This blog post was written by our guest blogger, Megan O’Donnell, Manager of RMS Healthcare.

The healthcare team at Research & Marketing Strategies is expanding its complement of survey administration of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) to include the newly-required In-Center Hemodialysis (ICH) CAHPS® survey.  This new survey is added to the company’s CAHPS® survey administration activities already in place for hospitals, home health agencies, and physician practices.

RMS Healthcare is available for any in-center renal dialysis facility to meet the survey administration requirements set forth by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), which require the facility to use an outside vendor to complete the survey among adult patients currently receiving dialysis and have been with the facility for a minimum of three months. To this end, RMS Healthcare has just been identified as a preferred vendor for the National Renal Administrators Association (NRAA), and will be available to its membership for CAHPS® survey administration beginning this month.

In its Final Rule for PY2014 End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System and Quality Incentive Program (see it here: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-11-10/pdf/2011-28606.pdf), CMS imposed a requirement that ESRD facilities serving patients in-center conduct the CAHPS® survey during the performance period of Calendar Year 2012 in order to avoid reductions in payments from CMS in PY2014.

RMS is a NRAA Preferred CAHPS® Survey Vendor

Because so many facilities will be looking to meet the CMS requirements by the end of the calendar year, and because the survey administration process normally takes a minimum of two months to complete (from setup to data analysis), facilities are encouraged to contact RMS Healthcare as soon as possible to begin the process and ensure their successful completion of the CMS requirements.

RMS Healthcare will work with your team as a NRAA preferred vendor for CAHPS® surveying to make the survey administration process as simple and worry-free as possible. Our dedicated staff of healthcare analysts, together with our in-house QualiSight Call Center, will administer your survey in a way that combines the professionalism needed to complete the task with the personal attention to both you and the patients you serve.

Celebrating 10 years of operations, RMS Healthcare continues to grow its consulting and survey business within the healthcare industry and assists numerous providers in measuring patient experiences through survey administration. RMS is a CMS-approved vendor of CAHPS® surveys.

If you’d like more information about CAHPS® surveying for ICH facilities or would like to learn more about how an NRAA preferred vendor like RMS can help you, contact our Business Development Director, Sandy Baker at SandyB@RMSresults.com or call her at 315-635-9802.