Your surgery center may be exempt from participating in the OAS CAHPS Survey, but doing so may benefit your ASC.
As Certificate of Need (CON) restrictions have eased over the last several years, many new ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) have entered the market. If your ASC is a newer facility, and your center filed fewer than 240 Medicare Fee-for-Service claims in 2024, you are likely exempt from participating in the OAS CAHPS survey during 2025. However, surveying your patients may benefit your ASC in the long run.
Here are several benefits of distributing the OAS CAHPS survey to your patients.
Avoid the Possible Glaring Omission on the Medicare Care Compare Site
The Medicare Care Compare website (https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare), which offers comprehensive information on hospitals, home health agencies, and other healthcare providers, is scheduled to include ASCs beginning in Fall 2026. The site will list participating ASCs and highlight several measures from the OAS CAHPS survey, including a Star rating to indicate the quality of the patient experience.
At this time, the methodology for calculating and displaying the Star Rating has not yet been specified. If the Care Compare site follows the convention of other providers, the name of your ASC will be listed, but the Patient Experience rating will be absent with a footnote that no data was collected during the time period, potentially putting you at a disadvantage in a competitive healthcare environment. Delaying the implementation of OAS CAHPS means that your ASC could be excluded from being included in this listing until Fall 2027. That means when patients are searching for outpatient care, your ASC would be excluded or improperly represented for a full year.
Missing Out on Other Rankings that Use CMS Patient Experience Data
Publicly reported patient experience data is already available for most ASCs. It is increasingly likely that industry publications and market research organizations will incorporate OAS CAHPS metrics into their evaluations. In 2024, U.S. News & World Report released its inaugural ratings of ASCs, relying heavily on data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). At that time, OAS CAHPS data was not yet widely available and, therefore, was not included in the assessment. However, given that U.S. News already integrates HCAHPS mean scores into its hospital rankings, it is reasonable to anticipate that future iterations of the ASC report will include OAS CAHPS results once they are more broadly accessible.
Implications for Payer and Network Evaluations
Excluding your patient experience data from public reporting could affect how private payers and Medicare Advantage (MA) plans assess your ASC's performance. These plans rely on various public data sources, including CAHPS patient experience survey results, to evaluate provider quality within their networks. A one-year delay in making this data available may place your ASC at a competitive disadvantage.
Summary
A newly established ASC faces numerous competing priorities, from managing significant startup costs to addressing regulatory and operational challenges. With so many demands, taking on an additional initiative can be unappealing. However, proactively implementing patient experience surveys can align your ASC with more established surgical centers and strengthen your position within a challenging market.
SIS Surveys, powered by Nexus Health, streamlines compliance by automating the monthly submission of patient lists through a direct data feed between SIS solutions and OAS CAHPS survey vendor Nexus Health Resources.
To learn more, schedule a time to meet with SIS here.
