Attachment XI - Reminder Letter

Attachment XI. — Reminder Letter

[PRINT ON RAND LETTERHEAD]

[Mailed ~ 2 weeks after 1^ST survey is mailed]

Dear Participant:

We need your help! We recently sent you a letter inviting you to complete the Hospital National Provider Survey, sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). To date, we have not received your completed survey, and the deadline for completing the survey is coming up soon. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey today.

The purpose of this survey is to help CMS understand:

• How the CMS performance measures are changing the way in which your hospital is delivering care.

• Factors that are driving your hospital’s investments in performance improvement.

• Issues your hospital faces related to reporting the CMS measures.

• Potential undesired effects associated with the measures.

• Challenges your hospital faces related to improvement on the CMS measures.

Your feedback is very important and will be used to improve the functioning of CMS measurement programs, so that they work well for both providers and their patients. Health Services Advisory Group, Inc. (HSAG), under contract with CMS, has asked the RAND Corporation to conduct and analyze this survey.

Completing the survey will take approximately 30 to 40 minutes. You may complete the survey online by going to the following URL and entering your PIN:

https://www.randsurvey.org/fqhc/

PIN: XXXX

All of the information you provide will be held in confidence by HSAG and the RAND Corporation. RAND will combine your survey answers with the answers from other hospitals that complete the survey and will produce only summary results across all hospitals. When presenting survey results to CMS, HSAG and RAND will not include your name or any other information that could identify you or your hospital. Please note that:

• Your hospital’s participation in the survey is voluntary.

• Your decision to participate or not to participate will have no effect on you or your organization and CMS.

• You can skip any question you do not want to answer.

• HSHSAGHSAG and RAND will not share your information with anyone, except as required by law.

• HSAG and RAND will not share your individual responses with your employer or with CMS.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the survey, or if you would like to receive a hard copy of the survey, please contact Beverly Weidmer, the Survey Director for this project at RAND, at [email protected] or at 310-393-0411, ext. 6788. If you have any questions about your rights as a research subject, please contact the RAND Human Subject’s Protection Committee at 310-393-0411, ext. 7173, and ask to speak to Jim Tebow.

Thank you, in advance, for your help with this important survey!

Sincerely,

Cheryl Damberg, PhD

Principal Investigator (Survey Project Director)