As of yesterday (Jan. 1, 2025), the Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (OHS CAHPS) is a mandatory element of CMS’ ASC Quality Reporting Program. The Outpatient Ophthalmic Surgery Society (OOSS) warns in a press release that ASCs should be ready to streamline processes and ensure compliance with the patient episode measures; those that do not administer and report OHS CAHPS in 2025 could be subject to a penalty of 2% of their annual Medicare payment update.
While facilities are required to contract with survey vendors to implement the survey, OOSS says “a significant number of ASCs” have apparently not yet done so. Any ASC that has still not contracted with a vendor so should contact one or more of the CMS-approved vendors immediately. OOSS provides a list of all CMS-approved OHS CAHPS vendors: https://oascahps.org/General-Information/Approved-Survey-Vendors.
The society notes that the mail survey includes 34 items (the phone survey includes 32 questions) regarding the patient’s outpatient surgery facility experience, including check-in process, facility environment, staff communications, attention to comfort, pain control, provision of pre- and post-op care information, overall experience and patient characteristics.
Another important note: There is not a web-only mode for survey participation. Current collection modes are: mail-only, telephone-only; mail survey with telephone follow-up of non-respondence, and web with telephone follow-up of non-respondence. ASCs will be required to collect at least 200 completed surveys over a 12-month period. Smaller ASCs that cannot collect the required 200 surveys will be required to survey all eligible patients (ie, no sampling).
To avoid financial penalties, OOSS urges, ”Please take all necessary steps to ready your ASC for compliance with OAS CAHPS.” Contact Michael Romansky, OOSS General Counsel, at mromansky@OOSS.org with any questions.