By Bill Prentice
In 2025, the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Survey, commonly known as the OAS CAHPS Survey, will become mandatory for Medicare-certified surgery centers. ASCA is advising ASCs not to wait until 2025 to begin conducting these surveys.
Getting the more than 6,200 Medicare-certified ASCs operating in the U.S. up and running with this survey will take some time. Your facility will not want to be the last in line to ask for the help it will need. Also, many facilities already conducting the survey have told us that they were disappointed by their initial results and changed some of their training to respond to areas that the survey indicated needed improvement.
For those reasons and more, we recommend that any surgery center that has not already begun conducting the survey start now by identifying a vendor they can work with in 2024 to help them conduct the survey and learn what they need to know to use this tool successfully.
What Makes OAS CAHPS Different?
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) developed the OAS CAHPS Survey to measure the experience of care for patients who have surgery or some other procedure in a hospital outpatient department or ASC. It is the first standardized survey instrument designed to assess the patient experience with outpatient surgery received in an HOPD or ASC.
The survey measures the patient experience in areas like
- communication and care provided by health care providers and office staff,
- preparation for the surgery or procedure,
- postsurgical care coordination, and
- patient-reported outcomes.
The 34 questions in the survey are divided as follows:
- Before your procedure (2 questions)
- About the facility and staff (6 questions)
- Communications about your procedure (5 questions)
- Your recovery (9 questions)
- Your overall experience (2 questions)
- About you (10 questions)
How Is OAS CAHPS Administered?
Unlike the patient satisfaction surveys surgery centers frequently conduct on their own, the OAS CAHPS Survey must be administered by a CMS-approved survey vendor. The vendor will conduct the survey by telephone interview or mailed surveys or through one of three mixed modes: mail with telephone follow-up, electronic with mail follow-up or electronic with phone follow-up. Surgery centers can select which of the approved modes they want to use. There is no electronic-only (entirely web-based) version of the survey available, although ASCA continues to advocate for one to reduce the financial burden on facilities.
Surgery centers can also select which vendor they want to use to conduct the survey. The full list of approved vendors is available at Approved Survey Vendors (oascahps.org).
Choosing a Vendor
CMS considers all the organizations on its list of approved OAS CAHPS Survey vendors qualified to administer the OAS CAHPS Survey. The list also indicates those that have had their Quality Improvement Plan accepted and those whose plans are still under review.
All vendors will charge a fee to administer the OAS CAHPS Survey. How much will depend on which vendor a facility selects. ASCA has negotiated a discounted rate for our members with PressGaney. For more information, ASCA members should visit the “ASCA OAS CAHPS Resources” page on PressGaney’s website at https://info.pressganey.com/asca-oas-cahps-resources.
As surgery centers assess the various vendors approved to provide the survey, ASCA suggests the following:
- Ask about the vendor’s pricing model. We understand that most charge per completed survey, but some could charge per survey sent or telephone call made. Also, ask if the vendor charges a set-up cost.
- Ask about the terms of the contract. Will your center benefit from agreeing to a multi-year contract? Would you be subject to a termination fee if you cancelled a contract with a vendor earlier than the originally agreed upon time? Does the vendor offer an “out clause” within 30, 60 or 90 days?
- If you are planning to add some survey questions of your own to the end of the OAS CAHPS Survey, ask how much, if anything, this customization would cost.
If you use a billing company, that company will need to produce a report that goes to your survey vendor each month to help identify patients who are eligible to participate in the survey. You will need to check with your billing company up front to determine if any fees, such as a one-time implementation cost or a monthly service fee, will be involved.
Final Thoughts
We have heard that some in the surgery center community believe that CMS will delay mandatory use of the OAS CAHPS Survey in ASCs at least one more time. While ASCA cannot predict exactly what CMS will do, ASCA is advising surgery centers not to expect another delay. The OAS CAHPS Survey has been under development since 2012, and eligible Medicare-certified HOPDs must begin conducting the surveys in 2024. Also, in ASCA’s regular conversations with CMS staff, no one has given us any reason to expect another delay.
For more information about OAS CAHPS in ASCs, including links to several Medicare resources related to the survey, visit the OAS CAHPS Survey FAQ page on ASCA’s website at www.ascassociation.org. ASCA will continue to assess the surgery center community’s progress with this survey, offer any assistance we can provide and advocate for changes to accommodate the needs of ASCs without compromising the value of the survey.
If you work in an ASC that is not already a member of ASCA, I encourage you to reach out to Mykal Cox at mcox@ascassociation.org and join now.
