Important Notice: Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery CAHPS Participation Requirements for the Calendar Year 2026 Annual Payment Update
folder_openFacility Participation Requirementscalendar_todayPosted December 29, 2023

To receive the annual payment update (APU) for calendar year (CY) 2026, all Medicare-certified hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) that served 60 or more patients between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, who meet Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery CAHPS (OAS CAHPS) Survey eligibility criteria, must contract with an approved OAS CAHPS Survey vendor on a continuous monthly basis from January 1, 2024, through December 31, 2024. This rule was included in the Final Rule for CY 2024, which was published in the Federal Register on November 22, 2023. The Final Rule for CY 2024 is available at: https://oascahps.org/OAS_CY2024FinalRule.pdf

All Medicare-certified HOPDs should note the following:

• Medicare-certified hospital outpatient departments are eligible for an exemption from participating in the OAS CAHPS Survey for the CY 2026 APU if they served 59 or fewer survey-eligible patients between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023. To be exempted from participating in the OAS CAHPS Survey for the CY 2026 APU, HOPDs must count the number of patients they served between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, who meet the OAS CAHPS survey eligibility criteria and then report that count on the Participation Exemption Request Form for the CY 2026 APU, which is available on the OAS CAHPS website here: https://oascahps.org/For-Facilities/Participation-Exemption-Request
• All Medicare-certified HOPDs that submitted a Participation Exemption Request for the CY 2026 APU are advised that the exemption from participation in OAS CAHPS will expire on December 31, 2024. Unless HOPDs qualify for an exemption from participation in OAS CAHPS for the CY 2027 APU, they must begin their OAS CAHPS participation beginning with the January 2025 sample month.
• Medicare-certified HOPDs that do not quality for the exemption described above and have not yet begun their participation in the OAS CAHPS Survey are strongly advised to go to the OAS CAHPS website (https://oascahps.org/), register for credentials, and review the list of approved OAS CAHPS vendors so that they may begin their vendor selection process and authorize a survey vendor as soon as possible. More information about getting starting with the OAS CAHPS Survey is available at the following link: https://oascahps.org/OAS_Facility_Outreach.pdf.

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