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Program Timeline

The Health Outcomes Survey (HOS) data are collected annually for a new sample of Medicare managed care enrollees (cohort), with a two year follow up for each baseline cohort. The Round 3 HOS survey administration in 2000 marked the first year that both baseline and follow up surveys were fielded. As of 2023, baseline and follow up data have been collected and reported for 23 complete HOS cohorts.

A standard protocol is implemented for each annual round of HOS data collection, data management, and reporting results. Medicare HOS program administration objectives are to field the baseline and follow up cohorts each year. After the final survey data files are submitted for testing, cleaning, scoring, and aggregating, the relevant baseline and performance measurement reports and data sets are disseminated to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs), and other approved data users.

The 2024 HOS and HOS-Modified (HOS-M) surveys will be fielded from July 22, 2024 through November 1, 2024.

CMS approved survey vendors (conditionally) to administer Round 27 HOS data in February. MAOs and Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) organizations will need to notify NCQA (CMS’s contractor for HOS implementation), of their survey vendor selection in April to support the start of fielding.

HOS survey vendors will work with MAOs beginning in June to obtain additional contact information. Upon the completion of fielding in November, survey vendors will submit member-level data to NCQA on behalf of PACE organizations and MAOs. 

Details on the dissemination of reports and data to MAO users are available in the Data Dissemination section. Additional details for PACE organizations are available in the HOS-Modified section.

This page was last modified on 04/18/2024