CMS LAUNCHES FOURTH ANNUAL MEDICARE HEALTH CARE PROVIDER SATISFACTION SURVEY
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced it has launched its fourth annual health care provider satisfaction survey of Medicare fee-for-service contractors who process and pay more than $280 billion in Medicare claims each year.
“I urge all 30,000 Medicare providers selected to participate in the survey to complete and return their surveys upon receipt,” Acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems said.
The Medicare Contractor Provider Satisfaction Survey (MCPSS) offers health care providers the opportunity to contribute directly to CMS’ understanding of contractor performance, as well as aid future process improvement efforts at the contractor level.
CMS is sending the 2009 survey, designed to be completed in about 20 minutes, to approximately 30,000 randomly selected providers, including physicians and other health care practitioners, suppliers and institutional facilities that serve Medicare beneficiaries across the country. Those health care providers selected to participate in the survey will be notified this month. Providers can submit their responses via a secure website, mail, fax or over the telephone.
All Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) will be measured against performance targets on the 2009 MCPSS as part of their contract requirements. MACs are Medicare contractors that provide a number of services, including processing Medicare fee-for-service claims and fielding health care provider questions.
“The results from previous surveys have enabled CMS to set performance standards for our MACs, who will now be expected to meet a minimum survey score from responding providers,” Weems said. “This performance standard will give contractors a
benchmark to use to compare themselves to other contractors, as well as an individual standard to improve upon year after year.”
The contractor’s MCPSS score is based on the average survey score from all surveyed Medicare providers in the contractor’s jurisdiction. To meet the performance standard, the MAC’s score for the 2009 MCPSS must fall within a specified range of the 2008 national mean score. The average 2008 MCPSS for all contractors, released last August, was 4.51 on a scale of 1 to 6. This score was comparable to the 2007 average MCPSS score of 4.56. CMS plans to utilize MCPSS results to help structure future contract incentives.
Survey questions focus on seven business functions of the provider-contractor relationship: provider inquiries, provider outreach and education, claims processing, appeals, provider enrollment, medical review, and provider audit and reimbursement.
Respondents are asked to rate their contractors using the 1 to 6 scale on each of the business functions with “1” representing “not at all satisfied” and “6” representing
“completely satisfied.” Contractors receive an overall composite score as well as a score on each business function.
As in the 2007 survey, the top indicator of satisfaction among health care providers in 2008 was how Medicare contractors handled provider inquiries. As in the two previous years, claims processing also remained a strong indicator in 2008 of provider satisfaction across all contractor types. The parts of the of the claims function particularly associated with provider satisfaction include claims editing and ease of submitting electronic claims.
“The shift from claims processing to provider inquiries as the top predictor of satisfaction is a perfect example of the type of trend data the MCPSS will reveal,” Weems said. “Contractors are able to factor this insight into how they prioritize their provider-focused efforts.”
The MCPSS is required by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003. Specifically, the law calls for CMS to develop contract performance requirements, including measuring health care provider satisfaction with Medicare contractors. The MCPSS enables CMS to make valid comparisons of provider satisfaction between contractors and, over time, improvements to the Medicare fee-for- service program. CMS will analyze the 2009 MCPSS data and release a summary report on the CMS website in July 2009.
Further information about the MCPSS is available at: www.cms.hhs.gov/MCPSS.
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