Patient Files

IV. HOME HEALTH CARE CAHPS SURVEY
SAMPLING PROCEDURES
Overview
This chapter describes the procedures survey vendors should use to request a file of patients from
the home health agency (HHA), identify patients eligible for the survey, construct a sampling
frame, and select a patient sample each month. The sampling procedures described in this
chapter were developed to ensure standardized administration of the HHCAHPS Survey by all
survey vendors and to ensure comparability of the data and survey results that are publicly
reported. These sections are organized in the general chronological order in which the
corresponding tasks will take place.
Step 1: Obtain a monthly patient information file each month from each client HHA.
Step 2: Examine the patient file for completeness and work with the HHA to obtain missing
data. Process and check the file for duplicate information.
Step 3: Identify eligible patients and construct a sample frame.
Step 4: Determine a sampling rate and select the sample for each HHA.
Step 5: Verify or update patient contact information.
Step 6: Assign a unique sample identification (SID) number to each sample member.
Step 7: Finalize the monthly sample file and initiate data collection activities.

Documenting Sampling Processes for Vendor Oversight
Vendors should document all of their sampling processes for survey oversight purposes, since
the HHCAHPS Survey Coordination Team will check each vendor’s sampling procedures and
documentation during oversight telephone calls or visits, including documentation of all
sampling quality control checks conducted by vendor staff.

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Step 1: Obtain a Monthly Patient Information File From Each Home
Health Agency Client
Monthly Patient Information Files
HHAs administering the HHCAHPS Survey must submit a monthly patient information file to
their contracted HHCAHPS Survey vendor. Survey vendors must work with each client HHA to
(1) obtain all required data elements for every eligible patient served during the sample month
and (2) ensure that their client HHA provides these data by an agreed-upon date each month.
Survey vendors should request from each of their client HHAs a file, referred to as a monthly
patient information file, containing specific information about all patients served at any time
during the sample month, including those who were discharged during the sample month. The
monthly HHA files must contain information that is at both the agency level and the patient
level. This file should also include patients served by all branches in all states falling under the
same CMS Certification Number (CCN).

Patient Eligibility Requirements
HHAs should include in the files submitted to survey vendors all patients who meet the
HHCAHPS Survey eligibility criteria (criteria with an asterisk (*) are explained more fully in
paragraphs that follow):
•

Patients who are at least 18 years of age by the end of the sample month;

•

Patients whose home care was paid for by Medicare or Medicaid. This includes patients who
are enrolled in Medicare fee-for-service plans and those enrolled in Medicare Advantage
(MA) plans or Medicaid managed care health plans.

•

Patients who had at least one home health visit for skilled nursing care, physical therapy,
occupational therapy, or speech therapy during the sample month*;

•

Patients who had at least two home health visits for skilled nursing care, physical therapy,
occupational therapy, or speech therapy during the lookback period (includes the sample
month and the preceding month)*;

•

Patients who are not deceased;

•

Patients who are not currently receiving hospice care; and

•

Patients who received home visits for services other than routine maternity care in the sample
month.*

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HHAs should exclude from the file any patient who meets one of these criteria:
•

Patients who received home visits ONLY for routine maternity care in the sample month*;

•

Patients who have harmed or endangered the health or well-being of a home health provider
or attempted to harm or endanger the health or well-being of a home health provider*;

•

State-regulated patients*; and

•

Patients who requested that the HHA not release their name and contact information to
anyone other than agency personnel, hereafter referred to in this manual as “no publicity”
patients.*

The next few paragraphs provide more information about selected eligibility criteria.
Skilled Visits. For purposes of this survey, the basis for determination of a skilled visit is the
classification of the agency employee who visited the patient and not the reason for the home
health visit, with the exception of patients who are receiving only routine maternity care or those
who are discharged to hospice care. For a visit to be considered a “skilled visit” the agency
employee must be classified as one of the following: registered nurse (RN), licensed practical
nurse (LPN), physical therapist, physical therapist assistant, occupational therapist, occupational
therapist assistant, speech therapist, or speech therapist assistant. Skilled visits do not include
visits made by any category of social worker, home health or personal care aide, or nursing aide.
Lookback Period. The lookback period is defined as the sample month and the month
immediately preceding the sample month. Patients must have had at least one skilled home care
visit during the sample month and at least two skilled visits during the “lookback” period.
Routine Maternity Care. Note that patients who receive home health care only for routine
maternity care are not eligible to be included in the survey. For purposes of this survey, routine
maternity care is receiving a few visits for a normal delivery and would include, but is not
limited to, assistance in breastfeeding and other educational services.
Endangering Home Health Providers. CMS will permit HHAs to exclude from the monthly
patient information files information about patients who have harmed or endangered the health
or well-being of a home health provider or attempted to harm or endanger the health or wellbeing of a home health provider. For an HHA to use this exclusion criterion, the agency must
document the reason for the exclusion and provide the reason to the HHCAHPS Survey vendor
when the monthly patient information file is submitted to the vendor. The vendor will be
requested to provide the reason for the exclusion during HHCAHPS oversight visits.
State-Regulated Patients. Some states have regulations and laws governing the release of
patient information for patients with specific illnesses or conditions, and for other special patient
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populations, including patients with HIV/AIDS. It is the HHA’s responsibility to identify any
applicable state laws and regulations and exclude state-regulated patients from the survey as
required by law or regulation.
No Publicity Patients. HHAs should also exclude information about no publicity patients from
the monthly patient information files. These are patients who have requested that their agency
not release their identity to anyone outside the agency, which typically occurs at the start of care.

Removing Non-Eligible Patients From Monthly Files
Some HHAs may want to provide their contracted survey vendor with a monthly patient
information file that contains information only about patients who meet the survey eligibility
criteria. If the HHA is making the exclusions, it is the vendor’s responsibility to make sure that
the HHA understands and correctly applies the patient eligibility criteria. And, the survey vendor
must still examine the file for completeness and to make sure that all patients on the file meet all
of the eligibility criteria.
Other HHAs may opt to provide a file containing information about all patients served during the
sample month so that the vendor can make the exclusions. If the survey vendor is making the
exclusions, it is the survey vendor’s responsibility to stress to its HHA clients that all patients
must be represented in the file the HHA submits. The HHA must provide the vendor with
sufficient information for the vendor to identify and exclude patients who do not meet eligibility
requirements. And, even if the survey vendor is making the exclusions, the HHA must still
exclude from the file information about harmful/dangerous, state-regulated, or no publicity
patients.

Information Needed From Each HHA at the Agency Level
HHAs are required to submit several agency-level data elements, including the HHA’s “Provider
Name,” “Provider Number” (CCN), “National Provider Number” (NPI), the “Sample Month,”
“Sample Year,” and the “Number of Patients Served.” The “Number Of Patients Served” is the
total number of patients the HHA served during the sample month. This total should include
patients who had at least one visit for skilled care at any point during the sample month,
regardless of whether they are eligible for the HHCAHPS Survey. In other words, this number
should include both patients who are eligible for the survey and those who are not.

