As of 2025, to comply with ASC-15a-e in Medicare’s ASC Quality Reporting Program, ASCs must conduct the Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (OAS CAHPS) Survey or face reduced Medicare reimbursement rates in 2027 and beyond. The OAS CAHPS Survey includes 34 questions that evaluate a patient’s experience with the care they receive before, during and after their visit to a surgery center.
ASCs cannot administer this survey on their own. They must select a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-approved vendor (see the list below) to administer the survey. Once an ASC selects a vendor, it must work with that vendor to ensure its technological interface with that company is working properly and monitor the process throughout the year to make sure it is collecting the mandatory 200 completed surveys. Since setup for the survey can take time to complete, ASCs are advised to start now.
Medicare offers five modes that ASCs can select from to offer this survey: mail only, phone only, mail with phone follow-up, electronic with mail follow-up and electronic with phone follow-up. To help ASCs select the vendor that best matches their needs, ASCA has prepared the chart below. ASCs will still need to do their due diligence with a potential vendor regarding pricing structure based on type of mode, the onboarding process and types of reports available to the ASC.
If you are an ASCA member and need additional assistance getting started with the OAS CAHPS Survey, please contact Kara Newbury at knewbury@ascassociation.org or Gina Throneberry at gthroneberry@ascassociation.org.