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.

The ICH CAHPS Team has published the January 2020 edition of the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team Semi-Annual Review (CTSAR). As a reminder, this newsletter is a way to provide in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facilities and survey vendors with helpful ICH CAHPS information.

The CTSAR will be posted on the ICH CAHPS website and updated every January and July. You can navigate to the January 2020 newsletter located under the General Information tab on the ICH CAHPS website or click here to view it now.

The CTSAR does not replace any source of information currently on the ICH CAHPS website; instead, it highlights important information for readers prior to each survey period. We encourage you to visit the ICH CAHPS website for more information on the items mentioned in this newsletter. Please continue to monitor the ICH CAHPS website for updates and announcements.

Please contact the Coordination Team via e-mail at ichcahps@rti.org or call 1-866-245-8083 if you...

As we approach the deadline for submitting data from the 2019 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey and the beginning of the 2020 Spring Survey, it is a good time to remind vendors of the importance of implementing quality control measures on all aspects of the survey.

This announcement includes a list of some of the data quality issues that the Coordination Team (CT) detected in the data from the 2019 Spring Survey and issues we observed during site visits to survey vendors during the 2019 Fall Survey. As you conduct final data cleaning and processing of the 2019 Fall Survey data and prepare the XML file that will be submitted, please apply appropriate quality control measures so that you can detect and avoid these errors and data problems in all upcoming survey periods.

As a reminder, the XML files containing data from the 2019 Fall Survey must be submitted to the ICH CAHPS Data Center by 5:00 PM EST on Wednesday, January 29, 2020. Please contact the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team via email at ichcahps@rti.org...

RTI International will be closed on January 20, 2020.  The ICH CAHPS Survey Coordination Team will respond to email and telephone inquiries that are received on that date after RTI re-opens on January 21, 2020.

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.

The ICH CAHPS Coordination Team is currently in the process of updating the ICH CAHPS Survey Administration and Specifications Manual, Version 8.0, and would like to give early notification to ICH CAHPS Survey vendors of the following minor change that will be made to both the English and Spanish ICH CAHPS Survey Telephone Scripts. The change and the reason for the change is described below.

INTRO1 and INTRO3: Updated the skip instructions for response option 4 MENTALLY/PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE to display as “[GO TO Q_REF AND CODE AS MENTALLY/PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE]”: Original skip instructions: 4 MENTALLY/PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE → [GO TO Q_END AND CODE AS MENTALLY/PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE] Updated skip instructions: 4 MENTALLY/PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE → [GO TO Q_REF AND CODE AS MENTALLY/PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE] This change has been made so that when a telephone interviewer is speaking to a person who is not the selected sample patient, and learns that the sample patient is unable to complete the survey due to being mentally or physically incapable, the interviewer is routed to a screen that simply thanks the speaker for their time and to have a good day/evening.

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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 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 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.

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...

As a reminder, data collection for the 2019 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey ends on Friday, January 10, 2020. 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 only 3 weeks away. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will not accept any data files after that date and time.

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. If the error message appears for one or more of your CCNs, please make sure that you have entered information about each sampled case on the XML file. Also be reminded that survey vendors:

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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 authorization form.

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Please note that the 2020 ICH CAHPS Survey Facility Non-Participation Form is now available on the ICH CAHPS website. To access this form, log in 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:

The Facility Non-Participation...