AHA comments on proposed changes to clinician and group CAHPS survey

The AHA Friday applauded the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s proposal to shorten the Clinician and Group Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems patient experience survey and agreed that the changes would reduce patient and provider burden. “However, we urge AHRQ to reduce survey burden further by supporting the development of lower-cost survey administration approaches – such as emailed or web-based surveys,” wrote Linda Fishman, AHA senior vice president of public policy analysis and development. In addition, AHA urged AHRQ “to explain and make its analysis publicly available to support its proposal to use a six-month timeframe instead of a 12-month timeframe for survey questions.” AHRQ’s proposed changes also address the Patient-Centered Medical Home item set, which is used in combination with CG-CAHPS to create the CAHPS PCMH survey.