Page 19 - 2020 ARE eGuide for Clinical at Bethesda

Understanding the Patient Experience
Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS)

CAHPS surveys ask patients to report on their experiences with care.
Examples of topics covered by the surveys include the following:

• Communication with health care professionals
• Access to care and information
• Customer service
• Coordination of care
• Transitions of care

For many of the CAHPS surveys,
as with other performance measures,
CMS is the organization that:

• Sponsors the national implementation of these surveys
• Sets the policies for survey administration
• Analyzes the data
• Publishes the results in private and public reports (including websites, such
as, HospitalCompare and PhysicianCompare)

In some cases, CMS also uses the survey scores (along with other quality
measures) to help determine payment incentives that reward high-performing
health care facilities.