Information Needed From HHAs for Each Patient Served
HHAs are required to provide all of the information shown in Table 4.1 for each patient they
served during the sample month except harmful/dangerous, state-regulated, or no publicity
patients. The information that the HHA provides will be used by the survey vendor to survey
sampled patients and will be used by the HHCAHPS Survey Coordination Team for data
analysis. Further explanation of some of the elements listed in the table is provided in Table 4.1.
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Table 4.1
Information Needed From HHAs for Each Medicare or Medicaid Patient Served During
Sample Month
Data Element Required

Reason Needed

Patient’s full name (First Name, Middle Initial, and Last Name as separate
fields)

Survey administration

Patient Sex

Survey administration
and analysis

Patient’s date of birth (MMDDYYYY)

Survey eligibility and
quality assurance

Mailing address (Patient Mailing Address 1, Patient Mailing Address 2,
Address City, Address State, and Address Zip Code as separate data fields)

Survey administration

Patient’s telephone number including area code

Survey administration

Medical Record Number (Patient’s HHA medical record number)

Survey quality
assurance

Number of skilled home health visits in sample month

Survey eligibility and
quality assurance

Number of skilled home health visits in lookback period

Survey eligibility and
quality assurance

Payer(s) (Medicare, Medicaid, private health insurance, and/or other)

Survey eligibility and
analysis

Source of admission (prior inpatient or community setting)

Survey analysis

HMO indicator

Survey analysis

Whether dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid

Survey analysis

Primary diagnosis (ICD-10-CM for underlying condition)

Survey analysis

Other diagnosis

Survey analysis

Care related to surgical discharge indicator

Survey analysis

Whether patient has end-stage renal disease (ESRD)

Survey analysis

ADL levels (5-items) OR

Survey analysis

Number of ADLs for which patient is not independent (0–5)

Survey analysis

Many of the data elements from Table 4.1 that the HHA will include on the monthly patient files
are on the patient’s Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) Assessment. The data
elements needed may be found on the OASIS Start of Care (SOC) assessment, in the Resumption
of Care (ROC) assessment, the Follow-up (FU) assessment, or the Discharge (DC) assessment.
The HHA should provide the data for the activities of daily living (ADLs) from the most recent
OASIS assessment.

Explanation of Some of the Data Elements Required From HHAs
•

Patient’s date of birth. Patients must be 18 years of age by the end of the sample month in
which they are sampled to be eligible for participation in the HHCAHPS Survey.

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•

Vendors should ensure that their client HHAs include each patient’s mailing address, even if
a telephone survey is planned for that HHA. For client HHAs planning telephone surveys, the
mailing address for each patient is needed so that the vendor can obtain or verify the sample
patient’s telephone number. The HHA provides the initial contact information; however,
survey vendors are strongly encouraged to use address verification or telephone number
lookup services to obtain updated contact information.

•

The patient’s medical record number is the unique identifier that the HHA assigns to the
patient that allows the HHA to track and document the care provided to the patient. This
number, along with other data elements, will allow the vendor to keep track of whether each
patient has been recently sampled.

•

Number of skilled home health visits in the sample month should include only visits for
skilled nursing care, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. The patient
must have had at least one skilled care visit during the sample month.

•

Number of skilled visits in the lookback period. The lookback period is the sample month
and the month immediately preceding the sample month. The patient must have had at least
one skilled care visit during the sample month and two such visits during the lookback
period.
For example, if a patient had only one skilled visit for the sample month of February, they
must have at least one skilled visit in January to meet the two-visit requirement. If the patient
had two skilled visits in the sample month or one in each month, the requirement of having
two such visits during the lookback period has been met. If the patient did not have any
skilled visits during the sample month but two during the lookback period, the patient is not
eligible to be included in the survey because they did not have at least one skilled visit during
the sample month.
Vendors should make sure that they are defining the lookback period correctly in all
communications with their HHA clients, including in written specifications for providing the
monthly patient information files and in marketing materials. The lookback period must be
defined in terms of months, not days. Use of terms such as “previous 60 days” or “60-day
lookback period” is not correct because some lookback periods contain more than 60 days
while the lookback period for the March sample month will contain fewer than 60 days.
Note that HHCAHPS Survey vendors must include on the XML data file submitted to the
HHCAHPS Survey Data Center the number of skilled visits the patient had in the lookback
period that is provided on the monthly patient information file submitted by the HHA. This
means that the survey vendor cannot calculate the number of visits in the lookback period for
a patient by adding the number of skilled visits reported for the current sample month with
the number of visits included on the monthly patient information file submitted by the HHA

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for the preceding sample month. However, if an HHA or its IT vendor provides the dates of
all visits in the lookback period instead of the total number of visits, it is acceptable for the
vendor to calculate the total number of visits in the lookback period. Note that this is the only
reason that a vendor should calculate the number of lookback visits.
If the HHA does not include the number of lookback period visits on the monthly patient
information file, the survey vendor should contact the HHA to obtain the number of visits in
the lookback period. If the HHA cannot provide the number of skilled visits the patient had
in the lookback period, the vendor should include the patient on the sample frame if the
patient had at least one skilled visit in the sample month. If the HHA cannot provide the
number of visits in the lookback period, the vendor should enter “M” (for Missing) for the
lookback data element for this patient on the XML data file submitted to the Data Center.
•

Source of admission is the place of residence or medical care setting from which the patient
was admitted. The equivalent data element in OASIS may be used as the response.
If the HHA did not receive any information about the source of admission or regarding an
inpatient stay prior to the patient being admitted for home health care, the HHA should
indicate that the patient was admitted from the “community.” The term “community setting”
refers to facilities that do not provide medical care, thus facilities such as hospitals, skilled
nursing facilities, and nursing homes are not considered “community.” The code
“community” is used if the patient was admitted from a private residence, an independent
living facility, or an assisted living facility. Also, the HHA should report the source of
admission as “community” if the patient was referred for home health care by a physician but
lives in a private residence, an independent living facility, or an assisted living facility.
Also note that the HHA can provide multiple sources of admission; the survey vendor should
include all sources of admission on the XML data files submitted to the HHCAHPS Survey
Data Center. If the admission source is missing from the HHA’s monthly file, the vendor
should enter the missing code on the XML data file that will be submitted to the HHCAHPS
Survey Data Center.

•

Payment source. Enter the source(s) of payment for the patient’s home health care. Note that
multiple sources may apply. The HHA should provide the vendor with all applicable sources
of payment for the care. The survey vendor, in turn, should include all sources of payment
for the patient’s care on the XML data files that are submitted to the Data Center.
The source of payment is Item M0150 on the OASIS Start of Care assessment. If the
payment source is missing for a patient, the survey vendor must enter the missing code for
this data element for the patient on the XML data file submitted to the Data Center.
If the HHA does not include the source of payment on the monthly patient information file,
the vendor should contact the HHA to obtain the source of payment. If the HHA cannot
provide the source of payment, the vendor should assume that the patient’s care is covered by

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Medicare or Medicaid and include the patient on the sampling frame if the patient meets all
other survey eligibility criteria.
•

The HMO Indicator is an indication of whether the patient is enrolled in a health
maintenance organization (HMO), which coordinates patient care and has a network of
providers to which patients can go for care. This indicator should be coded “yes” if the
patient is enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan or a Medicaid managed care plan.

