RTI International will have limited availability on November 27, 2019 and will be closed on November 28 and 29, 2019. The ICH CAHPS Coordination Team will respond to email and telephone technical assistance inquiries that are received on these dates as soon as possible after RTI re-opens on December 2, 2019.

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

The ESRD Prospective Payment System (PPS) final rule for calendar year 2020, which was published in the Federal Register on November 8, 2019, is available here.

The tentative data collection schedule and the dates for some key activities related to the 2020 In-Center Hemodialysis CAHPS (ICH CAHPS) Spring Survey are shown below. Please note that these dates are subject to change. Should a schedule change occur, an announcement will be posted.

Activity Date 2020 ICH CAHPS Survey Vendor Update Training Session1 2/13/2020 Submit New Facility-Specific Questions to CMS 2/7/2020 Deadline for Authorizing a Vendor for 2020 Spring Survey2 2/28/2020 Deadline for Submitting a 2020 Facility Non-Participation Form3 ...

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 2018 ICH CAHPS Spring and Fall 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 October 2019. In addition, this document includes additional information on the clustering method used to create ICH CAHPS Star Ratings (Appendix A).

Please contact the ICH CAHPS Survey Coordination Team at 1–866–245–8083 or via e-mail at ichcahps@rti.org if...

ICH CAHPS Survey results based on combined data from the 2018 ICH CAHPS Spring and Fall Surveys were posted on Dialysis Facility Compare on the www.medicare.gov website in October 2019. 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 these two survey periods. The average response rate for each state and the overall response rate are also provided in this document.

Important Information for Survey Vendor Organizations Interested in Becoming an Approved ICH CAHPS Survey Vendor

***Any survey vendor organization, not already a CMS-approved survey vendor for ICH CAHPS, interested in applying to become an approved ICH CAHPS Survey vendor must notify the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team of their interest via email at ichcahps@rti.org no later than October 25, 2019.***

The ICH CAHPS Coordination Team is preparing for the semiannual ICH CAHPS Surveys that will be conducted in calendar year (CY) 2020. This will include accepting and processing applications from survey vendor organizations and training those survey vendors to become a CMS approved ICH CAHPS Survey vendor; however, any interested survey vendor organizations must notify us of their intent to submit an application by 5 PM ET on October 25, 2019. To become a CMS-approved ICH CAHPS Survey vendor, survey organizations must, at a minimum:

Complete and submit the...

The ESRD Prospective Payment System (PPS) proposed rule for calendar year 2020, which was published in the Federal Register on August 6, 2019, is now available here.

This is a reminder that all in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facilities that are switching to a different ICH CAHPS Survey vendor to administer the 2019 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey must change their vendor authorization on the ICH CAHPS website by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on August 30, 2019.

Please note that ICH facilities 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 2019 Fall Survey; OR Your facility is switching to a different survey vendor to administer the 2019 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey; OR Your facility entered the 2019 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 2019 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey, you do not need to update the online vendor authorization form.

If any of the...

RTI International will be closed on September 2, 2019. The ICH CAHPS Coordination Team will respond to email and telephone technical assistance inquiries that are received on that date as soon as possible after RTI re-opens (on September 3, 2019).

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

The ICH CAHPS Coordination Team (CT) conducted site visits with some of the ICH CAHPS Survey vendors during the 2019 Spring Survey period. Overall, this was the most successful site visit period yet! However, we did identify some issues in the 2019 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey operations that we want to generally share.

A list of the most common issues observed during the site visits is provided below. Please review the information below and make sure that your organization is applying the required protocols described in the ICH CAHPS Survey Administration and Specifications Manual, Version 7.0 (posted on the ICH CAHPS website on February 6, 2019) to all aspects of the survey, including data collection, data processing, and construction of the XML files in the current and subsequent survey periods.

Please contact the ICH CAHPS Coordination Team via email at ichcahps@rti.org or call (866) 245-8083 if you have any questions about these data quality reminders or need...