CMS limits HH-CAHPS demographic info vendors can share with HHAs (updated)

(This story was updated at 4 pm on July 23)

Update: CMS announced July 20 that it is making a minor change to the process outlined below. Vendors still will be allowed to share de-identified demographic information from questions 26-32 with agencies without patient consent, but only if 10 or more patients responded to those questions during the reporting period. For example, if only nine patients responded to question 31, it would not be acceptable for the vendor to share those responses with the agency. The change is effective immediately. For the full announcement, go to https://homehealthcahps.org/GeneralInformation/Announcements/tabid/269/EntryId/162/Update-to-the-Protocol-for-Providing-De-identified-Demographic-Information-about-HHCAHPS-Survey-Respondents-to-Home-Health-Agencies.aspx.

CMS is implementing a new safeguard to protect the privacy of patients who respond to the HH-CAHPS survey, but the change limits the availability of data you can use to improve your agency’s performance on patient satisfaction.

Effective immediately, HH-CAHPS vendors may no longer share individual responses to certain questions with their agency clients unless the patient gives permission, according to a July 16 announcement on the official HH-CAHPS website.

In addition to the so-called core questions (1-25), the survey also contains several questions which ask for patients’ demographic and health information (26-32). Agencies also have the option to include an additional question which asks for the patient’s consent to share his/her name with the agency, CMS notes.

Agencies can use these named individual responses to pinpoint whether a specific staff member or process was responsible for a negative satisfaction rating.

Currently, some vendors provide de-identified individual survey responses to agencies when patients don’t give consent to share their name. However, some agencies’ HH-CAHPS samples are so small that agencies might still be able to identify individual patients based on the demographic information shared in questions 26-32, CMS notes.

As a result, vendors will no longer be allowed to share responses to those demographic questions, even when they don’t contain the patient’s name, unless the patient gives permission.