A new survey from the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) found that a significant majority of ambulatory surgery centers are now actively administering the Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (OAS CAHPS) Survey, following its mandate as part of the Medicare ASC Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program.
The March 2025 ASCA 60-Second Survey, which gathered responses from 261 facilities across 44 states, showed a marked shift since last year, ASCA wrote in a post highlighting the insights.
In March 2024, just 32% of respondents had an active contract with a CMS-approved OAS CAHPS vendor. However, by March 2025, this number jumped to 96%, indicating widespread adoption following the program’s Jan. 1, 2025 implementation.
“At the time of our survey in March 2023, over two thirds (68%) of facilities did NOT have an active contract with an OAS CAHPS vendor,” Alex Taira, regulatory policy and research manager with ASCA, told ASC News in an email. “A lot of facilities were still in the process of procuring a vendor, which was an expensive and labor intensive process. I think many facilities were just generally frustrated with being forced to incorporate a new part of their operational process, and that frustration was passed on to their interactions with vendors.”
Facilities are required to partner with a CMS-approved vendor to administer the survey. Press Ganey was the most commonly used vendor, with 61% of respondents (142/234) choosing the company. Other vendors included JL Morgan & Associates, Arbor Associates and Nexus Health Resources.
Facilities that do not participate face a 2% Medicare penalty for non-compliance.
In terms of survey administration methods, the most popular mode was electronic with mail follow-up, used by 52% of facilities. Other methods included electronic with phone follow-up (21%) and phone-only surveys (10%).
Interestingly, ASCs with joint ownership between physicians and hospitals or corporations showed differing preferences for survey methods.
Physician-hospital joint ventures favored mail-only surveys more frequently than the general ASC population (18% vs. 9%), while physician-corporate joint ventures leaned more towards phone-only surveys (16% vs. 10%).
A significant portion of ASCs expressed interest in transitioning to more digital survey methods, ASCA wrote.
Seventy-two percent of facilities said they would consider moving to an internet-only or text-only survey format.
“There are still no electronic-only survey administration methods, despite ASCA’s continued advocacy over that period to make it available,” Taira said. “If CMS made an electronic-only method available, it seems highly likely that many centers would choose one of those. There might be some pains as the changeover happens, but I think most centers would gladly give patients a web-based survey rather than having to deal with traditional mail.”
