This is a friendly reminder that the deadline for ICH CAHPS Survey vendors to submit the annual Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) is 11:59 PM Eastern Time on March 31, 2020. If you need more time due to COVID-19, please let us know as soon as possible.

The QAP must describe how the survey vendor will implement, comply with, and provide oversight of all survey and data processing activities associated with the ICH CAHPS Survey. To ensure prompt review and acceptance of your Update QAP, please follow the procedures listed below:

Locate the version of your most recently approved QAP; that is, the version that was accepted by CMS and the Coordination Team in 2019. Make a copy of that version and accept all tracked changes, creating a clean copy of your QAP. Make all 2020 updates to your clean copy using track changes, so that your document reflects only the changes made since your most recent approved QAP. Make sure to include updates to your QAP if your organization has had changes in...

This is a reminder that all in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facilities that are administering the ICH CAHPS Survey for the first time or are switching to a different ICH CAHPS Survey vendor to administer the 2020 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey must update their vendor authorization on the ICH CAHPS website by 5:00 PM Eastern Time TOMORROW, February 28, 2020.

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 2020 Spring Survey; OR Your facility is switching to a different survey vendor to administer the 2020 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey; OR Your facility entered the 2019 Fall 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 2019 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey, you do not need to update the...

This is a friendly reminder that the deadline for ICH CAHPS Survey vendors to submit the annual Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) is 11:59 PM Eastern Time on March 31, 2020.

The QAP must describe how the survey vendor will implement, comply with, and provide oversight of all survey and data processing activities associated with the ICH CAHPS Survey. To ensure prompt review and acceptance of your Annual QAP, please follow the procedures listed below:

Locate the version of your most recently approved QAP; that is, the version that was accepted by CMS and the Coordination Team in 2019. Make a copy of that version and accept all tracked changes, creating a clean copy of your QAP. Make all 2020 updates to your clean copy using track changes, so that your document reflects only the changes made since your most recently approved QAP. Make sure to include updates to your QAP if your organization has had changes in ICH CAHPS Survey personnel, changes to protocols or procedures, and/or changes...

Please note that the deadline for submitting the 2020 ICH CAHPS Survey Facility Non-Participation Form is 5:00 PM Eastern on February 28, 2020. To access this form, login to the website using your user credentials and choose “Facility Non-Participation Form” under the For Facilities menu.

As noted in an e-mail message sent to in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facilities on January 6, 2020 and posted under the Quick Links menu on the ICH CAHPS Website’s home page, all in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facilities must determine whether they will be required to administer the ICH CAHPS Survey in calendar year (CY) 2020 by counting the number of survey-eligible patients they served in CY2019.

ICH facilities that determine that they are not required to administer the 2020 ICH CAHPS Survey and those that choose not to administer the survey must complete and submit the 2020 ICH CAHPS Facility Non-Participation Form to the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team.

ICH facilities should please note the following:

...

This is a reminder that all in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facilities that are administering the ICH CAHPS Survey for the first time or are switching to a different ICH CAHPS Survey vendor to administer the 2020 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey must update their vendor authorization on the ICH CAHPS website by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on February 28, 2020. 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 2020 Spring Survey; OR Your facility is switching to a different survey vendor to administer the 2020 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey; OR Your facility entered the 2019 Fall 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 2019 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey, you do not need to update the online vendor...

The training materials that will be used during the ICH CAHPS Survey Vendor Update Webinar Training Session that will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 PM Eastern Time (ET) on February 13, 2020, are available on the ICH CAHPS website at the following link.

2020 ICH CAHPS Vendor Update Training Materials

An e-mail message containing instructions for connecting to the training sessions via webinar and telephone has been sent to all registered organizations. Please contact the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team at ichcahps@rti.org or call 1-866-245-8083 if anyone registered for your organization did not receive this email message.

The following ICH CAHPS Survey materials have been updated for the 2020 Spring Survey and have been posted on the ICH CAHPS website:

Materials posted to the “Survey Materials” page here:

Mail Questionnaires in all approved languages (5 questionnaires): The OMB expiration date (which is required to be printed under the stand-alone OMB number in the upper right-hand corner on the cover or first page of the mail questionnaire) has been revised to display as: “Expiration Date: December 31, 2022” Telephone Scripts in both approved languages (2 scripts): Updated in questions INTRO1 and INTRO3 the skip instructions for response option 4 MENTALLY/PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE to display as “[GO TO Q_REF AND CODE AS MENTALLY/PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE]”: instead of the previous skip instruction of “[GO TO Q_END AND CODE AS MENTALLY/PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE]” OMB Disclosure notice (5 documents): Very minor edits to the header explanatory...

The In-center Hemodialysis CAHPS (ICH CAHPS) Survey Administration and Specifications Manual, Version 8.0 is now available on the ICH CAHPS website in MS Word and PDF formats. The protocols and guidelines described in Version 8.0 of this manual are effective immediately and supersede those described in previous versions of the manual.

Please note: At the end of Chapter 1 is a “What’s New or Different?” section, which contains a list of the chapters in the manual in which the major changes in survey protocols and materials are described.

To conserve paper, the ICH CAHPS Survey Coordination Team will print a limited number of hardcopy versions of this manual. Organizations may request a hardcopy manual by sending an e-mail message to the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team at ichcahps@rti.org.

Updated ICH CAHPS Survey protocols and procedures will be reviewed during the ICH CAHPS Vendor Update Webinar Training session that will take place on Thursday, February...

This is a reminder that ICH CAHPS Survey vendors must submit all facility-specific supplemental questions that they plan to add to the 2020 ICH CAHPS Spring 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 2020 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey, please send those questions and their proposed placement to the Coordination Team via e-mail at ichcahps@rti.org before 5:00 PM Eastern Time (ET) on February 7, 2020.

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

The Coordination Team will accept facility-specific supplemental questions for review after the February 7, 2020 deadline; however, approval of those questions may not be granted in time for the questions...

The deadline for submitting data files from the 2019 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey to the Data Center is at 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, January 29, 2020, 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 who have not submitted an XML file for any of their facility clients to begin submitting as soon as possible. Remember that vendors must submit their data files in time to correct and re-submit any files that do not pass the validation checks.

Please feel free to contact the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team via e-mail at ichcahps@rti.org or call 1-866-245-8083 if you have any questions or need help with data submissions.