•

Primary Diagnosis is the ICD-10-CM code for the underlying reason for the home health care
such as the principal diagnosis if the patient was admitted from a hospital. The source of
diagnosis codes may be the plan of care, OASIS assessment, record of hospital stay, or other
record documenting the patient admission.
HHAs should provide ICD-10 codes as the primary diagnosis. Z-codes as the primary
diagnosis, while not preferred, are allowed and will be accepted. External cause codes (ICD10-CM codes beginning with V, W, X, or Y) are not allowed as the primary diagnosis but are
allowed for the other diagnoses.

•

Other Diagnoses are comorbid conditions that are relevant for the care of the patient. The
relevant comorbidities are ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes. The sources may be the same as for
the primary diagnosis. HHAs can provide up to five other diagnoses for each patient included
on the XML data file. ICD-10-CM codes beginning with V, W, X, or Y will be accepted, but
they are not accepted for the primary diagnosis data element.

•

ESRD indicator. ESRD is an indicator of whether the patient has End-Stage Renal Disease.
This indicator should be coded “yes” if any of the following diagnosis codes are present:
I12.0, I13.11, I13.2, N18.6, Z91.15, or Z99.2.

•

Activities of Daily Living. Note that HHAs can provide on the monthly patient information
file that they submit to the survey vendor either the code for each of the five individual ADL
data elements or the total count of ADLs for which the patient is not fully independent, the
“ADL Deficits” XML data element. The HHA should report the five individual ADL codes
as taken from the list in the patient’s OASIS assessment. They are Ability to Dress Upper
Body (M1810), Ability to Dress Lower Body (M1820), Bathing (M1830), Toilet
Transferring (M1840), and Transferring (M1850). When reporting these ADL codes, the
HHA must use the most current code on file for those data elements.
If the HHA provides the OASIS values for the five individual ADL data elements on its file,
the vendor should enter the code provided for each of the five ADLs that were assessed for
that patient on the XML data file it submits to the Data Center. The only acceptable range of
codes for each of the five ADL Deficits is 0-5 and M (missing).
If the HHA provides the total count of ADL data elements (“ADL Deficits”), that count
would be the total number of the five ADL data elements not coded as a “0” as taken from

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OASIS. Note that if an HHA submits a value for the ADL deficits total count data element
that exceeds 5, vendors should recode this data element to 5.
HHCAHPS Survey vendors must enter on the XML data file that they submit to the Data
Center the same information that is provided by the HHA. That is, the vendor should provide
in its XML data file the five individual ADL counts, or the total count of ADL deficits, or
both if provided by the HHA. Survey vendors are not allowed to calculate the total count of
ADLs for which the sample patient is not fully independent.

Option to Submit Separate Files to Vendor
If an HHA cannot provide all of the patient information needed in time for the vendor to select
the sample and field the survey within 21 days after the sample month ends, the HHA should
submit two separate files. The first file should be submitted as soon as possible after the sample
month ends, and should include all data elements that the vendor will need to determine whether
patients on the file are eligible for the survey and for fielding the survey. This includes the
following data elements:
•

Patient contact information (name, address, and phone number);

•

The patient’s date of birth and sex;

•

The number of skilled visits the patient had in the sample month;

•

The number of skilled visits the patient had during the lookback period; and

•

The payer source data element.

The HHA should submit all of the other data elements (Medical Record Number, HMO
indicator, diagnoses, admission source, ADLs, surgical discharge, end-stage renal disease, and
Medicare/Medicaid dual eligibility indicators) in a second or appended file, which should be
submitted to the vendor no later than 6 weeks after the sample month ends.
Although HHCAHPS Survey vendors are urged to make a good faith effort to obtain accurate
payer source information for each patient from their client HHAs, in some instances the HHA
may not provide all data elements needed for the survey. If the HHA cannot provide the missing
information when the vendor follows up with the HHA or cannot provide it in time for the
sample to be selected and the survey initiated within 21 days after the sample month ends, the
vendor should consider the patient eligible, include him or her on the sampling frame, and
include that patient in the survey if they are sampled. More information about the data elements
that the survey vendor should include on XML data files submitted to the Data Center and how
those data elements should be coded is provided in Chapters IX and X.

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Note that vendors must select the sample for each HHA at one point in time; that is, vendors
cannot select two separate samples for the same month. If an HHA submits a second file with
additional patients, and data collection has already begun for that sample month, the vendor must
not select a second sample but should report this situation via a Discrepancy Notification Report
(DNR), with a count of the number of additional eligible patients that were not included.

Surveying Non-Medicare and/or Non-Medicaid Patients
Only patients whose care is paid for by either Medicare or Medicaid are eligible to be included in
the HHCAHPS Survey. However, HHAs may want to survey their non-Medicare and/or nonMedicaid patients. If this is the case, the HHA should include information about non-Medicare
and non-Medicaid patients on the patient information files that are submitted to the survey
vendor. Survey vendors, however, should not include data collected from non-Medicare and nonMedicaid patients on the XML data files submitted to the Data Center.

Protocol for No Eligible Patients Served in the Sample Month
If the HHA did not provide home care to any patients or did not serve any patients who met
survey eligibility criteria during the sample month, the HHA must still submit a monthly patient
information file or an e-mail notification to its HHCAHPS Survey vendor indicating that no
survey-eligible patients were served during that sample month. Survey vendors must retain the
monthly patient information file or e-mail notification provided for a minimum of 18 months, as
this information is subject to review during HHCAHPS site visits.
If none of the patients on the monthly patient information file are eligible for the HHCAHPS
Survey or the HHA sent an e-mail notification that no survey-eligible patients were served
during a particular sample month, the vendor must still prepare and submit an XML data file for
that sample month. The vendor must indicate on the file that there were 0 eligible cases in the
number eligible data element (“Eligible Patients”) and enter all other information required in the
Header Record Section of the XML data file (refer to Chapter X in this manual for more
information about XML data file preparation and submission). If the vendor does not submit a 0
eligible file in this case, CMS and the Coordination Team will view the HHA as having “missed”
a sample month and may be considered as being noncompliant with HHCAHPS Survey
participation requirements.

Protocol for Administering Other Surveys in Conjunction With the
HHCAHPS Survey
Some HHAs may wish to administer other surveys of their patients. Because of the promise of
confidentiality stated in the HHCAHPS Survey cover letters, and the nature of care that this
population receives (ongoing from their provider), survey vendors are not permitted to share with
their HHA clients the identities of patients who are sampled for HHCAHPS.

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The following guidelines should be used if the HHA is planning to administer other surveys in
conjunction with the HHCAHPS Survey and will be using its HHCAHPS Survey vendor to
conduct the other survey(s).
•

If an HHA will be fielding other survey(s) of its patients, it must provide a file of all eligible
patients to its survey vendor. The vendor will select the sample for HHCAHPS for the
sample month first, prior to selecting a sample for any other survey(s).

