ASCQC Executive Director Donna Slosburg provided an update on the Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Survey Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (OAS CAHPS) survey. CMS and RTI International, an independent non-profit institute that specializes in research and quality measure development, developed this 37-question survey from 2012 to 2015. The survey measures the experience of care for patients who have a surgery or procedure in a hospital outpatient department (HOPD) or ASC. It was initially finalized for inclusion in the ASC Quality Reporting Program but in the calendar year (CY) 2018 OPPS/ASC Final Rule, CMS ultimately delayed mandatory implementation due to industry concerns over burden related to administering the survey. CMS had approved survey administration by telephone, mailed survey, and mail with a telephone follow-up, but there is currently no electronic option.
To address these concerns, CMS is administering a web-mode experiment. Between January and September 2019, CMS is collecting data to assess the impact of adding new survey administration modes, including web submission, web with mail follow-up and web with a telephone follow-up. The experiment is not expected to impact the CY 2020 ASC Payment Rule but the results will be considered for future rulemaking. There are currently 3,143 facilities that have registered for OAS CAHPS; 1,161 ASCs and 1,982 HOPDs. Of those, 92 percent utilize the mail mode and 8 percent utilize the phone mode. Participating facilities may choose to make their data public and the publicly available data shows high scores among participating facilities. The first publicly available data was posted in April 2018, and the information is currently being updated quarterly.
The ASCQC website provides regularly updated quality data submitted voluntarily by more than 1,500 ASCs. The ASCA website provides up-to-date information on ASC quality reporting requirements. For more information write Alex Taira.