ICH CAHPS Announcements

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Announcements

Reminder of Upcoming Deadline for Submitting Facility-Specific Questions for the 2026 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey for Approval
Other AnnouncementsPosted January 30, 2026

This is a reminder that ICH CAHPS Survey vendors must submit all facility-specific questions that they plan to add to the 2026 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey to the Coordination Team for review and approval. If any of your ICH facility clients are planning to add any new facility-specific questions to the 2026 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey, please send those questions and their proposed placement to the Coordination Team via email at ichcahps@rti.org before 5:00 PM ET on February 6, 2026.

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 question wording or response options have changed. If changes have been made, please submit the changes by the February 6^th deadline.

The Coordination Team will accept facility-specific questions for review after the February 6, 2026 deadline; however, approval of those questions may not be granted in time for the questions to be included in the 2026 Spring Survey. Survey vendors should work with their client ICH facilities to decide on the use of new facility-specific questions and submit the questions to the Coordination Team as soon as possible to avoid a delay in approval.

Please contact the Coordination Team via email at ichcahps@rti.org or by calling 1-888-245-8083 if you have any questions.

Updated ICH CAHPS Survey Materials for the 2026 Spring Survey Now on Website
Changes to Survey MaterialsPosted January 23, 2026

As was first announced and posted in December 2025 (Updated ICH CAHPS Survey Materials for the 2026 Spring Survey), the following ICH CAHPS Survey materials have been updated for the 2026 Spring Survey and have been posted on the ICH CAHPS Website’s Survey Materials Page:

Cover Letters 1 and 2 in English, Spanish, Samoan, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Vietnamese (12 total letters)
Telephone Scripts in English and Spanish (2 scripts)
Waiting Room FAQs in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Vietnamese (5 documents)
Telephone Interviewer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) in English and Spanish (2 documents)
OMB Disclosure Notice in English, Spanish, Samoan, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Vietnamese (6 documents)
Survey Composites (1 document)

At this time, CMS believes that the revised ICH CAHPS Survey will receive OMB approval no later than mid-February. As a result, please note the following:

The revised mail surveys (in all approved languages) will not be posted on the ICH CAHPS website until the pending OMB changes (new OMB expiration date and possibly a new OMB number) have been confirmed. Once all OMB-related changes have been incorporated, vendors will be provided with the final version of the mail surveys and the final 508 compliant mail surveys will be posted on the website.
If the OMB number is required to be updated based on OMB approval, vendors will also be provided with a second/final version of Cover Letters 1 and 2.

Please note that the ICH CAHPS Survey XML data layout file is being revised for the 2026 Spring Survey to reflect all revisions made to the 2026 Spring mail surveys and telephone scripts. By May 2026, the ICH CAHPS Survey data submission tools (Schema Validation Tool and Data Submission Tool) will be updated to reflect the revised survey. Announcements will be posted on the website when the revised tools are available. All survey vendors must update their XML before the July 29, 2026 data submission deadline for the 2026 Spring Survey.

All updated ICH CAHPS Survey materials will be discussed during the ICH CAHPS Survey Vendor Update Training session on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. A training agenda and the presentation slides for this training session will be posted on the website by 5:00 PM ET on Friday, February 13, 2026.

Please contact the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team via email at ichcahps@rti.org if you have any questions.

Reminder: Only One Week before the Data Submission Deadline for the 2025 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey
Data SubmissionsPosted January 21, 2026

The deadline for submitting data files from the 2025 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey to the Data Center is at 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, 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 email at ichcahps@rti.org or call 1-866-245-8083 if you have any questions or need help with data submissions.

Information About the ICH CAHPS Survey Data on Your Care Compare Preview Reports for the April 2026 Refresh
Information for Dialysis FacilitiesPosted January 16, 2026

Dear ICH CAHPS Survey Facility Survey Administrators:

The In-Center Hemodialysis CAHPS (ICH CAHPS) Survey Coordination Team is sharing some information that may be helpful as dialysis facilities begin receiving their Quarterly Dialysis Facility Care Compare Preview Reports for the April 2026 Refresh.

ICH CAHPS Survey results can be found in Table 5 of your Preview Report (Patient Experience of Care based on ICH CAHPS). Survey results are publicly reported on Dialysis Facility Care Compare every April and October; although clinical measures are updated in January and June of each year, ICH CAHPS Survey data are only updated twice each year. Public reporting of ICH CAHPS Survey data is based on two consecutive survey periods, and a facility must have at least 30 completed surveys combined across those periods for results to be displayed. For example, for the April 2026 Refresh, a facility would need to have 30 completed surveys between the 2024 Fall and 2025 Spring Surveys for ICH CAHPS scores to be publicly reported. If a facility has fewer than 30 completed surveys or only participated in one survey period included in the refresh, ICH CAHPS scores will not appear on Care Compare (or your Preview Report) during that refresh.

Please note that while your survey vendor may provide internal survey results, these are not official and may differ from the final results posted on Dialysis Facility Care Compare. For more information on the public reporting of ICH CAHPS Survey results, we encourage you to review the ICH CAHPS Public Reporting FAQ available on the ICH CAHPS website: https://ichcahps.org/Public-Reporting/Public-Reporting-Frequently-Asked-Questions.

