POLICY NEWS
News and statements from the Patient Experience Policy Forum appear below.
Patient Experience Policy Forum (PXPF) Calls for Action on Pending Telemedicine Legislation Before Congress - August 2, 2021
On June 3rd, the Patient and Family Partnership Workgroup of the Patient Experience Policy Forum released a position paper, “Virtual and Telehealth Recommendations,” calling for a wide range of improvements to telemedicine services including permanent and appropriate reimbursement for telemedicine services, expansion of broadband so that telemedicine can be accessible to all and other technology improvements to help patients, families and caregivers stay better connected inside and outside of healthcare settings. Currently, there are over 20 bills before the Congress, including some with bi-partisan sponsorship, that call for expansion and improvement of telemedicine services across the nation. It is time to support and move these pending pieces of legislation forward. At this moment the value of telemedicine and virtual access to care is clearer than ever and the opportunities to make care more equitable for all are more pressing than ever before.
PXPF Comments on Closing the Equity Gap in CMS Hospital Quality Programs - June 28, 2021
We appreciate the opportunity to provide the following comments in response to the CMS Solicitation of Public Comment regarding Closing the Equity Gap in CMS Hospital Quality Programs, included in the proposed Fiscal Year 2022 updates to the Quality Data Reporting Requirements for Specific Providers and Suppliers, as posted in the Federal Register, Volume 86, Number 88, published on May 10, 2021. Specifically, our comments pertain to the subsection titled, Potential Expansion of the CMS Disparity Methods, pages 25557-25561.
Recommendations for other types of feasibly collected data elements for measuring disadvantage and discrimination: We recommend the collection of a minimum set of demographic data elements for all healthcare patients, inclusive of all payers, as follows: race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, primary language, tribal membership and disability status. Furthermore, this minimum data set should be standardized across provider types and care settings—inclusive of hospitals, LTCHs, Rehab Facilities, Skilled Nursing Facilities, Hospices, Medical Groups, etc. Recognizing the importance of language and words, we support ongoing research on the language used to describe categories of race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity and other demographic variables within questions asking for demographic information. This should help to ensure that the questions asking for this information remain relevant to, and consistent with the way that people describe their own identities, facilitating increased question response rates.
Virtual and Telehealth Recommendations - June 3, 2021
Whether for telehealth appointments or for virtual connection during hospitalizations and long-term care, access to technology has the potential to greatly increase family and care partner engagement with the healthcare team. In order to meet patient needs and involve care partners effectively, healthcare leaders must ensure that technology doesn’t become a social determinant of health. Patients must have access to equipment and technology and should be engaged in developing work flows and policies surrounding the deployment of these technologies and tools.
While hospitals and long-term care facilities work toward making telehealth and virtual engagement available in new ways, it is important to prioritize the work based on what is meaningful for patients and care partners and what is feasible for healthcare organizations. Patients and caregivers have an interest in participating in conversations about virtual and telehealth and contributing to the development of policies and practices that improve health outcomes and the patient experience. With these principles in mind, we advocate for the following:
Listening To The Voice Of All Patients To Help Heal Health Disparities In A Post-COVID-19 World - May 5, 2021
As representatives of a large and diverse PXPF workgroup focused on measurement improvements, we believe that the fundamental principles articulated a year ago to modernize and democratize patient experience measurement and reporting can and must be rigorously applied to help eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health care overall and in patient experience in particular. This is a call to action long overdue—and requires the engagement of health care organizations, regulators, policy makers, and all survey sponsors and vendors.
Let patients speak for themselves on the Biden task force and elsewhere
A new paper published via STAT and authored by Shari Berman, Co-Chair, PXPF, shares that ever since President-elect Biden named his COVID-19 task force, advice for improving its makeup has poured in from all quarters. A recent op-ed by two nurses chided Biden to add a nurse to the task force in part because nurses "give voice to patients".
Patient and family recommendations for addressing visitation policies during COVID-19 – September 4, 2020
The COVID-19 crisis has called on healthcare organizations globally to take measures to provide for the safety and well-being of both those served and those who work in healthcare every day. While actions have varied across organizations, and virtual opportunities sprang into existence in many places, the impact of decisions around visitation and the presence of that support must be revisited and understood. It is essential to acknowledge and act on the need for policies and practices that ensure this basic need for care partners is met and the associated evidence-based outcomes that result from effective patient and family engagement are realized. To address this moment of challenge, and the decisions related to visitation, we offer the following recommendations.
Community Briefing and Conversation: Addressing Visitation and Access for Guests and Care Partners
We must partner with patients as we redefine healthcare in the post-COVID-19 era - June 16, 2020
A new position paper from PXPF published via Becker's Hospital Review and authored by Shari Berman, Co-Chair, PXPF; Courtney Nataraj, Patient Adviser and Board Member, PXPF; Charisse Montgomery, Program Coordinator, PXPF, advocates for policy change to improve the patient experience during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s Time To Take Patient Experience Measurement And Reporting To A New Level: Next Steps For Modernizing And Democratizing National Patient Surveys PX Policy Forum Comments on Proposed Updates for HCAHPS to assess communication about the cost of care - March 16, 2020
A new position paper from PXPF published via Health Affairs Blog and authored by PXPF Co-Chairs Rick Evans and Shari Berman and members Esther Burlingame and Stephanie Fishkin proposes that while standardized Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) measures have played an important role in efforts to improve patient experiences, it is time for a comprehensive effort to modernize and democratize all surveys and related data used to assess patient experiences with care. The article highlights the major improvements needed to modernize national patient experience surveys, by making the data more accessible and understandable to all health care stakeholders.
PX Policy Forum Comments on the Value of Patient Narratives in the CAHPS for MIPS Survey - September 27, 2019
The Patient Experience Policy Forum (PXPF) is a broad-based coalition of health care organizations and patient and family advisors engaged in advocacy and action to give a greater voice in health care policy to those working to improve the patient and family experience. We appreciate the opportunity to offer comments on the proposed rule updates to the CMS Quality Payment Program, specifically in regards to endorsing the addition of open-ended questions on the CAHPS for MIPS Survey.
CMS Introduces HCAHPS Survey Individual Question Top-Box Scores to the Summary Analyses Page - December 10, 2018
PXPF Policy Update: CMS request for comments related to pain measurement - September 6, 2018
We want all members to be aware of an opportunity to comment on recent proposed changes to the HCAHPS Pain Domain. A document (attached below) – prepared by our PXPF Workgroup on Measurement - walks through the background on this issue and how you or your organization can offer comments. At PXPF's recent meeting with CMS this spring, one of the things they suggested the PXPF can do is to promote the process to give comments to CMS. This effort is one way we can do that.
Letter from PXPF Workgroup on Measurement
Issue overview and comment opportunity summary
PXPF Meets with CMS Leadership - May 10, 2018
On Thursday, May 10, 2018, a delegation from the Patient Experience Policy Forum (PXPF) met with leaders from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in Baltimore to discuss topics related to patient experience measurement and patient/family engagement.