Indiana Medicaid to Perform Satisfaction Surveys of Nursing Home Residents, Families/Friends, and Employees

As part of the effort led by the Indiana Division of Aging and the Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning (collectively, the “State”) to incorporate performance measures into Indiana Nursing Facility reimbursement rates, the State has contracted with Press Ganey Associates of South Bend, IN to conduct satisfaction surveys of nursing home residents, family/friends, and employees.  The satisfaction surveys are to be conducted this summer, during July, August, and September.  Surveys of residents will be in-person at the facility, and surveys of family/friend and employees will be done via mail.

While the data collected this summer will not immediately impact Nursing Facility reimbursement rates, it will set the stage for a discussion between the State and Nursing Facility representatives on how the data can be incorporated into the State’s Value Based Purchasing program (“VBP”).  The VBP program permits up to $14.30 per patient day to be paid as an add-on to the Medicaid reimbursement rate based on Nursing Facility performance on annual ISDH surveys, the number of nursing hours per resident day, and nursing and administrator retention and turnover metrics.

Webinars to Explain the Satisfaction Survey Process
Press Ganey Associates has subcontracted with GoResource Link and Knowledge Services to conduct the satisfaction surveys.  Nursing Facility residents will be interviewed in-person, as long as they are deemed interview-able based on a cognitive test.  Friends/Family of Nursing Facility residents and employees of Nursing Facilities will receive letters from one of the subcontractors that will contain a survey to be returned to the subcontractor.  The State has held two webinars for Nursing Facilities that provide an overview of the interview process – one was held on May 10th, and the second on May 17th.  For a copy of the webinar, click here.

Nursing Facility Data Requests
The two subcontractors, GoResource Link and Knowledge Services, have already begun contacting Nursing Facilities across the state to obtain the names and addresses of employees and the family/friend of a resident so that they can be contacted to complete a survey.  The State will be providing the subcontractors each facility’s MDS file from the prior month (June MDS file for surveys conducted in July, and so on) in order for the subcontractors to perform the in-person surveys of residents.  Each Nursing Facility Administrator will be contacted via letter and email concerning the survey process and the request for data submission.  Residents of Assisted or Independent Living are to be excluded from the surveys, and employees who are 100% dedicated to Assisted or Independent Living units are also to be excluded.

Letters will be sent to the designated family/friend and to each nursing facility employee along with the respective survey.  Drafts of those letters and the surveys for residents, family/friend, and employees may be accessed in the Members Only section of the IHCA website.

The State has indicated willingness to set up a central point of contact for multi-facility entities for purposes of coordinating data submissions company-wide.  To set up that single point of contact, please contact Division of Aging Deputy Director Karen Filler at 317-232-4651 or Karen.Filler@fssa.in.gov.

Subcontractor Training
Press Ganey, the main contractor, will be holding training sessions for the subcontractor’s employees that will perform the in-person resident satisfaction surveys.  Training sessions will be held on June 24, 25, and 26 at the Knowledge Services’ Carmel, IN location.  The training will include a Project Overview, discussion of the nursing home environment, HIPAA training, overall project logistics, and how to conduct an interview.
Survey Schedule
The subcontractors have released a schedule for the resident, family/friend, and employee surveys, which is provided below.

• Resident Surveys (onsite at the facility)
o 200 facilities in July
o 200 facilities in August
o 80 facilities in September

• Family/Friend Survey (by mail)
o Wave 1 – July 1, 2013
o Wave 2 – July 22, 2013
o Wave 3 – August 5, 2013

• Employee Survey (by mail or internet)
o Wave 1 – July 1, 2013
o Wave 2 – July 17, 2013
o Wave 3 – July 29, 2013
o Wave 4 – August 5, 2013
o Wave 5 – August 12, 2013

The State has communicated that if any of the onsite interviews of residents conflict with a survey conducted by the Indiana State Department of Health, that the satisfaction surveys of residents will be rescheduled.

If you have any questions about the satisfaction survey process, or about the VBP program, please contact Zach Cattell at zcattell@ihca.org or 317-616-9001.