Spring Surveys for Medicare Beneficiaries
Posted on March 2, 2016
Your opinion and experience with our health plan and your doctors are important to us. Every spring the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) mails two surveys to randomly selected Medicare beneficiaries. The surveys look alike, but they collect different types of information to help drive improvements in the health delivery system. Health New England uses the information to improve our services for you.
The first survey you receive is the CAHPS survey, which stands for the “Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems.” This survey asks questions about your health care and the services you receive. Surveys are mailed out starting in March but may also include telephone calls through the month of June. Health New England works with a CMS-approved survey vendor called SPH Analytics to conduct the surveys.
While every effort is made to ensure that the survey vendor is clearly identified as representing Health New England, we ask that if you are unsure or worried about the identity of a person calling, please contact Member Services toll-free at (877) 443-3314, 8 a.m. – 8 p.m., Monday – Friday (Oct. 1 – Feb. 14: 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., seven days a week).
The second survey you may receive is the HOS survey, which stands for “Health Outcomes Survey.” This survey asks questions about your health status, including questions about topics such as physical activity, activities of daily living, chronic health conditions, health symptoms, depression risk, urinary incontinence, osteoporosis testing and fall risk management. The results of this survey guide quality improvement activities focusing on how to improve our services to help members achieve their health and well-being goals. SPH Analytics also conducts this survey. Surveys are either mailed or conducted by telephone beginning in April and continuing through June.
We want to ensure your comfort and safety when responding in writing or on the telephone. Not everyone in the health plan will receive a survey, but we ask that if you do, please take the time to complete it and mail it back. The survey helps us understand how we are doing and what is important to you. Based on your responses, the health plan is better able to design services and outreach programs to assist you and your family.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete these surveys.
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