•

Patients who were not randomly selected into the HHCAHPS Survey sample for the sample
month may be eligible for the other survey(s) that the HHA conducts in that month.

For HHAs that are self-administering other surveys in addition to participating in HHCAHPS,
the HHA will need to select a sample of patients for the other surveys with the understanding
that some patients may be sampled for both the HHCAHPS and the other surveys.
It is up to the HHA to evaluate—based on the size, frequency, and purpose of the other survey(s)
it conducts—whether to potentially sample its patients more than once or engage the services of
their HHCAHPS Survey vendor to ensure that patients sampled for the HHCAHPS are not also
sampled for their other surveys. HHAs should also note that conducting additional surveys with
the same patient population as HHCAHPS may lower HHCAHPS Survey response rates because
of respondent survey fatigue.

Step 2: Examine the Monthly Patient Information File for
Completeness
Survey vendors should examine each monthly patient information file provided by their client
HHAs to ensure that information they need for determining survey eligibility for all patients on
the file has been provided. If patient information needed for sample selection and/or data
collection is missing, the vendor should work with the HHA to obtain the missing data.
Survey vendors should also check each monthly patient information file received to make sure
that it does not include “duplicate” information—that is, to make sure that a patient does not
appear more than once on the file. Note that vendors are required to retain the original monthly
patient information files submitted by their client HHAs for possible audits by the HHCAHPS
Survey Coordination Team; therefore, if the monthly patient information file is used as the basis
for constructing the sampling frame, the vendor should make a copy of the monthly patient
information file submitted and “de-duplicate” the file using the copy of the monthly patient
information file.
When checking the monthly patient information files to identify duplicate patients (i.e., patients
who may have been listed on the file more than once), it is important for vendors to note that
HHAs do NOT always assign the same MRN to a patient if a patient is discharged from home
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care and receives home care at some later point in time. For this reason, vendors should use the
MRN and other patient information data elements to identify duplicate patients in the monthly
patient information file.
After receiving a list or file with information needed for sampling, the survey vendor will then
identify all patients eligible for participation in the HHCAHPS Survey from the file of patients
served or discharged, creating the sample frame, making certain to have a different staff member
conduct a quality control (QC) check for this process.

Step 3: Identify Eligible Patients and Construct a Sampling Frame
After receiving the file of all patients served or discharged from their HHA, vendors must
identify all patients eligible for participation in the HHCAHPS Survey.
The sample frame that the vendor constructs for each HHA must include all patients the HHA
served during the sample month who meet all of the eligibility criteria provided previously in
Step 1, and who also have not been included in the sample during any month in the current
quarter or during the 5 months prior to the sample month.
To reduce respondent burden, home health patients who meet survey eligibility criteria can only
be sampled once in a 6-month period. Therefore, the survey vendor must also exclude from the
sample frame patients who were included in the HHCAHPS Survey sample during the 5 months
prior to the sample month.
An example of a vendor sample frame file layout is included in Appendix B. For purposes of
audit and quality assurance, survey vendors must keep the monthly patient information files
submitted by all HHAs for 18 months. The survey vendor must also keep the sampling frame
created for each sample month for 18 months. Vendors must also record and retain
documentation showing the reasons patients were excluded from the sample frame created for
each HHA for each sample month, and provide documentation of all staff QC checks that were
completed during the sampling process. This documentation will be subject to review by the
HHCAHPS Survey Coordination Team during site visits.

Step 4: Determine a Sampling Rate and Select a Sample for Each HHA
Survey vendors must determine a sampling rate and use that rate to ensure that an even
distribution of patients is sampled over a 12-month period. Vendors will need to have a good
estimate of the size of the sample frame before they can determine a sampling rate. The typical
frame size will depend on the number of patients served by the client HHA, the proportion of
short- and long-stay patients, and the rate at which the sample exclusions (listed above) apply to
the list of patients the HHA provides to the survey vendor.

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For HHAs with patients having a relatively short period of home health care service (such as a
month or less), there will be a proportionally large sample frame from month to month as new
patients are accepted by the HHA. Vendors should expect that there will be variability in the
number of patients the HHA serves and the number eligible for the survey because these
characteristics vary over time. In some cases, there could be seasonality to admissions,
depending on the mix of patients served by different HHAs.
The first month that an HHA participates in the HHCAHPS Survey, the agency will have a larger
number of patients eligible for the survey because none of the patients will have been sampled in
the preceding sample months. Therefore, no patients will be ineligible to be sampled because
they were sampled in a prior month. A sampling rate should, therefore, not be based on the frame
for the first month that the HHA conducts the HHCAHPS Survey. Instead, the survey vendor
should estimate a sampling rate as described below.

Estimating an Initial Sampling Rate
To develop a sampling rate for an HHA, the vendor should work with the HHA prior to the first
sample month that the HHA begins its participation in the HHCAHPS Survey to estimate the
sample frame size for each of the preceding 3 to 6 months. The more months the survey vendor
includes in this sampling rate analysis, the better the estimate of the sample frame size and its
variability; any single month can be nonrepresentative of an HHA’s patient size and mix, so
considering a range of months will guard against estimating sampling rates that will yield a
sampling frame that is either too large or too small. For each of the 3 to 6 months prior to the
first sample month the HHA implements the HHCAHPS Survey, the HHA should provide the
survey vendor with a file of potentially eligible patients who received home health care,
including current and discharged patients. In addition, the HHA should provide all of the
required data elements for every patient in the file, just as the HHA will be required to provide
after it begins its participation in the HHCAHPS Survey implementation.
In looking at the sample frame information for the 3 to 6 months that precede the first sample
month, the vendor should apply the same sample frame construction criteria for each month that
it would apply for the first sample month. Note that in the first month’s sample file, the rule that
a patient cannot be sampled more than once in the current or the following quarter will not be a
constraint. In the second month of the 3- to 6-month test period, all patients sampled in the first
month will be excluded from the frame. Only new admissions and patients not sampled the
previous sample month can be included on the sample frame for the second (and subsequent)
month(s). Some very long-stay patients may reenter the frame in the sixth month. This number
will be significant only if long-stay patients, such as many Medicaid patients, are a significant
proportion of the HHA’s patient mix. The proportion of short-stay patients—that is, those who
receive care for 30 days or fewer—will be an important driver of the sample frame size.

