§ 484.245 Requirements under the Home Health Quality Reporting Program (HH QRP).

(a) Participation. Beginning January 1, 2007, an HHA must report Home Health Quality Reporting Program (HH QRP) data in accordance with the requirements of this section.

(b) Data submission. (1) Except as provided in paragraph (d) of this section, and for a program year, an HHA must submit all of the following to CMS:

(i) Data—

(A) Required under section 1895(b)(3)(B)(v)(II) of the Act, including HHCAHPS survey data; and

(B) On measures specified under sections 1899B(c)(1) and 1899B(d)(1) of the Act.

(ii) Standardized patient assessment data required under section 1899B(b)(1) of the Act.

(iii) For purposes of HHCAHPS survey data submission, the following additional requirements apply:

(A) Patient count. An HHA that has less than 60 eligible unique HHCAHPS patients must annually submit to CMS their total HHCAHPS patient count to CMS to be exempt from the HHCAHPS reporting requirements for a calendar year.

(B) Survey requirements. An HHA must contract with an approved, independent HHCAHPS survey vendor to administer the HHCAHPS on its behalf.

(C) CMS approval. CMS approves an HHCAHPS survey vendor if the applicant has been in business for a minimum of 3 years and has conducted surveys of individuals and samples for at least 2 years.

(1) For HHCAHPS, a “survey of individuals” is defined as the collection of data from at least 600 individuals selected by statistical sampling methods and the data collected are used for statistical purposes.

(2) All applicants that meet the requirements in this paragraph (b)(1)(iii)(C) are approved by CMS.