ICH CAHPS Announcements

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Announcements

Reminder: Only 3 Weeks before the Data Submission Deadline for the 2025 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey
Data SubmissionsPosted July 9, 2025

As a reminder, data collection for the 2025 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey ends on Friday, July 11, 2025. The deadline for submitting data files from the 2025 Spring Survey to the Data Center is at 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 30, 2025, 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.

Proposed ESRD Prospective Payment System Rule for Calendar Year 2026
Information for Dialysis FacilitiesPosted July 3, 2025

The ESRD Prospective Payment System (PPS) proposed rule for calendar year 2026, which was published in the Federal Register on July 2, 2025, is now available here.

Reminder of Upcoming Deadline for Submitting Facility-Specific Questions for the 2025 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey for Approval
Other AnnouncementsPosted July 1, 2025

This is a reminder that ICH CAHPS Survey vendors must submit all facility-specific questions that they plan to add to the 2025 ICH CAHPS Fall 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 2025 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey, or change any currently approved facility-specific questions, please send those questions and their proposed placement to the Coordination Team via email at ichcahps@rti.org before 5:00 PM ET on August 1, 2025.

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 August 1^st deadline.

The Coordination Team will accept facility-specific questions for review after the August 1, 2025 deadline; however, approval of those questions may not be granted in time for the questions to be included in the 2025 Fall 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.

Tentative Data Collection Schedule for the 2025 ICH CAHPS Fall Survey
Other AnnouncementsPosted June 30, 2025

The tentative data collection schedule and the dates for some key activities related to the 2025 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 emailed and posted.

Please note that this year, the Thanksgiving holiday falls on November 27, 2025, during the last week of November. Some vendors may have difficulties with mailing the 2nd survey package (mail-only) or beginning phone follow-up (mixed mode) for the 2025 Fall Survey on the originally scheduled date of November 28, 2025 (the day after Thanksgiving). As such, the 2025 Fall data collection schedule has been set such that vendors may either begin implementing the second wave of ICH CAHPS data collection on November 28, 2025, or the following week on December 3, 2025. The deadline for data submission will remain January 28, 2026, for both schedules.

Activity	Date
Submit New Facility-Specific Questions to CMS	8/1/2025
Deadline for Authorizing a Vendor for 2025 Fall Survey¹	8/31/2025
Deadline (for vendors) to submit Facility Closed Attestation form²	8/31/2025
Deadline (for vendors) to Review Vendor Authorization Report and Notify the Coordination Team of any Authorization Issues	9/2/2025

Sampling Window	4/1/2025-6/30/2025
Sample Files Uploaded on ICH CAHPS Website	9/26/2025
Vendors Attest to Receipt of Sample File	9/30/2025
Mail Prenotification Letter	10/17/2025
Mail 1^st Survey (mail only and mixed mode)/Begin Telephone data collection (phone only mode)	10/31/2025
Mail 2^nd Survey (mail only)/Begin phone follow-up (mixed mode)	11/28/2025 OR 12/3/2025
Data Collection Ends	1/9/2026
Vendors Clean/Process Final Data and Construct XML File	1/9/2026-1/28/2026
Deadline for Submitting XML Data File to ICH Data Center	1/28/2026

¹ Only ICH facilities that will be switching to a different survey vendor and those that will be participating in the ICH CAHPS Survey for the first time will need to complete the online vendor authorization form.

² Submission of the Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Form alerts the Coordination Team that a sample file should not be provided for the facility for the upcoming ICH CAHPS Survey period, due to the closing of the facility.

Please contact the Coordination Team via email at ichcahps@rti.org or call 1-866-245-8083 if you have any questions or need more information about the upcoming ICH CAHPS Survey Period.

RTI International will be closed July 4, 2025 (In observance of Independence Day)
Other AnnouncementsPosted June 30, 2025

RTI International will be closed on July 4, 2025 in observance of the July 4^th Independence Day holiday. The ICH CAHPS Coordination Team will respond to email and telephone technical assistance inquiries that are received as soon as possible on Monday, July 7, 2025.

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

Reminder: Deadline for Submitting an Updated 2025 ICH CAHPS Quality Assurance Plan is May 31, 2025
Other AnnouncementsPosted May 23, 2025

This is a friendly reminder that the deadline for ICH CAHPS Survey vendors to submit the annual Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) is 5:00 PM Eastern Time on May 31, 2025.

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 2024 (or later if edits were made and submitted after the May 2024 review process).
Make a copy of that version and accept all tracked changes, creating a clean copy of your QAP.
Make all 2025 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 in approved survey mode(s).
Make sure your QAP follows the format shown in the Model QAP posted on the ICH CAHPS website. Also make sure that you provide information for every topic included in the Model QAP.
Before submitting your annual QAP, check it carefully to make sure that it reflects all ICH CAHPS Survey protocols disseminated via announcements posted on the ICH CAHPS website and/or described in the latest version of the Survey Administration and Specifications Manual.
Vendors should submit for review a copy of all survey materials (envelope, prenotification letter, cover letters 1 and 2, mail surveys, telephone scripts) for each language the survey is being administered in.
As a reminder, starting with the 2025 QAP Submission and if not already, vendors must begin including the following per the Model QAP (revised in February 2025):
- Requested details on subcontractor oversight activities the vendor conducts for all aspects of the survey process; and
- A work plan for each of the vendor’s approved modes of data collection.
Submit your QAP online via the ICH CAHPS website by accessing the Submit Quality Assurance Plan option under the “For Vendors” menu on the grey bar at the top of the website’s home page (https://ichcahps.org/).

