Response to comments

CMS Response to Public Comments Received for CMS-10102

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) received two comments from one individual and a professional association. This is the reconciliation of the comments.

Comment:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) received a comment from an individual who agreed with our recommendation to remove the three Communication About Pain items from the HCAHPS Survey. The commenter would prefer that these items be removed sooner, but felt that our proposed removal “effective with October 2019 discharges” would be adequate.

Response:

CMS appreciates this comment in support of our proposal. CMS wishes to reiterate that it would be infeasible to remove the three Communication About Pain items from the HCAHPS Survey any sooner than with October 1, 2019 discharges.

Comment:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) received a comment from an association that requested the HCAHPS Survey list each type of provider, change the label of the current “Your Care from Doctors” measure to “Your Care from Providers”, and specifically ask patients about communication with and care from advance practice nurses, including nurse practitioners.

Comment:

CMS appreciates this comment though finds that it is not germane to the issue of the proposed removal of the three Communication About Pain items from the HCAHPS Survey and is out of scope for this action. However, the reason that the HCAHPS Survey refers generally to “nurses” is that in developing the HCAHPS Survey, CMS learned that patients frequently do not or cannot distinguish among the types of nurse, or doctors, who treated them during their hospital stay.