Program Timeline

HOS survey 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 2007, baseline and follow up data have been collected for eight 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 between April and July of each year, to submit final survey data files in September for testing, cleaning, scoring, and aggregating, and finally to disseminate relevant baseline and performance measurement reports and data sets to CMS, Medicare Advantage (MA) Plans, Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs), and other data users by early fall of the following year.

Program Activity	Timeframe
Survey Preparation, Administration, Data Cleaning	Year 1
Finalize Survey Specifications	January
Select Baseline Cohort & Follow Up Cohort Sample	February
Train & Certify Vendors	February
Prepare Vendor Materials	March
Field Baseline Cohort	April – June
Field Follow Up Cohort	May – July
Submit Raw Survey Data File	August - September
Test & Clean Data	September - November
Score Data	December
Data Management, Analysis and Dissemination	Year 2
Aggregate Baseline Data	January
Aggregate Performance Measurement Data	February – March
Produce Baseline QIO & MA Report	February – May
Produce Performance Measurement QIO & MA Report	April – June
Disseminate Baseline QIO & MA Report	May
Disseminate Performance Measurement QIO & MA Report	July
Produce Baseline QIO Data File & Data User’s Guide	June
Produce Performance Measurement QIO & MA Data File & Data User’s Guide	August

Details on the dissemination of reports and data to QIO and MA Plan users are available from the Data Dissemination section.