Home Health CAHPS
The Home Health Care CAHPS Survey (HHCAHPS®) is part of a family of CAHPS surveys that ask patients to report on and rate their experiences with health care. The HHCAHPS Survey was designed to measure and assess the experiences of people receiving home health care with the following three goals in mind:
- To produce comparable data on patient satisfaction;
- To create incentives for agencies to improve their quality of care through public reporting of survey results; and
- To hold health care providers accountable by informing the public about the providers’ quality of care.
The CAHPS Survey, English
The CAHPS Survey, Spanish
The CAHPS Survey, Chinese
The CAHPS Survey, Russian
The CAHPS Survey, Vietnamese
Supplemental Questions
Link to RTI
Free On-Demand Webinar: HHCAHPS Public Reporting Training
Presented by Gina Mazza, RN, BSN
HHCAHPS Director
Recorded March 1, 2012
Fazzi and Patient Satisfaction
Fazzi’s National Patient Satisfaction service is one of home care’s oldest, largest, and most respected patient satisfaction benchmarking systems in the country. Fazzi specializes in home care and hospice services and is the only national benchmarking service that incorporates findings from its research and consulting divisions in helping to guide agencies in best practice strategies for improving patient satisfaction. Because our goal is not just reporting but improvement, we include best practice training webinars, industry updates, and technical support as part of our standard patient satisfaction benchmark service.
Click here to see winners of the Best Practice Achievement Award of Distinction.
National Patient Satisfaction Benchmark Service: Much More Than Statistics
| Service Components | Basic |
Premium |
| Customized HHCAHPS Survey |  |
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| Customized HHCAHPS Cover Letter | |
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| On-demand Dashboard Report | |
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| Comprehensive Benchmark Report | Quarterly |
On-demand |
| All Surveys Report (One Report, All Surveys) | Quarterly |
On-demand |
| Outcomes Monitor (Track, Trend, Improve) | Quarterly |
On-demand |
| Online Access to Surveys | |
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| Best Practice Webinar Presentations | |
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| New Research/Reports on Patient Satisfaction | |
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| Insider Email Updates | |
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| Multi-location Reporting | |
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| Personal CAHPS Consultant* | |
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| Custom and/or Supplemental Questions | |
*Personal CAHPS Consultant: Real time support. A specialist dedicated to your agency and your scores. Call anytime. They will also call you if they discover any problems. Their goal for you: Top 1/3 on all CAHPS nationwide.
Consultative Support
Fazzi's Patient Satisfaction System is delivered by home health professionals who will work with you as a partner. You and your staff will receive: 
- One-on-one, private conference calls
- Best practice webinars
- Quarterly dashboard projects
- Technical assistance and a toll-free help line
Interactive Web Reporting
Web reporting can be accessed by the Subscriber Login link at fazzi.com. All reports are offered on-demand.
Exceptional Ease of Use
Clear, uncluttered reports tell you at a glance where you stand, using intuitive graphics to convey statistical analyses in a way the communicates to any audience. Even the most demanding quality improvement professionals will find the in-depth analysis they need to design quality improvement initiatives.
Patient Satisfaction Reporting and Analysis
You can compare your agency to national standards, to similar sized agencies, or even to the top performers using our on-demand, web-based reporting system. You can see how your agency stacks up to others by any characteristic, from payor and diagnosis to team, branch office or service. You'll have convenient access to comprehensive, in-depth reporting for benchmarking, board meetings, marketing or other uses.
Home Care Software Partners
For more information on our partnerships, click here. Contact Laurie Gloster to ask about our complete list of partners.
Answers to Questions on CAHPS
What is Home Health Care CAHPS®?
"CAHPS" is an acronym for Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. CAHPS products include several instruments to assess patients' perspectives on the care delivered in health care facilities, such as hospitals (H-CAHPS or Hospital CAHPS), nursing homes, and dialysis centers. The Home Health Care CAHPS Survey (HHCAHPS) is part of this family of CAHPS surveys. The HHCAHPS survey was developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Which agencies will be exempt from using the HHCAHPS surveys in 2010- 2011?
Medicare-certified home health agencies that serve fewer than 60 unduplicated, survey eligible patients from April 1, 2009, through March 31, 2010 will be exempt from participating in the Home Health Care CAHPS Survey.
