All Medicare-certified home health agencies (HHAs) with over 60 eligible patients annually must participate in the Home Health Care CAHPS Survey (HHCAHPS) in order to receive their full annual market basket increase. All agencies who want to participate in the implementation, which starts on October 1, 2010, must participate in at least one month of the Dry Run in the third quarter of 2010. With only one full month left in this quarter, your agency should move quickly if you want to participate before the deadline. Today, we will provide answers to frequently asked questions regarding the HHCAHPS requirement:

Q: What is HHCAHPS?
A: The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Home Health Care Survey (HHCAHPS) is a survey process being implemented by CMS to measure the experiences of people receiving home health care from Medicare-certified home health agencies. These surveys will be conducted, via mail and telephone, for home health agencies by approved HHCAHPS survey vendors, as contracted by the agencies. A monthly patient data file list that includes all eligible patients must be provided to the selected survey vendor. Patient eligibility requirements have been set by CMS.

Q: Which patients are going to be surveyed by the vendor?
A: 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;
• Patients who have not requested "no publicity status";
• Patients whose payer is Medicare or Medicaid.

Q: Which patients are excluded from the HHCAHPS?
A: In general, HHAs should exclude from the monthly file only patients who:

• Do not have Medicare or Medicaid as a payor;
• Are under age 18;
• Did not have at least one visit for skilled care in the sample month and two skilled visits during the "lookback" period;
• Are deceased;
• Currently receive hospice care;
• Received home visits for routine maternity care only; or
• Requested the HHA to not release their name.

Q: What do HHAs have to do to be eligible for the 2012 annual payment update?
A: To be eligible for the 2012 annual payment update, agencies must:

• Participate in a Dry Run in the third quarter of 2010 for at least one month in that quarter;
• Start participating in October 2010;
• Conduct the survey on a continuous ongoing basis thereafter.

Q: What is the Dry Run?
A: The Dry Run is a test in the third quarter of 2010 required of all agencies that want to participate in the HHCAHPS national implementation that starts on October 1, 2010. It will allow an agency to work with a vendor to collect and submit data. Agencies must participate in at least one month of the Dry Run. Specifically, HHCAHPS Dry Run data from at least one month in the third quarter of 2010 (July through September) and HHCAHPS survey data from the fourth quarter of 2010 (October through December) and the first quarter of 2011 (January through March) must be submitted to the HHCAHPS survey vendor.

Q: How do I get my HHCAHPS file to the survey vendor?
A: In most cases, you can either upload files through the vendor's website or mail files directly to the vendor. Agency Manager™ enables users to export HHCAHPS filtered patient data on a monthly basis to select HHCAHPS survey vendors; these export files meet the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid and selected survey vendor's specifications. Agencies must have an active subscription with both Kinnser Software and a selected survey vendor to create HHCAHPS data export files using Kinnser's Agency Manager.

Q: Do we have to reach a certain limit of completed surveys?
A: CMS emphasized that HHAs should target 300 completes annually which averages about 25 completes per month. CMS will accept less than 300 survey completes annually if an agency is unable to achieve that number. Compliance is based on whether the agency did the survey and followed the protocols. It is not based on the number of patients that responded to the survey.

Q: Do we include patients whose care is paid for by non-traditional Medicare / Medicaid plans?
A: Patients enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid Managed Care plans (i.e. Medicare HMO, PPO, PFFS plans, etc.) are included as eligible to participate in the HHCAHPS survey.

Please submit a comment below if you have additional questions or contact Kinnser Support at (877) 399-6538 or by email at support@kinnser.com. Click here to download more FAQ posted on the HHCAHPS website.