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Estimating an Appropriate Sampling Rate Each Month
The target for the statistical precision of HHCAHPS Survey results that will be publicly reported
is based on a reliability criterion. The reliability criterion target for the HHCAHPS Survey
ratings and most of the composites is 0.8 or higher. For reasons of statistical precision, a target
minimum of 300 completed HHCAHPS Surveys has been set for each HHA over each 12-month
reporting period. This is equivalent to an average of 25 completed surveys per HHA per month.
The number of patients to be selected each month to yield a minimum of 300 completed surveys
will ultimately be determined by trial and error by the vendor and will differ by HHA. The value
of the sampling rate or fraction applied to a sample frame is not itself a target; it may be varied
over time to achieve the target number of usable returned surveys. The sampling rate must be
kept approximately the same for each month in each quarter. The sample for an HHA during the
first sample month that the HHA participates in the HHCAHPS Survey will likely have an
atypically high number of eligible patients; therefore, the vendor should adjust the rate for the
first sample month to make the sample for that month about equal to subsequent sample months.
The rate may be increased in subsequent months to achieve the target of 300 completed surveys,
but should not be decreased simply to avoid exceeding 300 completed surveys for a particular
year. A sample must be selected for each sample month. The rate may be adjusted if there is a
sustained change in the size of the typical sample frame.
The mode of administration of the survey will be an important factor in determining sample size
and response rates. Table 4.2 shows response rates by mode from the HHCAHPS Survey for all
sample months from Quarter 2 2023 through Quarter 1 2024, which corresponds to the calendar
year 2025 annual payment update participation period.
Table 4.2
Response Rates Obtained by Mode During the HHCAHPS 2025 Annual Payment Update
Participation Period
Mode

Response Rate

Sample Size for 25 Responses/Month

Mail only

24.0%

104

Phone only

20.7%

121

Mixed

29.4%

85

Note: The sample sizes shown in the table above are for illustrative purposes only. Vendors should work with their
HHAs to take into account expected response rates, eligibility, and number of patients served to determine an
appropriate sampling rate.

The sample size estimates above were derived using the following formula:
Sample size = (number of responses needed) (response rate) = 25 (response rate)
where the value used for the number of responses needed is 25. These sample size estimates have
been rounded up to the nearest integer. Each vendor should use its experience on the HHCAHPS
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and other surveys with home health patients or similar populations and work with its client HHA
to determine the appropriate data collection mode and expected response rate to use as a guide
for calculating quarterly sampling rates.
Developing and using a sampling rate based on the number of survey-eligible patients an HHA
serves over a 3- to 6-month period and with an expected response rate works well for an HHA
that serves more than 650 survey-eligible patients over a given 12-month period. Consider, for
example, to obtain the sample sizes in Table 4.2 above, during a 12-month period an HHA
would need to have provided home care to as many as 1,248 survey-eligible patients for the
mail-only mode, 1,452 patients for the phone-only mode, and 1,020 survey-eligible patients for
the mixed mode. Some very small HHAs will not have a sufficient number of patients to yield
300 completed surveys over a 12-month period. In this case the “full census” of eligible patients
should be surveyed. Surveying a full census means that the sampling rate would be such that
over the course of a 12-month period the vendor would have sampled the same number of
patients as the HHA would have served during a 12-month period. It does not mean that the
vendor selects and samples all patients the HHA served during the sample month who meet
survey eligibility criteria.
The survey vendor should determine a sampling rate for all agencies, including small agencies,
and select the sample so that there is an even distribution of patients over a 12-month period. For
some very small HHAs, in some sample months the number of survey-eligible patients served
may be less than the number required by the sampling rate. In this case, it is acceptable to survey
a census of the total number of survey-eligible patients served during that sample month.
Although the targeted number of completed surveys is 300 over a 12-month period, some HHAs
may want to survey more of their patients. There is no upper limit to the number of patients who
may be surveyed. However, for large HHAs, the vendor should still use a sampling rate and
select a sample (rather than surveying all eligible patients each month) so that the sample is
evenly distributed across a 12-month period.

Selecting the HHA Sample
To select the sample for each HHA, survey vendors should use a random number generator that
is generally accepted as having satisfied the criterion of randomness. The random numbers
should be generated from the uniform distribution―each number having an equal probability of
selection. Unacceptable random number generators are those that use pseudo-random number
generators that repeat numbers after some specified period. An acceptable random number
generator will repeat only after many billions of numbers are produced.
An important feature of the random number generator is the “seed” number used to start the
cycle. The selection of the seed number should be such that it cannot be manipulated. An
appropriate seed often used is the clock time as measured by the computer. This seed varies each
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fraction of a second, but the value used is documented by the program and is part of the output
that can be retained. The seed number must be known and retained as part of the documentation
vendors keep so that the sampling process can be reproduced for HHCAHPS Survey
Coordination Team site visits.
Survey vendors should use a reputable statistical program like SAS either to select a sample from
a frame using its procedures for survey sample selection or to generate random numbers that can
be correctly applied.
Another reputable program, which runs under Windows, is RAT-STATS, developed by the
Department of Health and Human Service Inspector General’s Office. Survey vendors can
download this program and its comprehensive manual at no cost from
https://oig.hhs.gov/compliance/rat-stats/index.asp. There are many sampling tools in the
program. One module can simply produce a sample size, n, random integers between 1 and the
frame size, and uses the computer clock to generate the seed, which is retained and reported.
Both SAS and RAT-STATS are examples of readily available, high-quality, rigorously tested
tools for selecting samples randomly. Commonly available spreadsheet programs also have
random number generators; however, do not use these random number generators when selecting
monthly samples for the HHCAHPS Survey because they do not generate a report of the seed
used. Note, however, that a spreadsheet is an acceptable way to present and manipulate the
sample frame.
It is also critical that vendors document how the random start number was generated and how the
sample frame was sorted during the sampling process.
The following are examples of ways to sort the sample frame for the HHCAHPS Survey.
Method 1
Sort the sample frame of N eligible patients by any documented method.
•

Generate the N random numbers.

•

Assign the random numbers in the order generated to each element in the frame.

•

Re-sort the elements as ordered by the random numbers (either ascending or descending, but
document which is used).

•

Select the first n, the sample size required for the mode used.

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In this way, the initial sort of the data does not affect the result, although a standard sort order
should always be used so that it does not appear that a frame has been altered. This method
requires generating as many random numbers as there are patients on the frame.
Method 2
If the random number generator is able to produce integers from a range of values, given that N
is the size of the sample frame of eligible patients, we can use the following steps to select our
sample.
•

Generate n distinct random integers whose values range from 1 to N, where n is the sample
size required for the mode used.

•

Select the element of the frame that corresponds to the random number generated. For
example, if the random number 10 is generated then select the 10th element on the frame for
the sample.

•

Continue selection of elements according to the random numbers generated until all n distinct
elements have been selected.

The steps for selecting the sample can be summarized as follows:
1. Using 300 as the target number of responses and an estimate of a final response rate,
calculate the target sample for a year and 1 12 of that per month. An effective response
rate of 30 percent, for example, would yield an annual sample of 1,000 (300 .3), which is
a target of 84 per month.
2. Acquire from each HHA a test frame for at least 3 months prior to the start of the actual
survey. This should be a census of patients each month and should contain the
information about each patient to determine whether they meet survey eligibility
requirements.
3. Apply exclusions for each month—that is, remove from the sample frame all patients
who do not meet the survey eligibility criteria. Because the first month will not have any
people excluded for reasons of prior sampling, the frame for that month will be larger
than that for the subsequent months.
4. Using the second and third months as typical of what the frame size will be, determine
whether the sample required in Step 1 above will require sampling the entire frame each
month or what the typical sampling rate would be. Remember that the first month may be
different from subsequent months.

