What is CAHPS?
CAHPS stands for Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. It’s a series of national standardized surveys that ask patients and consumers to evaluate their experiences with health care. The WEA Trust participated in the survey that is for commercial plans. Health plans that participate in CAHPS must follow a strict set of rules for administering the survey to ensure a fair comparison of results.
What topics are included in the CAHPS questionnaire?
The questionnaire is divided into four parts:
- Your Health Care
- Your Personal Doctor
- Getting Health Care from Specialists
- Your Health Plan
For each of these sections, respondents answer a variety of questions related to their experiences and then give an overall rating for that aspect of their health care on a scale from 0 to 10.
Who oversees CAHPS?
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funds and administers the CAHPS surveys. AHRQ is the nation’s lead federal agency for research on health care quality, costs, outcomes, and patient safety.