Updated Announcement About Excluding Specific Patients From the HHCAHPS Sample
folder_openChanges to Protocols and Guidelinescalendar_todayPosted June 6, 2011

This announcement has been updated. Please see the additional text below, in red.  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will permit home health agencies to exclude from the monthly patient information files that they submit to their HHCAHPS Survey vendors information about patients who

• have harmed or endangered the health or well-being of the home health provider or attempted to harm or endanger the health or well-being of the home health provider.

For an agency (and HHCAHPS Survey vendors) to use this exclusion criterion, the reason for the exclusion must be documented by the agency and also provided to the HHCAHPS Survey vendor. The vendor will be requested to provide the reason for the exclusion during HHCAHPS oversight visits.

Clarification of Documentation Required:  If an HHA excludes a patient from the monthly patient information file because the patient has harmed or attempted to harm a home health care provider, the HHA should send an email message to the vendor which indicates the number of patients that were excluded from the file for that reason. The vendor should retain the email message that the HHA sends regarding this issue for possible review by CMS and the Coordination Team.  In addition to the number of patients excluded from the file for that reason, the email message should include the sample month and year. The HHA does not need to include the name or any other identifying information about the patient who was excluded from the monthly patient information file because the patient harmed or attempted to harm a home health provider.

CMS and the HHCAHPS Coordination Team wish to point out that to date, only one or two incidents of this type have been reported to the Coordination Team. Therefore, the Coordination Team expects that this exclusion criterion will rarely be implemented.

If an agency is not sure whether a patient should be excluded from the monthly patient information files, the agency should contact the HHCAHPS Coordination Team via e mail at hhcahps@rti.org or call toll-free at (866) 354-0985.

The next version of the HHCAHPS Protocols and Guidelines Manual will be updated to include this new exclusion criterion.