The QAP must be updated and submitted annually on or before May 31 of each year and any time the vendor has a change in ICH CAHPS personnel, capabilities, or systems that are used to administer the ICH CAHPS Survey. Remember that you must also update your online ICH CAHPS Vendor Application Form if you have been approved to add/drop survey modes, changed key personnel and/or subcontractors, and/or have changed your business name or location.

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

RTI International will be closed May 26, 2025 for the Memorial Day Holiday
Other AnnouncementsPosted May 21, 2025

RTI International will be closed on Monday, May 26, 2025 for the Memorial Day holiday. 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 Tuesday, May 27, 2025.

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

Deadline for Submitting an Updated 2025 ICH CAHPS Quality Assurance Plan
Other AnnouncementsPosted May 1, 2025

This is a friendly reminder that the deadline for ICH CAHPS Survey vendors to submit the annual Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) is 5:00 PM Eastern Time on May 31, 2025.

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 2024 (or later if edits were made and submitted after the 2024 review process).
Make a copy of that version and accept all tracked changes, creating a clean copy of your QAP.
Make all 2025 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 in approved survey mode(s).
Make sure your QAP follows the format shown in the Model QAP posted on the ICH CAHPS website. Also make sure that you provide information for every topic included in the Model QAP.
Before submitting your annual QAP, check it carefully to make sure that it reflects all ICH CAHPS Survey protocols disseminated via announcements posted on the ICH CAHPS website and/or described in the latest version of the Survey Administration and Specifications Manual.
Vendors should submit for review a copy of all survey materials (envelope, prenotification letter, cover letters 1 and 2, mail surveys, telephone scripts) for each language the survey is being administered in. As a reminder, starting with the 2025 QAP Submission and if not already, vendors must begin including the following per the Model QAP (revised in February 2025):
- Requested details on subcontractor oversight activities the vendor conducts for all aspects of the survey process; and
- A work plan for each of the vendor’s approved modes of data collection.
Submit your QAP online via the ICH CAHPS website by accessing the Submit Quality Assurance Plan option under the “For Vendors” menu on the grey bar at the top of the website’s home page (https://ichcahps.org/).

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

Patient-Mix Coefficients, Star Ratings, and Average State and National Scores for the ICH CAHPS Survey Results Publicly Reported in April 2025
Information for Dialysis FacilitiesPosted April 24, 2025

The ICH CAHPS Survey results that are currently posted on Care Compare on the Medicare.gov website (https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/) are based on ICH CAHPS Survey data from the 2023 ICH CAHPS Fall and 2024 ICH CAHPS Spring Surveys.

Patient-Mix Coefficients and Star Ratings for the 2025 April Refresh

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 Care Compare in April 2025. This document also includes additional information on the clustering method used to create ICH CAHPS Star Ratings (Appendix A).

Please note that in previous versions of this document, there was an erroneous variable (Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions) in the list of patient-mix adjusters on Page 3. This variable has never been included in the patient-mix adjustment and has never been included in the formula on Page 4 or in the tables of coefficients.

Average State and National Scores for the 2025 April Refresh

In addition, you can 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.

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

February 28, 2025 is the deadline for submitting Facility Non-Participation Forms and Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Forms for the 2025 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey
Facility Participation RequirementsPosted February 27, 2025

This is a reminder that the deadline for submitting 2025 Facility Non-Participation Forms AND the Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Forms for the 2025 ICH CAHPS Spring Survey is 5:00 PM Eastern Time on February 28, 2025.

2025 Facility Non-Participation Form – Submitted by ICH Facility Survey Administrators

ICH facilities that determine that they are not required to administer the 2025 ICH CAHPS Surveys and those that choose not to administer the surveys must complete and submit the 2025 Facility Non-Participation Form on the website. For more information on this form and how to determine if a facility should submit it, please refer to the email message sent to in-center hemodialysis (ICH) facilities on January 6, 2025 and posted under the Quick Links menu on the ICH CAHPS website’s home page.

To access this form, ICH Facility Survey Administrators should log into the website using their user credentials and choose “Facility Non-Participation Form” under the For Facilities menu.

Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Form – Submitted by Approved Survey Vendors

Survey vendors must notify the Coordination Team of any authorized ICH facilities who have closed or will be closing before the 2025 Spring Survey data collection period by completing and submitting the online Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Form.

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 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 2025 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 Facility Non-Participation Form or the Vendor Facility Closing Attestation Form.

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