Home Health & Hospice Week

Participation in patient satisfaction survey is voluntary -- for now. If you'd like to take an advance look at the feds' home health patient satisfaction survey -- or even start using it -- now's your chance. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has requested Office of Management and Budget approval for the new Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Home Health Care Survey. The survey "is designed to measure the experiences of people receiving home health care from Medicare-certified home health care agencies," CAHPS contractor RTI notes on the CAHPS Web site. Public outcomes: CAHPS participation is voluntary for now, CMS notes in an April 10 Federal Register notice. But the agency "plans to implement a process to measure and publicly report home health care patient experiences through" the survey, CMS notes. "Home Health Care CAHPS Survey results will be publicly reported on Home Health Compare once an agency has [...]