Agencies seeking an exemption must report the number of unduplicated patients they served between April 1, 2009, and March 31, 2010 to CMS using an online form that will be available on the Home Health CAHPS Survey project web site at https://homehealthcahps.org on April 1, 2010. The count of patients must be submitted to CMS on or before June 16, 2010.
Which patients should receive the HHCAHPS survey?
The following types of home health care patients should be included in the HHCAHPS survey process:
- Current or discharged patients who had at least one home health visit at any time during the sample month;
- Patients who were at least 18 years of age at any time during the sample period, and are believed to be alive;
- Patients who received at least two visits from HHA personnel during a 60-day look-back period;
- Patients who have not been selected for the monthly sample during any month in the current quarter or during the 5 months immediately prior to the sample month;
- Patients who are not currently receiving hospice care;
- Patients who do not have routine ''maternity'' care as the primary reason for receiving home health care; and
- Patients who have not requested ''no publicity status'';
- Patients whose payer is Medicare or Medicaid.
Is there a standard Home Health Care CAHPS Survey that every agency will use?
Yes, the Home Health Care CAHPS Survey instrument contains 34 questions that cover topics such as access to care, communications, and interactions with the agency and with agency staff. The Home Health Care CAHPS Survey is currently available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and Vietnamese.
Do we have to use a vendor to administer the HHCAHPS survey?
Yes, agencies must use an approved Home Health Care CAHPS Survey vendor to administer surveys. A list of approved survey vendors, including Fazzi Associates, is available at https://homehealthcahps.org/. Medicare-certified home health agencies must choose an approved vendor to contract with for the HHCAHPS survey administration.
Will patient satisfaction results be publicly reported?
Yes, public reporting is expected early 2011. All publicly reported data will be available on the Home Health Compare web site at http://www.medicare.gov. Results from the Home Health Care CAHPS Survey will be published quarterly and will include each home health agency's (HHA's) most recent four quarters of data. Survey vendors submit data to CMS on behalf of their HHAs on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Which survey items will be publicly reported?
Home Health Care CAHPS Survey results will be reported for three composites and two global items:
Composite Measures
- Care of Patients (Q9, Q16, Q19, and Q24)
- Communications between Providers and Patients (Q2, Q15, Q17, Q18, Q22, and Q23)
- Specific Care Issues (Q3, Q4, Q5, Q10, Q12, Q13, and Q14)
Global Items
- Care from the Agency’s Home Health Providers (Q20)
- Recommend this agency to family or friends (Q25)
Can we add additional questions to the survey?
Agencies/vendors may add their own or the CAHPS supplemental questions to the Home Health Care CAHPS Survey. Supplemental questions do not need to be approved by or reported to CMS. Supplemental question responses will not be reported to CMS.
What are the data collection options allowable in the HHCAHPS initiative?
There are 3 data collection options available to HHA’s. Fazzi Associates offers all 3 options. They are:
- Mail only: Survey and cover letter are mailed within 3 weeks of the month end. A second survey is mailed 3 weeks later to those that did not respond to the first survey.
- Telephone only: The survey is administered as a telephone survey only. Telephone data collection begins no later than 3 weeks after the month end and is completed within 42 days/six weeks.
- Mixed- mode: Mailed survey with telephone follow up. A survey and cover letter are mailed within 3 weeks of the month end. About 3 weeks after the survey is mailed, a telephone follow up contact is conducted for those that did not respond to the mailed survey.
When will Home Health Care CAHPS Survey be required of all Medicare-certified agencies?
According to the October 30, 2009 Federal Register Notice, the HHCAHPS final rules are effective January 1, 2010. The final rules require Medicare-certified agencies implement the HHCAHPS survey no later than third quarter (July, August, September) 2010. The data submitted to CMS from the third quarter 2010 will not be included in public reporting. Ongoing data collection and reporting will begin fourth quarter 2010. The final rule also includes HHCAHPS in the pay for reporting requirements for HHAs. Agencies that do not follow the implementation timeline set in the final rules will have a 2% reduction in the 2012 Medicare market basket update. Agencies may implement the HHCAHPS survey using an approved vendor anytime after October 1, 2009.
How We Can Help
Our goal is to help you improve. We monitor your results. We provide best practice trainings, technical support, consultation, and insider reports to help you improve, and there is no additional cost for these services. Email Gina at gmazza@fazzi.com for more details.