CMS Approves Press Ganey as a Qualified Home Health Care CAHPS Survey Vendor

SOUTH BEND, Ind., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ — The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved Press Ganey Associates, Inc. as a qualified survey vendor for the Home Health Care Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HH-CAHPS). The HH-CAHPS survey is a measure of patients’ experiences with care provided by Medicare-certified home health care agencies. Home health agencies participating in the national HH-CAHPS implementation must contract with an approved survey vendor, such as Press Ganey.

As the market leader in the Hospital CAHPS surveys, representing nearly half of participating U.S. acute-care hospitals, Press Ganey is uniquely positioned to utilize its extensive CAHPS expertise on behalf of home health agencies. The company offers a range of solutions to meet the needs of home health agencies of every size. In addition to survey administration, these solutions can include tools and consulting services to help drive improvement as well as the option to conduct an integrated survey. An integrated survey is enhanced with additional standard questions from Press Ganey to provide agencies richer insight into their patients’ needs.

“Press Ganey is the only survey vendor that can offer a complete suite of tools and services to meet all home health agency needs,” said Lisa Cone-Swartz, vice president of home care at Press Ganey. “We do so much more than just administering the survey. As we have done for hospitals, we can also help our home health agency partners smoothly implement the survey, capture and analyze the results, strategize improvement efforts and aid in the improvement process.”

According to publicly reported results, Press Ganey Hospital CAHPS clients outperform other hospitals in several areas, including overall rating.

Home health agencies interested in discussing options with Press Ganey should call 800-232-8032.

Home health care is a rapidly growing and important part of the United States health care system, with as many as eight million Americans receiving this kind of care each year.(i) The CMS will use the HH-CAHPS survey to better evaluate and understand the quality of care provided by home health care agencies.  Through Medicare and Medicaid, CMS covers more than 60 percent of the expense of home health care in the United States.(ii)

The voluntary HH-CAHPS participation time period is from October to December 2009. Another option is for an agency to begin with the “dry run” period between January and March 2010. Agencies must complete a dry run or participate in the voluntary implementation to be eligible for national implementation. The proposed CMS rule requires agencies to participate in the April 2010 national implementation to be eligible for their full annual payment update.

Press Ganey Associates, Inc.

For more than 20 years, Press Ganey has been committed to providing insight that allows health care organizations to improve the quality of care they provide while improving their bottom-line results. The company offers the largest comparative customer feedback databases, actionable data, solution resources, and unparalleled consulting and customer service. Press Ganey currently partners with more than 7,000 health care facilities–including more than 40% of U.S. hospitals–to measure and improve the quality of their care.

(i) Sangl J, Saliba D, Gifford DR, Hittle DF. Challenges in measuring nursing home and home health quality: lessons from the First National Healthcare Quality Report. Med Care. 2005 Mar;43(3 Suppl):I24-32.

(ii) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Health Expenditure Data.  Table 4: National Health Expenditures by Source of Funds and Type of Expenditure, Calendar Years 2002-2007. Available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/tables.pdf. Accessed
9/25/09.

SOURCE Press Ganey