The Importance of Data Accuracy in Healthcare Organizations (Value-Based Care, ACOs)

Why are patient surveys important for a healthcare facility?

There are numerous benefits of obtaining patient surveys within a healthcare facility. 

1. Obtaining valuable patient feedback

Surveys are an easy, streamlined way to gather patient feedback. They provide a method for patients to express concerns that may not be easily communicable to in-person staff members. 

2. Efficiency 

Digitized surveys allow for convenience for the patient, and also quickly aggregates data that can then be utilized to make improvements within the healthcare facility. 

3. Assessing performance

Survey data can be used to better understand how certain facilities compare to similar facilities and can be directly incorporated as a way to improve quality of care for patients.

What types of surveys are there?

An important set of surveys in the healthcare field are the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or CAHPS. These surveys were developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and are standardized and validated to capture patients’ experiences within various healthcare facilities, and are particularly important for healthcare organizations participating in Accountable Care Organization or ACO.

What is an ACO?

An Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is a group of healthcare providers that work together to provide coordinated care for patients who qualify for the Medicare program and are jointly accountable for patient outcomes. This arrangement is supervised by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). 

There are several different types of ACOs. Two of the most prominent ones include:

1. Medicare Shared Savings Program:

This is the largest ACO program. Providers still receive traditional fee-for-service payments. There are multiple tracks (BASIC Levels A-E, and Enhanced) and the different tracks offer healthcare groups varying options for how much financial accountability they would like to take for a patient population’s outcomes. If the ACO meets certain benchmarks they may receive varying levels of financial incentives, and conversely if they do not reach those benchmarks they may need to pay varying levels of financial penalties.

2. ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (ACO REACH):

This is a model that is focused on providing care for high risk populations. Providers that participate in ACO Reach models are reimbursed based on the quality of patient care as opposed to the traditional fee-for-service model. There are incentives accrued as shared savings if the patient population’s health is improved, and financial penalties if outcomes do not improve or worsen. 

Are surveys required for healthcare systems? 

If a healthcare facility is part of certain organizational structures like Accountable Care Organizations, it may be required to gather CAHPS survey information from its patients to ensure patient engagement and care management and to foster good patient outcomes. 

MSSP ACO and ACO REACH participating organizations are both evaluated on the basis of their performance on ACO CAHPS surveys. These surveys include questions for patients to assess their care experience within the various healthcare organizations. These survey results are part of the quality measures that determine the final financial incentive payment ACOs may receive from CMS which is a “Pay-for-Performance” incentive structure. 

Who else may need to complete patient surveys? 

If a healthcare practice is participating in a separate structure called the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) that is also supervised by CMS, then that practice may similarly be required to obtain patient surveys related to patient experience and health status. 

Where are survey results posted? 

While individual patients’ survey results are not posted, prior healthcare organizational scores can be found on the CMS website, such as this website: https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/dataset/8c70-d353 

How can LobbyLog be beneficial?

CAHPS surveys must be administered by an entity such as LobbyLog that is approved by CMS to be an official survey vendor and has successfully completed ACO CAHPS training. 

LobbyLog can greatly streamline the survey process for healthcare facilities of all sizes. LobbyLog’s intuitive interface empowers patients by providing an easy way to submit information. The automatic integration with the iPad interface and the electronic health record (EHR) allows the information to be pushed automatically into the patient’s profile. 

LobbyLog will improve survey completion rates if the healthcare facility is involved in a ACO or MIPS agreement where they may need to complete surveys at a regular cadence.