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5. Simulate creation of random numbers to reach the target number of completed surveys
over the 12-month period, that is, 300 surveys. The proportion sampled from quarter 1 to
quarter 2 to quarter 3 may vary to meet the target number. We recommend that the
sampling rate not be varied within a quarter to accommodate short-term random
variation. The first month will generally be sampled at a lower rate than subsequent
months. In practice, adjustments may be needed over time to reach the annual goal of the
lesser of (a) 300 over each of the rolling four quarters, yielding about 300 completed
surveys over 12 months; or (b) a full census of eligible patients. Remember in this case a
“full census” does not mean surveying every eligible patient each sample month, but
using a sampling rate that, during a 12-month period, would yield the same number of
sampled patients as the expected number of survey-eligible patients the HHA would
serve over a 12-month period.

Sampling With Other Than Simple Random Sampling
The method of sampling described above is simple random sampling (SRS), which is a standard
method of sampling. Two other sampling methods may be used to sample patients for the
HHCAHPS Survey—proportionate stratified random sampling (PSRS) and disproportionate
stratified random sampling (DSRS). HHAs may opt to use PSRS and DSRS sampling methods if
there is a way to divide their patient population into logical units (referred to as strata), the units
are large enough, and there is a logical reason for doing so. The strata created may represent
patients cared for by different branches of an HHA or geographic divisions, for example. For
each month that stratification is used, the minimum number of eligible patients allowable
in a stratum frame is 10, and the same stratification must be used for all months in a
quarter.
Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling
In PSRS, the same sampling rate must be applied to each stratum included in the sample. A
stratum is defined as a subset of the total sample frame. For the HHCAHPS Survey, an HHA
with multiple branches may want to select a sample for each branch. In this example, each
branch location would be considered a stratum.
HHAs may want to use PSRS for the following reasons:
•

The HHA would like to keep track of samples and results from the HHCAHPS Survey for
each stratum; or

•

The HHA may want to designate other aggregates of operating units for tracking, while using
the same sampling rate for each.

When using PSRS for units of an HHA (under the same CCN), the strata created must be large
enough to support the same sampling rate in each stratum. All the patients in the HHA may be
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sampled as one unit, or a separate sample may be made of each branch. Under PSRS the
sampling rate would be the same for each branch and the samples combined.
For example, if an HHA had 200 patients to sample, divided into three strata consisting of 100,
50, and 50 patients, respectively, a sample of 90 would be drawn at about a 45 percent rate (90
200). A sample of 45 would be drawn from the large stratum because the large stratum used in
this example should have half of the sampled patients. The selection would be .45 × 50 = 23 for
the other strata. With a lower limit of 10 for a stratum size, small strata might have to be
combined for a PSRS to be used in practice. The statistical precision of survey results at the
stratum level may not be very good unless the stratum sample size is about the size of the overall
sample requirements. The total sample size must also be taken into account when considering
stratification options.
Disproportionate Stratified Random Sampling
DSRS is another appropriate sampling option if an HHA wishes to achieve statistically precise
numbers for operating subunits (e.g., branches). To achieve as good a level of precision for the
separate units as required for the HHA as a whole, each unit would have to have a sample size as
large as if it were a separate HHA. In this case, the sampling rate may be different for each
stratum. To allow the separate strata to be recombined to represent the HHA as a whole the
sampling rate for each stratum must be reported in the data submitted to the HHCAHPS Survey
Coordination Team. This will permit appropriate weighting of the respondents in computing
results. Different sampling rates in strata with particularly high or low ratings could otherwise
distort the ratings.
If an HHA chooses to use DSRS, its survey vendor must do the following:
•

Complete and submit an Exceptions Request Form―the process for identifying the different
strata must be provided on the Exceptions Request Form;

•

Use the same name for each stratum in each month in the quarter;

•

Make sure that each stratum has a minimum of 10 patients eligible to be included in the
survey during the sample month; and

•

Provide to the HHCAHPS Survey Data Center additional information about each stratum,
including the following:
◦

The name of the stratum;

◦

The total number of patients sampled in each stratum during the sample month;

◦

The total number of patients on the file submitted by the HHA for that stratum;

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◦

The number of patients in the stratum who were eligible for the survey during the sample
month; and

◦

The total number of patients sampled during each sample month.

An example of the use of DSRS is as follows. The ABC Best Care Agency selects a sample each
month, creating three distinct strata—one each for Branch A, Branch B, and Branch C.
•

The survey vendor first uses data from 3 or more preceding months prior to the HHA
beginning its participation in the HHCAHPS Survey to determine a sampling rate for each of
the three strata.

•

Assume that the target for each stratum is the same as for the HHA as a whole, that 25 is the
target number of responses, and that the expected response rate is 50 percent. The sample
size required is 50 for the HHA as a whole. Therefore, to get the same precision for each
stratum the sample size would be 50 for each of the three strata in this example.

•

Assume that Branch A has 120 eligible patients, Branch B has 100, and Branch C has 40
(these are the numbers that would be reported on the XML template for DSRS sampling).

•

Based on these numbers, the number sampled is 50 for Branch A, 50 for Branch B, and 40
for Branch C. Because Branch C only had 40 patients, the sample for it would be a census.

•

When analyzing the data, the HHCAHPS Survey analysts will use the sampling rates in the
weighting calculation when the strata are combined at the HHA level as follows:
◦

Branch A, 50 120 = 41.6%.

◦

Branch B, 50 100 = 50.0%.

◦

Branch C, 40 40 = 100.0%.

Note that the survey vendor will report the number of patients eligible for the survey and the
number sampled to the HHCAHPS Survey Data Center for use in computing weights for the
HHA when the data are combined. Patients in Branch A had a lower probability of selection than
those in Branch B and C, and that will be accounted for when the data from sample members in
the strata are combined. Survey vendors should keep in mind that a minimum of 10 eligible
patients must be in each stratum for DSRS sampling to be used.

Step 5: Verify or Update Sample Contact Information
We strongly recommend that survey vendors send all HHA-provided patient mailing addresses
through an outside address service, such as the National Change of Address (NCOA) or a similar
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service, to confirm or update patient contact information. In addition, vendors conducting either
a telephone-only or mixed-mode data collection are urged to send the most updated mailing
addresses through a telephone number–provider service to attempt to obtain an updated
telephone number. Performing these quality control activities prior to the start of data collection
will result in fewer surveys returned as undeliverable and fewer unproductive telephone call
attempts.
Note that vendors may not share the identities of sampled patients with their HHA clients, so if a
vendor asks for updated information, it must ask for all of the patients in the file for the relevant
sample month. Asking for missing information on all patients preserves the anonymity of
patients who were selected for the sample. Because patients received skilled care in their homes,
the HHA should have an address at which that care is provided. Similarly, for surveys being
administered by telephone or mixed mode, in most cases an HHA will have the patient’s
telephone number to schedule or confirm the provider’s home care visits.
Vendors should also note that even if an address or telephone number cannot be obtained for a
patient, the patient is still eligible for inclusion on the sample frame (and in the survey if
sampled) if they meet all other survey eligibility criteria. And, patients with missing or foreign
mailing addresses are also considered eligible for the survey.

