Collection of Information for Agency for Healthcare Research and Qualitys (AHRQ) Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Health Plan Survey Comparative Database

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) requests that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reapprove, under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, AHRQ’s collection of information for the AHRQ Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Database for Health Plans: OMB Control number 0935-0165, expiration May 31, 2020. The CAHPS Health Plan Database consists of data from the AHRQ CAHPS Health Plan Survey. Health plans in the U.S. are asked to submit data voluntarily from the survey to AHRQ, through its contractor, Westat. The CAHPS Database was developed by AHRQ in 1998 in response to requests from health plans, purchasers, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide comparative data to support public reporting of health plan ratings, health plan accreditation and quality improvement. Background on the CAHPS Health Plan Survey. The CAHPS Health Plan Survey is a tool for collecting standardized information on enrollees’ experiences with health plans and their services. The development of the CAHPS Health Plan Survey began in 1995, when AHRQ awarded the first set of CAHPS grants to Harvard, RTI, and RAND. In 1997 the CAHPS 1.0 survey was released by the CAHPS Consortium. The CAHPS Consortium refers to the research organizations involved in the development, dissemination, and support of CAHPS products. The current Consortium includes AHRQ, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), RAND, Yale School of Public Health, and Westat. Since that time, the Consortium has refined and updated the survey instrument to reflect field feedback from industry experts; reports from health plan participants, data collection vendors, and other users; evidence from cognitive testing and focus groups; and extensive psychometric data analysis. Version 5.0 of the Health Plan Survey was released in 2012. The development of this update to the Health Plan Survey has been part of the "Ambulatory CAHPS (A-CAHPS) Initiative," which arose as a result of extensive research conducted with users. AHRQ released the CAHPS Health Plan Survey 5.0, along with guidance on how to customize and administer it. The National Quality Forum endorsed the 5.0 version of the Health Plan Survey in 2015. Rationale for the information collection. The CAHPS Health Plan Database uses data from AHRQ’s standardized CAHPS Health plan survey to provide results to health care purchasers, consumers, regulators and policy makers across the country. The Database also provides data for AHRQ’s annual National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Voluntary participants include public and private employers, State Medicaid agencies, State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and individual health plans. This research has the following goals: 1) To maintain the CAHPS Health Plan database using data from AHRQ’s standardized CAHPS Health Plan survey to provide results to health care purchasers, consumers, regulators and policy makers across the country. 2) To offer several products and services, including aggregated results presented through an Online Reporting System, summary chartbooks, custom analyses, and data for research purposes. 3) To provide data for AHRQ’s annual National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report. 4) To provide state-level data to CMS for public reporting on Medicaid.gov and Data.Medicaid.gov that does not display the name of the health plans.

The latest form for Collection of Information for Agency for Healthcare Research and Qualitys (AHRQ) Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Health Plan Survey Comparative Database expires 2023-11-30 and can be found here.

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