Confused about the ins and outs of OAS CAHPS surveys? This informative outline gives a high-level overview of OAS CAHPS survey requirements and the significance of maintaining compliance. A more in-depth webinar, “Cracking the OAS CAHPS Code with rater8 and RMS“, featuring Evan Steele, Founder & CEO of rater8, and Sandy Baker, VP of Corporate Development for Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc. can be viewed HERE.
OVERVIEW TOPICS:
- Gain insights into the fundamentals of OAS CAHPS surveys
- Get acquainted with important OAS CAHPS survey deadlines and compliance requirements
Who is RMS?
- We are a full-service market research and healthcare consulting firm located in Central New York that’s been in business for 21 years.
Overall Benefits of Working with Us?
- CMS-Approved CAHPS® Survey Vendor
- Strategies provided to help improve performance
- Educational and promotional materials available to patients and staff
- Deadlines promptly met
- 24/7 online portal access to data
- Fully HIPAA compliant
What does OAS CAHPS Mean?
- Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Survey
- Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems
What’s the Purpose of the OAS CAHPS Survey?
- Measure the experience of care in Hospital Outpatient Departments (HOPDs) and Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs)
- Encourages quality improvement
- Allows consumers to make informed decisions when choosing an HOPD or ASC because the data is available publicly
Why Should Organizations Care Now?
- There are TWO entities with mandates quickly approaching:
- Hospital Outpatient Department surveys (HOPD) will be mandated in 2024
- Must have 300 completed surveys per year*
- If there are less than 60 patients a year, the Hospital can file for an exemption
- Must have 300 completed surveys per year*
- Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) will be mandated in 2025
- Must have 200 completed surveys per year*
- *If there are less than 60 patients a year, the Surgery Center can file for an exemption
- Must have 200 completed surveys per year*
- Hospital Outpatient Department surveys (HOPD) will be mandated in 2024
How Do Organizations Know if They Qualify?
- If they perform procedures that are within range of CPT-4 Codes for Surgery
- Are Medicare-certified
- Have a CMS Certification Number (CCN)
- Bill under the Payment System OR the Outpatient Payment Prospective System (OPPS)
- Participate in the Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program OR the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program (Hospital OQR)
- Have an agreement with CMS
What Happens if Organizations Don’t Do Surveys?
- HOPDs and ASCs that do not administer and report OAS CAHPS when it becomes mandatory could be subject to a penalty of 2% of their annual Medicare payment update.
Why Should Companies Consider Starting the Surveys Before the Mandate Starts?
- If HOPDs and ASCs start early, they will get the chance to see where they’re doing well and where they can improve before the data goes “public”.
- Bringing over 6,200 Medicare-certified ASCs in the United States into compliance with this survey will be a time-consuming process. Waiting until the last moment to start this is not recommended.
What’s Listed on the OAS CAHPS Survey?
- Patients’ surgery prep experience
- Check-in processes
- Facility cleanliness
- Staff communication
- Discharge process
- Prep for recovering at home
- Possible side-effects during recovery
- PLUS, 2 “Global Ratings”
- Patient’s Rating of the Facility
- Patients Recommending the Facility
- Surveys are conducted monthly
- Administered to random sample of adult inpatients
- All this information is publicly recorded on Medicare.gov
How Does RMS Deliver the Survey to Patients?
- Mail-Only: Up to 2 mailings
- Telephone-Only: Up to 5 call attempts
- Mixed-Mode: Mailing and up to 5 call attempts
- Web-to-Mail: Up to 3 web invitations followed with a mail survey
- Web-to-Phone: Up to 3 web invitations with up to 5 phone calls
What Will Reporting Look Like?
RMS Healthcare will submit survey administration and response data to CMS according to the protocols established for the OAS CAHPS® Survey. You will have access to the RMS CAHPS® Portal where you have real-time, interactive access to the data at any time, including RMS aggregate data.
RMS Healthcare will notify rater8 of any potential concerning comments, “hot comments”, within 3 business days. Any comments will be supplied verbatim in the FTP site. We will conduct the monthly Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) patient experience of care survey on behalf of rater8.
It’s good to know. We’re here for you.
Call us today, to see how we can help your organization.
Interested in conducting CAHPS patient surveys with RMS?
Contact our Vice President of Corporate Development, Sandy Baker at SandyB@RMSresults.com or call 1-866-567-5422.
About RMS
Here at Research & Marketing Strategies, we are an approved CMS CAHPS vendor. We have a dedicated Healthcare division (RMS Healthcare) that specializes in CAHPS administration and reporting. If you are interested in learning more about RMS as your CAHPS vendor, contact our Vice President of Corporate Development, Sandy Baker at SandyB@RMSresults.com or by calling 1-866-567-5422.
