2 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8
For the second straight year,
CMS has delayed forcing hos-
pital outpatient departments
and ambulatory surgery cen-
ters to participate in the OAS
CAHPS quality reporting pro-
gram — a reprieve many are
applauding. It's not that crit-
ics object to CMS gathering
data from beneficiaries about
the care they receive at outpatient surgical facilities. It's just that
they hope CMS makes the survey tool less burdensome before it
makes it mandatory. Among their concerns:
• Quantity reporting, not quality
reporting. At the outset, the Consumer Assessment of
Healthcare Providers and Systems Outpatient and Ambulatory
Surgery Survey (OAS CAHPS) won't be a pay-for-performance
survey tool that's tied to payment; it'll be a pay-for-reporting pro-
gram. CMS only cares that you meet the data submission require-
ments — 300 complete surveys in a year or 25 per month — not
the score.
• It'll be costly. You must contract with a CMS-approved survey
vendor (osmag.net/k4QKYa) to conduct the patient surveys. The
vendor will charge you $10 to $25 per completed survey.
• Nearly 40 questions. Then there's the proposed survey's size
OAS CAHPS
Mandatory Quality Reporting
Program Postponed Again
• PATIENT-CENTERED CARE Surgery centers will eventually be judged on how well they
treat Medicare beneficiaries.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
