On August 8, 2019, CMS published the proposed rule in the Federal Register for the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems. At this time, CMS is not proposing any changes to the 2020 OAS CAHPS survey. If finalized in the final rule published in November 2019, this means the OAS CAHPS survey will continue with voluntary participation for calendar year 2020.
The OAS CAHPS survey began initially with voluntary participation in January 2016, with plans for mandatory implementation in January 2018. In the July 2017 proposed rule (and finalized in the November 2017 final rule), CMS announced OAS would continue with voluntary implementation.
CMS has cited several reasons for delayed implementation:
- Allow time to respond to commenters during the public comment period.
- Allow for HOPDs and ASCs to work with their survey vendor on the program implementation
- Evaluate alternative opportunities to reduce burden of administering the survey.
Despite the delay in mandatory implementation, public reporting for those facilities submitting data on a voluntary basis began in April 2018. Data for two composite measures and two individual items are available on Hospital Compare.
Update: CMS published the final rule on November 12th, 2019, with no changes to the OAS CAHPS survey. OAS CAHPS will continue with voluntary participation for calendar year 2020.