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
For additional information, visit
Program Partners.