Revised Protocol for Providing HHCAHPS Survey “About You” Response Data to HHAs--UPDATED
folder_openChanges to Protocols and Guidelines, Information for Home Health Agenciescalendar_todayPosted February 5, 2020

CMS has approved new guidance for HHCAHPS survey vendors that would like to provide their clients with de-identified, aggregate response data from the “About You” questions (Questions 26-32).

Existing guidance for providing “About You” response data:
As stated on page 106 of the HHCAHPS Survey Protocols and Guidelines Manual, Version 12, a vendor can provide de-identified response data back to its client agency for an “About You” question only if there are a minimum of 11 responses in each response category for that question.

New Guidance: (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 is to combine two or more response options so that the combined responses meet the reporting requirement of 11 or more. Below is an example of how vendors can implement this method.

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

Under the existing guidance, the data for Q29 cannot be shared with the agency because 1 or more of the response categories has fewer than 11 responses:

However, using the new guidance, vendors can combine response categories (with appropriate adjustments to the response categories for reporting purposes) to meet the reporting requirement of 11 or more responses per category:

Vendors are encouraged to send questions to the Coordination Team (hhcahps@rti.org) on any potential aggregations about which they would like feedback.