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

Regards,
The ICH CAHPS Coordination Team

Reminder: Only 2 Weeks before the Data Submission Deadline for the 2025 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey
Data SubmissionsPosted January 14, 2026

As a reminder, the deadline for submitting data files from the 2025 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey to the Data Center is at 5:00 PM ET on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, 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 email at ichcahps@rti.org or call 1-866-245-8083 if you have any questions or need help with data submissions.

RTI International will be closed January 19, 2026
Other AnnouncementsPosted January 12, 2026

RTI International will be closed on January 19, 2026. The ICH CAHPS Coordination Team will respond to email and telephone inquiries that are received on that date after RTI re-opens on January 20, 2026.

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

Reminder: Only 3 Weeks before the Data Submission Deadline for the 2025 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey
Data SubmissionsPosted January 7, 2026

As a reminder, data collection for the 2025 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey ends on Friday, January 9, 2026. The deadline for submitting data files from the 2025 Fall Survey to the Data Center is at 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, 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:

should submit their files as soon as possible to allow adequate time to correct any problems identified and re-submit the files before the deadline; and
can submit a file for a CCN as many times as needed; however, keep in mind that each time a file for a CCN is re-submitted, it overwrites the file that was submitted previously.

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

Reminder of Upcoming Deadline for Submitting Facility-Specific Questions for the 2026 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey for Approval
Other AnnouncementsPosted January 7, 2026

Please contact the Coordination Team via email at ichcahps@rti.org or by calling 1-888-245-8083 if you have any questions.

Reminder: The Deadline to submit the ICH CAHPS Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Form for the 2026 Spring Survey is February 28, 2026
Facility Participation RequirementsPosted January 6, 2026

Survey vendors must notify the Coordination Team of any authorized ICH facilities who have closed or will be closing before the upcoming data collection period. This is done to ensure that a sample file will not be provided to the vendor for that upcoming survey period. For the 2026 Spring Survey, survey vendors must do this by completing and submitting the online Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Form as soon as possible after learning that a client facility has closed or will be closing, and no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on February 28, 2026.

Vendors can access the Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Form by logging into the website and choosing “Vendor Facility Closing Attestation” form, which is under the For Vendors tab at the top of the website’s home page. Once a Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Form is submitted by a survey vendor, an email will be sent to both the currently authorized vendor and the facility’s Survey Administrator to notify the facility that the vendor has submitted the Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Form on the facility’s behalf. If a facility or vendor receives this email and feels that the form has been submitted in error, they should contact the Coordination Team immediately.

If a vendor learns that a facility has closed or will be closing after this deadline and will not participate in the 2026 Spring Survey, both the vendor and the facility should contact the Coordination Team immediately for guidance on next steps.

Please contact the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team at 1-866-245-8083 or via email at ichcahps@rti.org if you have any questions or need more information about the Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Form.

Authorizing a Survey Vendor for the 2026 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey
Facility Participation RequirementsPosted January 6, 2026

All in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facilities that are administering the ICH CAHPS Survey for the first time or are switching to a different survey vendor to administer the 2026 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey must update their vendor authorization on the ICH CAHPS website by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on February 28, 2026.

If your organization will continue to use the same survey vendor that was used to administer the 2025 Fall Survey, you do not need to update the online vendor authorization form. However, you must update the online vendor authorization if any of the following apply:

Your facility is participating in the ICH CAHPS Survey for the first time during the 2026 Spring Survey; OR
Your facility is switching to a different survey vendor to administer the 2026 Spring Survey; OR
Your facility entered the 2025 Fall Survey as the last survey period for which the vendor would administer the survey when you originally submitted the authorization form.

If any of the above statements apply to your facility, you must update the online vendor authorization form for the 2026 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey on the ICH CAHPS website by the February 28, 2026 deadline.

ICH facilities that served 30 or more survey-eligible patients in calendar year 2025 must administer both the 2026 Spring and Fall Surveys to be compliant with CMS’s quality reporting requirements. If the online vendor authorization form is not updated by the deadline, a sample will not be provided to a survey vendor, which means the 2026 Spring Survey cannot be administered.

The steps for authorizing a vendor on the ICH CAHPS website are as follows:

Log in to the ICH CAHPS website here.
From your personal dashboard, click “Authorize a Vendor.” The system will then take you to the Authorize a Vendor page.
From the “Select Action” drop-down list on the Authorize a Vendor page:
- If authorizing a vendor for the first time: Select the “Select a vendor for the first time” option.
- If changing/switching to a different vendor: Select the “Switch to a different vendor” option.
Select the name of your survey vendor from the vendor drop-down list.
Select the Beginning Survey Period for your new vendor. In this instance, you would select "2026 Spring Survey."
Do not enter an end date for your survey vendor unless you know that you will not be using this vendor beyond the 2026 Spring Survey.
Select the CCN(s) of the ICH facility (or facilities) to which the authorization applies.
Click the “Submit” button.

Please note the following:

No changes to vendor authorizations will be accepted for the 2026 Spring Survey after 5:00 PM Eastern Time on February 28, 2026.
If a facility has closed or will be closing and knows it will not be participating in the 2026 Spring Survey, please request that your survey vendor submit a Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Form on the ICH CAHPS website by this February 28, 2026 deadline. This will ensure that a sample file will not be provided to the vendor for the upcoming survey period. Vendors are encouraged to confirm with their facility contacts prior to this deadline that the facility is open and operating as expected.

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

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