Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) 2013 Group Practice Reporting Option (GPRO)
and SSP Accountable Care Organization (ACO) CAHPS® Survey for ACOs and the PQRS GPROs
Program Year 2013
Transcript 11/06/2013
• Slide 1: Physician Quality Reporting System 2013 Group Practice Reporting Option and SSP
Accountable Care Organization CAHPS® Survey for ACOs and the PQRS GPROs Program Year 2013
• Slide 4: In this presentation, we will discuss the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare
Providers and Systems Survey overview and the ACO/PQRS GPRO CAHPS survey implementation.
• Slide 5: Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey overview
• Slide 6: The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems is a family of surveys
that measures patient-centered care.
CAHPS provides information in areas for which patients or consumers are the best or only
source.
CAHPS focuses on patient experience with care, not patient satisfaction.
CAHPS has an eighteen year history, has undergone rigorous methodological testing, and is highly
valid and reliable.
• Slide 7: What does the ACO/PQRS GPRO CAHPS survey cover?
It contains eighty-one questions, organized in the following sections: your provider,
your care from this provider in the last six months, clerks and receptionists at this provider's
office, your care from specialists in the last six months, all your care in the last
six months, and about you.
• Slide 8: The survey also asks about patients' experiences with care across twelve summary
survey measures, with a single provider within the ACO or group practice over a six-month
look back period.
• Slide 9: Seven of twelve summary survey measures are derived from the CAHPS Clinician
and Group Survey or CG-CAHPS.
These include: Getting Timely Care, Appointments and Information, How Well Your Providers Communicate,
Patient's Rating of Provider, Access to Specialists, Health Promotion and Education, Shared Decision-making,
and Courteous and Helpful Office Staff.
• Slide 10: One summary survey measure captures information on beneficiaries' health status
and functional status.
This item includes questions required by section four-three-zero-two of the Affordable Care
Act relating to disability status.
• Slide 11: Four additional summary survey measures capture important dimensions of patient
experiences with care including, Care Coordination, Between Visit Communication, Helping You to
Take Medications as Directed, and Stewardship of Patient Resources.
• Slide 12: What provider does the ACO/PQRS GPRO CAHPS survey ask about?
The provider named in the survey is the individual who provided the plurality of the beneficiary's
primary care during the period being assessed.
The survey also asks about experiences with the health care team and specialists.
• Slide 13: ACO/PQRS GPRO CAHPS survey implementation.
• Slide 14: Which beneficiaries get the ACO/PQRS GPRO CAHPS survey?
Beneficiaries who have original Medicare.
Beneficiaries are drawn from the same pool of beneficiaries that is used for measuring
all other aspects of Medicare's ACO GPRO and PQRS GPRO reporting programs.
For 2014 implementation of the survey, eight hundred and sixty beneficiaries will be sampled
from each ACO and PQRS GPRO.
• Slide 15: What are the beneficiary eligibility criteria?
The inclusion criteria includes beneficiaries with original Medicare who are assigned to
an ACO or a group practice participating in Medicare programs and have at least two visits
for primary care services with a provider from the group practice or ACO.
The beneficiary is eighteen years or older and lives in the United States, Puerto Rico,
or the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Exclusion criteria include individuals known to be institutionalized or individuals known
to be deceased.
• Slide 16: The survey is available in the following languages: English, Spanish, Cantonese,
Korean, Mandarin, Russian, and Vietnamese.
• Slide 17: THE Survey administration planned to begin early 2014.
It will capture patient experience with care for program year 2013 and it will be administered
using a mixed-mode methodology, mail and telephone.
• Slide 18: CMS will mail a pre-notification letter January 16 and 17, 2014.
The surveys are mailed beginning late January 2014.
Telephone interviews for non-respondents begin early February 2014.
Data collection closes March 28, 2014.
• Slide 19: In order to ensure the best possible response rate for all surveys, it
is strongly recommended that questions similar to those found in the ACO/PQRS GPRO CAHPS
survey not be administered 4 weeks prior to, during, and 4 weeks after the ACO/PQRS GPRO
CAHPS survey period.
• Slide 20: Delivery of reports for ACO/PQRS GPRO CAHPS is planned for Summer 2014.
The reports will include: scores for the twelve summary survey measures, detailed results,
including performance on the individual performance dimensions that make up each of the summary
survey measures and frequency tables for all survey questions, and additional information
on content of the survey, data collection, and how the data were analyzed.
• Slide 21: Look out for these other 2013 PQRS GPRO Webinars on the CMS YouTube site
at this link.
These include 2013 PQRS GPRO 101 Parts 1 and 2, GPRO Reporting Mechanisms Parts 1 and 2
2013, the GPRO Value-Based Modifier, Public Reporting, a Measures Overview, Individuals
Authorized Access to the CMS Computer Services or IACS, the 2013 PQRS GPRO and ACO Web Interface
Measure Specifications and Supporting Documents Parts 1, 2 and 3, and a 2013 PQRS GPRO and
ACO Web Interface Assignment and Sampling.
• Slide 22: Please also check the CMS YouTube site for this upcoming webinar: GPRO Web Interface
Overview.
Live support calls will held on the following dates: December 5 for a Question and Answer
Session, December 12 XML training, January 9 GPRO Web Interface training, January 16
a Question and Answer Session, January 27 through 31, from 2 to 3 pm Eastern Time daily
support calls during the first week of submission On February 6, 13, 20, 27 and March 6, 13,
and 27 from 2 to 3 pm Eastern Time, CMS will hold weekly support calls during the remaining
submission period.
• Slide 23: Additional information about CAHPS can be found at the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality website at this link.
Information on the ACO CAHPS can be found on the Medicare Shared Savings Program Quality
page at this link or the ACO CAHPS vendor site at this link.
If you have additional questions, please contact the QualityNet Help Desk, Monday through Friday,
7:00 am - 7:00 pm Central time, via e-mail at qnetsupport@sdps.org, via telephone at
(866) 288-8912, TTY 877-715-6222 or via fax at (888) 329-7377.