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Announcement

Options for Reporting “About You” Response Data to HOPDs and ASCs when there are Fewer than 11 Responses in One or More Categories
folder_openSurvey Specifications and Guidelinescalendar_todayPosted January 23, 2017

The purpose of this announcement is to issue guidance to approved OAS CAHPS survey vendors that seek to provide their client facilities with de-identified, aggregate response data to the “About You” questions when the minimum of 11 responses per response category has not been met and the Consent to Share question was not answered or not answered in the affirmative.

This guidance does not replace the existing guidelines for providing “About You” response data to client facilities, but offers an acceptable alternative method of providing some data rather than none at all. The existing guidelines as well as the alternative method of providing some data are listed below.

NOTE: The alternative method has been approved by CMS as an option to vendors. It is not required that vendors report OAS CAHPS Survey response data to client facilities.

Existing guidelines for providing “About You” response data to HOPDs and ASCs:
As stated on page 109 of the OAS CAHPS Survey Protocols and Guidelines Manual, Version 1.3, a vendor can provide de-identified response data back to its client facility for an “About You” question only if there are a minimum of 11 responses in each response category for that question. For example, if there are 11 or more responses in each age category of Question 27, it is acceptable to provide response results for Q27, but if there are 10 or fewer responses in one or more age category, then it is not acceptable to provide response data for Q27.

Alternative method (Combining response categories to meet the guidelines of 11 or more responses):
Effective immediately, an acceptable alternative method for reporting the “About You” response data to HOPDs and ASCs is to combine two or more contiguous response options so that the combined responses meet the reporting requirement of 11 or more. Below you will find two illustrative examples of how vendors can implement this alternative method.

Example with Question 27 (What is your age?):

HOPD has 50 completed surveys in a month. The distribution of response categories for Q27 is as follows:

Response Category Number of Responses
18-24 2
25-34 9
35-44 8
45-54 2
55-64 1
65-74 4
75-79 3
80-84 10
85 + 11


In this example, the data for Q27 cannot be shared with the facility because at least one of the response categories has fewer than 11 responses.

However, using this alternative method, the vendor could combine response categories to meet the reporting requirement of 11 or more responses per category:

Response Category Number of Responses
18-34 11
35-64 11
65-84 17
85 + 11

 

Example with Question 29 (What is the highest grade or level of school that you have completed?):

HOPD has 50 completed surveys in a month. The distribution of response categories for Q29 is as follows:

Response Category Number of Responses
8th grade or less 4
Some high school 9
High school grad 12
Some college 11
4-year graduate 8
More than 4-year degree 6


In this example, the data for Q29 cannot be shared with the facility because at least one of the response categories has fewer than 11 responses.

However, using this alternative method, the vendor could combine response categories to meet the reporting requirement of 11 or more responses per category:

Response Category Number of Responses
Some high school or less 13
High school grad 12
Some college 11
4-year grad or more 14

 

Please contact the Coordination Team via e-mail at oascahps@rti.org or call toll-free (866) 590-7468, if you have any questions.