem if the survey is anonymous?" Pinnacle Quality Insight and other vendors have brought this concern to CMS, and they have responded with a change to how it will be conducted, with a full article listed here.

"Some Medicare-certified home health agencies... have asked their approved Home Health Care CAHPS Survey vendor to provide them with survey responses linked to their patients’ names so that they can respond to and address any specific needs that their patients report during the HHCAHPS survey.... "

"Survey vendors can share a respondent’s survey responses linked to his or her name with the client HHA only if the patient (hereafter referred to in this document as “the respondent) gives the survey vendor permission to do so."

"This means that survey vendors who have a client HHA that wishes to have access to identifying information that would link a respondent’s name to his or her survey responses must include the transition statement and question shown below in the survey instrument used with sample members selected from that HHA."

This represents an enormous opportunity for HHAs to use HHCAHPS for loyalty building with patients. When a complaint arises, simply addressing it right away can go a long way to diffuse a concern from becoming something more serious like a complaint to the state, or a lawsuit.

Bear in mind, HHCAHPS can be just another expense to raise your blood pressure, OR you can treat it as the top-performing Health-Care companies do...an opportunity to improve your service image and foster loyalty with clients.

2/18/2010 - Pinnacle Quality Insight has recently become associate members of Home Care Associations in the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington

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