What's New on the Medicare HOS

General Updates

• MA Conference Materials Now Available! Educational Materials from the April 2008 Medicare Advantage Quality Measurement & Performance Assessment Training Conference, including slides and audio presentations, are available from the MA Conference Materials section.
  
  
• Implementing the HEDIS^® Medicare Health Outcomes Survey: Final Protocol Analysis Cohorts 5-9 (2002-2006) (PDF, 141 KB) This Protocol Analysis report is based on data analysis from the 2002-2006 (Cohorts 5-9) Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (HOS) administrations. The purpose of this report is to describe changes in the composition of the cohorts over the years and to examine the quality and completeness of the survey data. The 2006 administration of the HOS marked its ninth year of baseline administration and seventh year of follow-up administration in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. It is also the first year that the revised HOS questionnaire, referred to as HOS 2.0, replaced the previous questionnaire version. NCQA performed a series of analyses of the available HOS data to uncover trends in HOS administration in recent years.
  
  
• Cohort 7 Analytic Public Use File Data and SAS^® Import Code Now Available! The Medicare HOS Cohort 7 Analytic Public Use File data, and the SAS^® import code, are available and can be downloaded from the Research Data Files section. The accompanying Data User's Guide can be downloaded from the Data User's Guide section.
  
  
• Cohort 9 Baseline Public Use File Data Available! The Medicare HOS Cohort 9 Baseline Public Use File data are available and can be downloaded from the Research Data Files section and the accompanying Data User's Guide can be downloaded from the Data User's Guide section.
  
  

• 2008 HOS Survey Administration Information Available! Information about the 2008 Survey Administration for the Medicare Health Outcome Survey and Medicare Health Outcome Survey-Modified, including the Medicare contracts required to participate and the HOS survey vendor list, may be found on the National Committee for Quality Assurance website.
  
  

Click here to go to NCQA's website for more information

HOS Partner Updates

• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
  • overseeing 2008 Round 11 data collection (Cohort 11 Baseline and Cohort 9 Follow Up)
  • overseeing 2007 Round 10 data preparation (Cohort 10 Baseline and Cohort 8 Follow Up)
  
  
• Center for the Assessment of Pharmaceutical Practices at the Boston University School of Public Health (Formerly Health Outcomes Technology Program [HOT])
  • completing a systems comparison study of geographic variations between the Veterans Health Administration and the Medicare Advantage programs
  
  
• Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG)
  • presented the invited talk "Methods and Advantages of Combining HOS and Your Organization's Data to Improve Quality and Performance" at the Medicare Advantage Quality Measurement and Performance Assessment Training Conference on April 8 - 9 in Baltimore
  • preparing the Cohort 10 Baseline and Cohort 8 Performance Measurement Reports for distribution to MAOs and QIOs in 2008
  • preparing the Cohort 10 Baseline and Cohort 8 Performance Measurement data for reporting in 2008
  • currently distributing Performance Measurement data for Cohorts 1 through 7 to those participating Medicare Advantage Plans who request their data
  
  
• National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)
  • HEDIS^® 2008 Volume 6, Specifications for the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey is available (Please contact NCQA Customer Support at 1-888-275-7585 to purchase a copy)
  • currently fielding the 2008 Medicare Health Outcomes Survey
  
  
• RTI International, Health, Social and Economic Research Group (RTI)
  • finished selecting the beneficiary samples for the 2008 Cohort 11 Baseline and Cohort 9 Follow Up surveys