On the weekend of September 30th, version 3.1 of StatData will replace the 3.0 version. The enhancements include many performance improvements that impact the speed of report selection and execution, and several new reports will be added. Additionally, recommendations on how hospitals can improve will be available on StatData for many of the standard HCAHPS questions. On or about October 28th, StatData version 2.0 will be removed and will no longer be available.

The new features and benefits of StatData 3.1 include:

• Performance Enhancements—Our expert programmers have completely rebuilt the code for StatData resulting in massive boosts in speed. Virtually everything you have done with previous versions of StatData will now run with blazing speed!
• 5 Period Percentile Rank Report
• Summary Trend Report
• 4 Period Trending Report, showing Overall Satisfaction by Survey Type, with results shown for means, Jackson Database means, Percentile Rank, and comparisons to The Jackson Organization’s national database.
• Custom Planning Tool—Set up your reports in advance for a period of up to a full fiscal year, and the report will populate itself as data is collected. No need to create reports over and over again!

Any questions or concerns relating to the new StatData 3.1 release should be sent to webmaster@jacksonorganization.com.

The Jackson Organization stays on top of every aspect of HCAHPS, and we’ve been at the frontlines since day one. We predicted long ago that HCAHPS would become increasingly important for all hospitals. In the August CMS press release, they have reaffirmed the drive to base annual payments on HCAHPS participation.

Given the surging mandate to continue to expand the measures that hospitals report, CMS is currently evaluating how to incorporate HCAHPS measures into its hospital reporting initiative for inclusion in the annual payment updates in future years. Though no final decision has been reached, they have proposed that payment rates be reduced by 2.0 percentage points for any hospital that does not fully participate in the public reporting initiative.The Jackson Organization encourages all hospitals to begin HCAHPS participation soon enough to be prepared for the likely 2008 annual payment update.

While CMS has not ruled officially on how participation with HCAHPS will impact their payment update, this is something for which hospitals cannot afford to be caught unprepared.
Here are the upcoming dates for important HCAHPS developments and requirements:

• National implementation of HCAHPS begins October 2006 for hospitals and survey vendors that have taken training and participated in a “dry run” for at least one month. The initial public reporting period will cover nine months of patient discharges (October 2006 through June 2007). Hospital results will be publicly reported on the CMS Hospital Compare website starting in late 2007. For all eligible hospitals (those that have participated in training and in the 2006 Dry Run over the summer), The Jackson Organization offers complete HCAHPS Administration for only $3,000 per hospital.

• For hospitals and survey vendors that have not yet had training in quality reporting, training sessions will take place in early 2007. A brief “dry run” will be held for March 2007 discharges. CMS is also requiring the submission of March 2007 “dry run” data by July 13, 2007 from those hospitals not yet collecting and submitting HCAHPS data on an ongoing basis. Participation in the Dry Run is mandatory for any hospital wishing to participate in the full HCAHPS implementation. The Jackson Organization will continue to offer complete HCAHPS Dry Run administration for only $1,000 per hospital.

• For FY 2008, hospitals will need to submit HCAHPS data for discharges that occur in the third calendar quarter of 2007 (July through September discharges).

New HCAHPS Patient Exclusion Categories
CMS has revised the eligible population rules with three new exclusion categories. Based on feedback and issues identified during the Dry Run, CMS has determined that the following three categories of patients should be excluded from HCAHPS sampling, beginning with National Implementation in October 2006.

• Patients with an Admission Source of "8", Court/Law Enforcement (i.e. prisoners).

• Patients with a Discharge Status of "50" or "51", Hospice-home or Hospice-medical facility.

• Patients whose hospital records indicate a foreign home address (i.e. outside of the United States/territories).

To learn more about how The Jackson Organization can help you achieve full HCAHPS compliance, check out our dedicated HCAHPS information website at hcahpsinfo.com.