Answer provided by:
Bobbi Rogers
Senior Client Services Manager, Government Initiatives

CMS has very strict guidelines that specifically outline how hospitals can and cannot communicate about the HCAHPS survey.  While hospital may inform patients that they may receive the HCAHPS survey after discharge, certain types of communication are prohibited in an effort to reduce survey biasing. 

Hospitals (and survey vendors) are not allowed to do any of the following:

• Ask any HCAHPS questions of patients prior to administration of the survey after discharge
• Attempt to influence or encourage patients to answer HCAHPS questions in a particular way
• Imply that the hospital (or any of its employees or agents) will be rewarded for positive feedback from patients by asking patients to choose certain types of responses
• Indicate that the hospital is hoping for a given response, such as a 10, Definitely Yes, or Always
• Ask patients to explain why they did not rate a hospital with the most favorable rating possible
• Offer incentives of any kind for participation in the survey

HealthStream Research stays abreast of all CMS guidelines and remains proactively compliant with all regulations.