Home Health Care CAHPS Participation Requirements for the Calendar Year 2016 Annual Payment Update
folder_openInformation for Home Health Agenciescalendar_todayPosted March 12, 2014

The purpose of this announcement is to provide information about Home Health Care CAHPS (HHCAHPS) Survey participation requirements for Medicare-certified home health agencies (HHAs) to receive the annual payment update (APU) in calendar year (CY) 2016.

To be eligible for the full APU in CY 2016, Medicare-certified HHAs that will have served 60 or more survey-eligible patients between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014 must contract with an approved HHCAHPS Survey vendor to administer the survey on its behalf each month beginning with the April 2014 sample month. The data collection period for the HHCAHPS survey for the CY 2016 Annual Payment Update (APU) is from April 2014 through March 2015.

HHAs that are currently not participating in the HHCAHPS Survey and that do not qualify for an exemption from participating in the HHCAHPS Survey for the CY 2016 APU should begin to prepare NOW to participate in the HHCAHPS Survey starting with the April 2014 sample month. Information about the HHCAHPS Survey is available in a document "Getting Started with the HHCAHPS Survey: HHA Responsibilities, How to Participate and HHCAHPS Participation Requirements for the APU," which is available at the following link:

https://homehealthcahps.org/Portals/0/HHA_Responsibilities_List.pdf

HHAs that will have served 59 or fewer survey-eligible patients between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014 are eligible for an exemption from participating in the HHCAHPS Survey for CY 2016 APU. All such agencies must count and report to CMS the number of survey-eligible patients they served during that 12-month period by completing the CY 2016 APU Participation Exemption Request (PER) form. The CY 2016 APU PER form will be available on https://homehealthcahps.org beginning on April 1, 2014. The deadline to submit a CY 2016 APU PER form is January 15, 2015.

CMS and the HHCAHPS Survey Coordination Team encourage Medicare-certified HHAs to review information about HHCAHPS Survey participation requirements that are described in the following documents:

• Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) Final Rule for Calendar Year 2014 Final Rule, which was published in the Federal Register on December 2, 2013. The CY2014 HH PPS Final Rule describes HHCAHPS Survey participation requirements for Medicare-certified home health agencies to receive the APU in CY 2016. The CY 2014 Final Rule is available on the HHCAHPS Web site at the following link:
  https://homehealthcahps.org/Portals/0/HHCAHPS2014FinalRule.pdf
• HHCAHPS Survey Participation Periods. Important information on how to determine whether your home health agency is eligible to participate in the HHCAHPS Survey is available at this link:
  https://homehealthcahps.org/Portals/0/HHCAHPS_Participation_Periods.pdf

Please contact the HHCAHPS Survey Coordination Team via e-mail at hhcahps@rti.org or call toll-free at (866) 354-0985 for further assistance.