The Home Health Care CAHPS Survey® asks adults receiving home health care about their experiences with home care providers through Medicare-certified home health agencies. In particular, it asks about the patients' experiences with nurses, therapists and other skilled providers of home health care services. 

The 34-item questionnaire covers a variety of domains, including patient care (gentleness, courtesy, problems with care), communication with health care providers and agency staff, and specific care issues related to pain and medication.  The survey is available in English, Spanish and Chinese.

The Home Health Care CAHPS Survey is designed to meet three broad goals:

1. It will produce comparable data on the patient’s perspective, allowing objective and meaningful comparisons between home health agencies on domains important to consumers.
2. Public reporting of survey results will create incentives for agencies to improve their quality of care. 
3. Public reporting will serve to enhance public accountability in health care by increasing the transparency of the quality of care provided in return for public investment.

Currently, there are three approved survey modes:

1. Mail-only
2. Telephone-only 
3. Mixed-Mode: mail with telephone follow-up

There are 25 core questions that must be presented in the exact order to ensure comparability among responses. The Protocols and Guidelines Manual specifies the wording of the questions, and the response categories in the Home Health Care CAHPS Survey instrument have been extensively tested and proven so no changes to the wording of either the questions or responses are allowed.

Unlike the HCAHPS survey, the Home Health Care CAHPS Survey does allow the use of proxy respondents for both mail and phone modes. Other individuals may assist the sampled patient in reading the survey, marking response options, translating the survey, or answering questions for the sample member. However, the sampled patient should be advised not to ask for help from home health aides or other personnel from the home health agency in completing the survey.

Supplemental and home health agency-specific questions will be allowed on the survey after the core questions. It is recommended that the custom questions be placed before the demographic questions in the “About You” section of the questionnaire.

Learn more about Home Health Care CAHPS.

Protocols and Guidelines
Protocols and guidelines for Home Health Care CAHPS have been provided and posted in the first version of the manual. Home health agencies and their survey vendors will be required to follow standard Home Health Care CAHPS Survey protocols and procedures.

The goal of each home health agency will be to collect a minimum of 300 completed surveys over each 12-month reporting period, which provides statistical precision. A target of 300 completed surveys is an average of 25 completed surveys per home health agency per month.

For small agencies that want to participate, a census of their patients will be surveyed. If the number of completed interviews for an agency is not sufficient for statistical precision, the survey results from that agency may not be publicly reported. In this situation, survey results may be helpful to agencies in their quality improvement efforts.

Download a copy of the Home Health Care CAHPS Protocols and Guidelines Manual here.

Participation
Home health agencies that are not Medicare-certified may use the Home Health Care CAHPS Survey instrument, but only Medicare-certified home health agencies are eligible for participation in the national implementation of the Home Health Care CAHPS Survey.

Home health agencies can indicate their interest in participating in national implementation online at the Home Health Care CAHPS Survey website.

CAHPS® is a registered trademark of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a U.S. Government agency.