Overview: The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Survey (OAS CAHPS) collects information about patients’ experiences of care in hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). As of July 2022, there were 6,758 Medicare-certified ASCs and 4,773 HOPDs. In 2010, 48.3 million surgical and nonsurgical procedures were performed; approximately 25.7 million procedures were performed in HOPDs and 22.5 million were performed in ASCs. OAS CAHPS is designed to measure the experiences of care for patients who visited Medicare-certified HOPDs or ASCs for a surgery or procedure to inform quality improvement and comparative consumer information about outpatient facilities.
About the survey: Patients 18 years old and older who had both medically and non-medically necessary surgeries and/or procedures are eligible. The survey includes questions about patients’ experiences with their preparation for the surgery or procedure, check-in processes, cleanliness of the facility, communications with the facility staff, discharge from the facility, and preparation for recovering at home. The survey also includes questions about whether patients received information about what to do if they had possible side-effects during their recovery. OAS CAHPS is designed to be national in scope and will require standardized administration protocols. In 2019, CMS conducted a mode experiment to assess the feasibility of implementing web-based survey administration. In the CY 2022 Final Rule, which was published on November 16, 2021, CMS confirmed plans to add two new web-based modes of survey administration to the existing mail only, telephone only, and mail with telephone follow-up of non-respondents survey modes already implemented. These two new web modes are: web with mail follow-up, and web with telephone follow-up.
Public reporting and policy relevance: The survey is voluntary since its implementation in 2016 and will continue to be voluntary through CY 2023 for HOPDs and 2024 for ASCs. The survey will be required and linked to reimbursement in CY 2024 for HOPDs and CY 2025 for ASCs. If an HOPD or ASC does not conduct and submit OAS CAHPS as part of the quality reporting requirement, they will receive a reduction of 2.0 percentage points in their annual fee schedule update.
For more information, please visit the OAS CAHPS website: https://oascahps.org/. You may also contact: AmbSurgSurvey@cms.hhs.gov