Step 6: Assign Unique Sample Identification Numbers
Survey vendors are responsible for assigning a unique numeric or alphanumeric sample
identification (SID) number to every sample member selected into each monthly sample.
Vendors should use the SID to track efforts to complete the survey with each sample member
throughout the data collection period. When creating and assigning SID numbers to sampled
cases, follow the guidelines listed below.
•

The SID number assigned to a sample member cannot contain any combination of letters or
numbers that could link the SID with a particular sample member or a particular HHA. For
example, no part of the sample member’s name, address, date of birth, telephone number,
Social Security number, or dates of home health care visits or an HHA CMS Certification
Number (CCN) can be included in the unique SID created and assigned to the sample
member.

•

The SID can be a numeric or alphanumeric data element; however, it must have a minimum
length of 6 and a maximum length of 16 characters.

•

Vendors must not reuse the same SID numbers—that is, once a SID number is assigned, it
should never be assigned again for any sampled patient. Vendors must assign new SID
numbers to the new set of patients sampled each month.

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If the same patient is sampled more than once in a calendar year or across multiple calendar
years, the vendor must assign a new SID number to that patient each time they are sampled.

Step 7: Finalize the Monthly Sample File and Initiate Data Collection
Activities
Although HHCAHPS Survey data will be analyzed on a quarterly basis, sample frame
construction, sample selection, and data collection are conducted monthly. Survey vendors must
initiate the survey for each monthly sample within 3 weeks (21 days) after the end of the sample
month. As soon as the sampling activities described above have been completed, data collection
for the sample month should begin.
All data collection for each monthly sample must be completed within 6 weeks (42 days) after
data collection begins. For mail-only and mixed-mode surveys, data collection for a monthly
sample must end 6 weeks after the first questionnaire is mailed. For telephone-only surveys, data
collection must end 6 weeks following the first telephone attempt.
CMS recognizes that on rare occasions an HHA may have a situation that prevents it from
providing the monthly patient information in time for the vendor to initiate the survey within 21
days after the sample month ends; therefore, the vendor can initiate the survey within 26 days
after the sample month ends. However, the survey vendor must submit a Discrepancy
Notification Report, described in Chapter XIV of this manual, for each HHA for which the
survey is initiated from the 22nd through the 26th day after the sample month ends.
If the survey cannot be initiated within 26 days after the sample month ends because of a natural
disaster (earthquake, tornado, etc.), snow or severe weather emergencies, fires, extreme
computer problems, or for some other reason, CMS may allow a survey vendor to initiate the
survey more than 26 days after the sample month ends. The HHA’s survey vendor, however,
must request (via e-mail to hhcahps@rti.org) and obtain approval from CMS before initiating the
survey more than 26 days after the sample month ends.

Sampling Issues for Quality Assurance
Since the national implementation of the HHCAHPS Survey began in October 2009, CMS and
the HHCAHPS Survey Coordination Team have observed some common misconceptions and
problems with the sampling process. For quality assurance purposes, we have listed common
misconceptions, paired with the proper implementation method that survey vendors should use to
avoid these issues during the sampling process.

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Table 4.3
Sampling Common Misconceptions and Problems with Proper Implementation
Number

Misconception

Correct Implementation
Patient Eligibility Criteria

1

Patients with missing, incomplete or
foreign mailing addresses or
telephone numbers were considered
as ineligible for the HHCAHPS
Survey.

Patients with missing, incomplete or foreign mailing
addresses or telephone numbers are eligible to be
included in the HHCAHPS Survey if they meet all other
survey eligibility criteria. HHCAHPS Survey vendors
should keep in mind that home health care patients
receive care in their homes; therefore, the HHA must
have an address at which the home care is provided.
Survey vendors should follow up with the HHA to
obtain an address if the address is missing or
incomplete. We also recommend that survey vendors
use address or telephone-lookup services to confirm or
obtain sample patients’ mailing address or telephone
number.

2

It is acceptable for vendors to share
the identities of sampled patients
with their HHA client(s).

Vendors may not share the identities of sampled
patients with their HHA clients. Patients’ identities must
be protected because of the promise of confidentiality
made to patients in the HHCAHPS cover letter,
introductory telephone script, and the fact that patients
who received care from an HHA may still be receiving
care from that agency. However, if patients indicate via
their response to the “Consent to Share Responses”
question in the survey that it is acceptable for the
vendor to link their responses with their name, the
vendor can share that patient’s identity with the HHA.

3

If two or more home health patients This is not an eligibility criterion for HHCAHPS.
are in the same household, only one
patient in the household or at the
same address is eligible to
participate in the HHCAHPS Survey.

4

If the HHA did not serve any patients
who met survey eligibility criteria, the
HHA does not need to submit a
sample file to its HHCAHPS Survey
vendor for that sample month or
notify them in any way.

To be compliant with HHCAHPS Survey participation
requirements, all Medicare-certified HHAs participating
in the HHCAHPS Survey must submit a monthly patient
information file to their survey vendors for each sample
month or send an email notification if no survey-eligible
patients were served in a particular sample month. The
survey vendor must, in turn, submit an XML data file to
the HHCAHPS Survey Data Center for each
corresponding sample month. Otherwise, the HHA will
be considered to have “missed” a month of survey
participation and may be deemed noncompliant with
HHCAHPS Survey participation requirements.
(continued)

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Table 4.3 (continued)
Sampling Common Misconceptions and Problems with Proper Implementation
Number

Misconception

Correct Implementation

Patient Eligibility Criteria (continued)
5

The HHCAHPS Survey vendor
should treat patients as ineligible for
the survey if the source of payment
is missing.

If the source of payment is missing on the monthly
patient information file, the vendor should recontact the
HHA to obtain the source of payment. If the HHA
cannot provide the source of payment, the vendor
should consider the patient as eligible for the survey if
they meet all other survey eligibility criteria.

6

If a patient’s payer source includes
private pay in combination with
Medicare and/or Medicaid, the
patient is not eligible for the
HHCAHPS Survey.

A patient whose source of payment is private pay in
addition to Medicare and/or Medicaid is eligible for the
HHCAHPS Survey (if they meet the other eligibility
criteria). The presence of Medicare and/or Medicaid as
the source of payment determines if the patient meets
the payer source eligibility requirement. On the other
hand, a patient whose source of payment is only
private pay would not be eligible for the HHCAHPS
Survey.

7

Vendors should remove patients
from the number of eligible patients
entered on the XML data file if those
patients were identified as deceased
or reported during data collection
that they did not receive care from
the HHA.

The number of eligible patients data element on the
XML data file must reflect the number of eligible
patients at the time of sampling (i.e., who were
included on the monthly patient information file and
must include patients who were later identified as
ineligible for the survey during the data collection
period). Do not take these ineligible patients out of the
total number eligible count.

Skilled Visits and Lookback Period
8

The lookback period is defined as a
60-day lookback period.

