If Home Health CAHPS survey vendors want to display an agency’s name and/or logo on mailing envelopes, the vendors need to obtain the agency’s permission, according to CMS.
 
The vendor also needs to get assurances that the agency doesn’t consider the name and/or logo to be a HIPAA risk.
 
Each vendor needs to determine the kinds of documentation or assurances are necessary from agencies “for its own internal recordkeeping to feel comfortable submitting the Exceptions Request Form (ERF),” according to a post on the Home Health CAHPS website.
 
The Home Health CAHPS survey coordination team won’t “review any documentation pertaining to this ERF during oversight visits.”
 
Among the information that should be included on the ERF that’s submitted to the coordination team: “a statement that the vendor has discussed or will discuss the potential for HIPAA risks with its current and future client(s) and has or will obtain approval from the client(s) to display the agency name and/or logo on the envelope or through the envelope window. Vendors can submit one ERF to cover all their current and future clients; CCNs do not need to be listed.”