The ESRD Prospective Payment System (PPS) proposed rule for calendar year 2018, which was published in the Federal Register on July 5, 2017, is now available here.

ICH CAHPS Survey results based on combined data from the 2015 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey and the 2016 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey were posted on Dialysis Facility Compare on the www.medicare.gov website in April 2017. Click here to see the state and national averages for the three ICH CAHPS composite measures and the three global ratings based on the combined data from those two survey periods. The average response rate for each state and the overall response rate are also provided in this document.

In May and June 2017 the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team conducted site visits with some of the ICH CAHPS Survey vendors. Overall, the site visits went well, and both CMS and the Coordination Team appreciate the time and effort vendors put into preparing for the site visit.

A list of questions asked during the site visits and answers provided is included below for your reference. Please review the questions and answers and contact the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team via e-mail at ichcahps@rti.org or call (866) 245-8083 if you have any questions or need further clarification.

1.  Is CMS considering administering the ICH CAHPS Survey by web/Internet?

A.   At this time, CMS does not have any plans to administer the survey by web/Internet.

2.  Would CMS permit the editing of the transition statement that appears above Q36 in the ICH CAHPS mail survey so that the vendor does not have to print the name of the ICH facility in that statement, as a cost-saving...

The tentative data collection schedule and the dates for some key activities related to the 2017 In-Center Hemodialysis CAHPS (ICH CAHPS) Fall Survey are shown below. Please note that these dates are subject to change. Should a schedule change occur, an announcement will be posted.

ICH CAHPS Survey vendors must submit all facility-specific supplemental questions that they plan to add to the 2017 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey to the Coordination Team for review and approval. If any of your in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facility clients are planning to add any new facility-specific supplemental questions to the questionnaire for the 2017 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey, please send those questions and their proposed placement to the Coordination Team via e-mail at ichcahps@rti.org on or before 5:00 PM Eastern Time (ET) on August 11, 2017.

Please note that facility-specific questions that were approved by the Coordination Team for previous survey periods do not need to be approved again unless the questionnaire wording or response options changed.

The Coordination Team will accept facility-specific supplemental questions for review after the August 11, 2017 deadline; however, approval of those questions may not be granted in time for the questions to be included...

All in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facilities that are switching to a different ICH CAHPS Survey vendor to administer the 2017 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey must change their vendor authorization on the ICH CAHPS website by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on August 31, 2017. Please note you must update the online vendor authorization only if the following applies.

Your facility is participating in the ICH CAHPS Survey for the first time during the 2017 Fall Survey; OR Your facility is switching to a different survey vendor to administer the 2017 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey; OR Your facility entered the 2017 Spring Survey as the last survey period for which the vendor would administer the survey when you originally submitted the authorization form. If your organization will continue to use the same ICH CAHPS Survey vendor that was used to administer the 2017 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey, you do not need to update the online vendor authorization form.

If any of the above statements apply to your facility, you must...

The deadline for submitting data files from the 2017 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey to the Data Center is at 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, which is 1 week from today. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will not accept any data files after that date and time.

We strongly encourage vendors to begin submitting XML files as soon as possible following the end of data collection. Remember that vendors should submit their data files in time for them to correct and re-submit any files that do not pass the overnight validation checks.

Please note the following reminders: As XML files are uploaded to the ICH CAHPS Data Center a series of validation checks are made, one of which is a check to ensure that a patient-level record is included on the XML file for every case that was sampled for a CCN. Please note the following.

If the number of cases you include on an XML file does not match the number sampled, an error or warning message will appear on your data submission report....

Please note that the Coordination Team has made a wording change to Q39 in the Spanish ICH CAHPS Mail Questionnaire and Telephone Script. We are now using a different Spanish term to refer to the word “belly.” ICH CAHPS Survey vendors should note that this change must be made in their mail questionnaire and CATI systems before the 2017 Fall Survey begins.

The updated Spanish materials can be found here.

Please contact the ICH CAHPS Survey Coordination Team at 1-866-245-8083 or via email at ichcahps@rti.org if you have any questions.

As a reminder, data collection for the 2017 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey ends this Friday, July 14, 2017. The deadline for submitting data files from the 2017 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey to the Data Center is at 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, which is only 2 weeks away. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will not accept any data files after that date and time.

We strongly encourage vendors to begin submitting XML files as soon as possible following the end of data collection. Remember that vendors should submit their data files in time for them to correct and re-submit any files that do not pass the overnight validation checks.

Please note the following reminders: As XML files are uploaded to the ICH CAHPS Data Center a series of validation checks are made, one of which is a check to ensure that a patient-level record is included on the XML file for every case that was sampled for a CCN. Please note the following.

If the number of cases you include...

The ICH CAHPS Survey results that are currently posted on Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) on the medicare.gov website are based on ICH CAHPS Survey data from the 2015 Fall and 2016 Spring ICH CAHPS Surveys. The results shown are statistically adjusted for both data collection mode and for patient mix. Information about the adjustments made to the survey results and the coefficients used to adjust the results can be found here. Information presented in this document will allow ICH facilities to approximate the effect of patient mix adjustment on their ICH CAHPS Survey results that were posted on DFC in April 2017.

Please contact the ICH CAHPS Survey Coordination Team at 1–866–245–8083 or via e-mail at ichcahps@rti.org if you have any questions about patient mix adjustment.