The lookback period is the sample month and the
month that immediately precedes the sample month.
The lookback period is defined in terms of months, not
days. HHCAHPS Survey vendors should make sure
that their HHA clients understand the definition of the
lookback period, and not refer to it as a “60-day”
lookback period.
(continued)

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Table 4.3 (continued)
Sampling Common Misconceptions and Problems with Proper Implementation
Number

Misconception

Correct Implementation

Skilled Visits and Lookback Period (continued)
9

An HHCAHPS Survey vendor can
calculate and use the total number of
skilled visits a patient had in the
lookback period, rather than use the
number of skilled visits reported by
the HHA.

It is not acceptable for a vendor to calculate the
number of skilled visits in the lookback period.
HHCAHPS Survey vendors are required to use the
number of skilled visits included on the monthly patient
information file submitted by the HHA. However, if an
HHA or its IT vendor provides the dates of all visits in
the lookback period instead of the total number of
visits, it is acceptable for the vendor to calculate the
total number of visits in the lookback period. If the
number of skilled visits the patient had during the
lookback period is missing, the vendor should follow up
with the HHA to retrieve the missing information. If the
HHA cannot provide the total number of visits in the
lookback period, then the vendor should consider the
patient as eligible if they meet all other survey eligibility
criteria.

Sampling Procedures and Documentation Requirements
10

It is acceptable for a survey vendor
to use only the patient’s medical
record number to identify patients
who may have been listed more than
once on a monthly patient
information file or to identify patients
who have been sampled in the last
5 months.

11

A SID number can be assigned more Once a SID number is assigned, it must never be used
than once.
again. If a patient is sampled more than once, a new
SID number must be assigned to that patient each time
they are sampled. During the sampling process, all
vendors should check the sample file to make sure that
the same SID number is not assigned to two different
patients and that the SID has not been assigned in a
preceding sample month.

12

An HHCAHPS Survey vendor can
conduct a census survey of all
eligible patients during the first
sample month that an HHA
administers the HHCAHPS Survey;
therefore, the survey vendor does
not have to conduct the survey for
the next 5 months unless the HHA
has served new patients in those
5 months.

HHCAHPS Survey vendors are urged to use more than
one data element to identify patients for whom
duplicate information is provided on the monthly patient
information file and to identify patients who have been
sampled in the last 5 months. Using the medical record
number together with at least one other data element,
including patient name, date of birth, telephone
number, or address will ensure that the correct patient
is identified. Vendors may choose to perform the
de-duplication process in multiple steps. However, the
MRN should never be applied as the sole data element
in any of the steps; that is, it should always be
combined with another patient data element.

As described in this chapter, HHCAHPS Survey
vendors must select and survey a sample of patients
each sample month, including for very small HHAs.
Using a sampling rate and selecting a sample of
patients each sample month will ensure that an even
distribution of patients is surveyed across a 12-month
period.

(continued)
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IV. Home Health Care CAHPS Survey Sampling Procedures

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Table 4.3 (continued)
Sampling Common Misconceptions and Problems with Proper Implementation
Number

Misconception

Correct Implementation

Sampling Procedures and Documentation Requirements (continued)
13

The sampling rate should be
adjusted each month.

The sampling rate should remain constant during a
quarter. If there is a huge difference in the number of
patients served in a month within a quarter, the
HHCAHPS Survey vendor should follow up with the
HHA to make sure that the information on the file is
correct and determine the reason for the difference.

14

Vendors do not need to retain
documentation of seed number or
random numbers used.

Documentation of the seed number and the random
number generation and application process is a critical
component of the HHCAHPS sampling protocols, so
that samples can be replicated for review during
HHCAHPS site visits.

15

Vendors do not need to retain
documentation of ineligible sample
members.

Vendors must retain a separate file or list of each
patient deemed ineligible and the reason that the
patient did not meet the eligibility criteria. This
information allows someone other than the person who
selected the sample to conduct quality control of the
sample, as a second person can easily check to make
sure that the right patients were excluded. This
information is also subject to review during site visits.

Processing Patient Administrative Data
16

Vendors can use the ADL deficit
count for individual ADLs to calculate
and include on the XML data file the
total ADL deficit count.

It is not acceptable for vendors to calculate and include
on the XML data file the total number of ADL deficits. A
vendor must report the same ADL information that the
HHA provides on the monthly patient information file. If
the HHA provides both a total ADL deficit count and the
number of deficits for each individual ADL, the vendor
must include both on the XML data file.

17

Vendors should enter a value of
0 (zero) on the XML data file for the
ADL deficit count if the HHA does not
provide either the total ADL count or
the number of deficits for each
individual ADL.

If an HHA does not provide the number of ADL deficits
in the monthly patient information file, vendors must
code the value on the XML as “M” for missing, rather
than zero. If the ADL for which the value is missing is
incorrectly coded as 0, it will incorrectly indicate that
the sample patient was fully independent for that ADL.

18

Vendors can calculate the patient’s
age as of the beginning of the
sample month.

Vendors need to compute the patient’s age as of the
end of the sample month in which the patient is being
considered for eligibility. Some vendors were using
other variations in how age was being computed (such
as the date the sample was being processed or date
patient received the home health visit). Vendors should
check their age algorithm to ensure that the patient’s
age is being computed properly.
(continued)

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IV. Home Health Care CAHPS Survey Sampling Procedures

Table 4.3 (continued)
Sampling Common Misconceptions and Problems with Proper Implementation
Number

Misconception

Correct Implementation

Processing Patient Administrative Data (continued)
19

If an HHA changes/switches
Vendors are not required to provide the new vendor
vendors, the current HHCAHPS
with a file containing information about patients
Survey vendor must provide a file
sampled in the last 5 months.
containing patient information about
all patients sampled in the preceding
sample months so that the new
vendor can exclude those patients
from the sample frame.
Sampling Quality Control Procedures

20

It is acceptable for HHAs not to
provide all of the patient information
required for administering the survey
and for data analysis.

HHAs vary in the completeness of the patient
information that they include on the monthly patient
information files they submit to their HHCAHPS Survey
vendor. HHAs are encouraged to provide complete
information for all patients included on each monthly
patient information file. Providing as much patient data
as possible will increase the potential for an HHA’s
patients’ characteristics to contribute to the calculation
of the patient-mix adjustment factors that will be used
in calculating an HHA’s adjusted HHCAHPS Survey
scores that will be publicly reported.

21

Vendors who have automated the
receipt and processing of monthly
patient information files and the
sample selection process do not
need to implement any quality
control procedures, since the
programs and algorithms used for
these processes were fully tested
after they were developed.

All vendors must have in place and implement quality
control procedures on the entire sampling process,
including receipt and processing of the monthly patient
information files and sample selection for each sample
month for each HHA client, including vendors who use
automated systems or procedures for sampling.

22

It is acceptable for vendors to use
the same staff who conduct the
sampling process to also conduct
quality control checks of the sample.

The quality control of each sample file should be
performed by someone other than the person who
performed each task associated with the sample
selection process. Vendors are also encouraged to
apply appropriate quality control checks on and test all
of the computer programs and systems the vendor
uses to receive and process monthly files.

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