CMS has amended the protocol for when it’s acceptable to provide aggregated responses to the “About You” questions — questions 26-32 — of the HHCAHPS. Now, responses will only be permitted if there are at least 10 responses for every response option for each of these questions.
 
The federal Medicare agency made the change in an effort to ensure patients’ confidentiality and rights to privacy are protected, according to a July 20 statement.
 
This means, for example, that to report the “race” question at the aggregated level, an agency must have at least 10 respondents who have indicated they are white, 10 who’ve indicated they are black, 10 who’ve said they are Asian and so on for each of the other race categories, CMS says.
 
It’s no longer acceptable to provide aggregated data based on the total number of respondents who answered the question with any response, CMS says. Rather, the “rule of 10” must now be based on the number of responses to each response option for that question.
 
It’s still acceptable to provide survey responses linked to a sample patient’s name if the patient consents on the “Consent to Share Information” question, CMS says. It’s also still acceptable to provide de-identified survey responses to the core HHCAHPS questions — questions 1-25 — without the patient’s consent as long as no “About You” data are provided.
 
The new protocol is in effect as of July 20. HHCAHPS vendors do not have to revise any reports previously submitted to home health clients, but they are expected to adhere to this protocol for any results such as cross tabulations, frequency distributions, tables and Excel files reported to agencies after July 20.
 
Contact the HHCAHPS Coordination Team at hhcahps@rti.org or call 866-354-0985 with any questions.