Digital Debut

ASCA Survey Shows Majority of Respondents Administering OAS CAHPS

More than half of the facilities are using the electronic with mail follow-up method

BY ALEX TAIRA | APRIL 11, 2025

ASCA’s March 2025 60-Second Survey asked facilities about their experience implementing the Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (OAS CAHPS) Survey. ASCA conducted a similar survey in March last year, before the OAS CAHPS Survey became a mandatory part of the Medicare ASC Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program on January 1, 2025. Only 32 percent of the March 2024 survey respondents had an active contract with one of the approved OAS CAHPS Survey vendors. In the March 2025 survey, 96 percent of respondents reported that their facility is currently administering the survey. The March 2025 survey received 261 responses from surgery centers in 44 states.

Survey Results

Facilities are required to contract with a vendor approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to administer the OAS CAHPS Survey. Of the facilities administering the survey this March, 61 percent (142/234) are using Press Ganey as their CMS-approved survey vendor. The next most common vendors reported were JL Morgan & Associates (13 percent), Arbor Associates (9 percent) and Nexus Health Resources (5 percent). In all, survey respondents named 12 different companies administering the survey. Only 10 facilities reported not administering the OAS CAHPS Survey, with the most common reason being low Medicare volume. ASCs with fewer than 240 Medicare claims per year are not required to participate in the ASCQR Program.

In March 2024, facilities reported a very low satisfaction rate, 4.9 out of 10, when asked about their survey vendor. In March 2025, vendor satisfaction rose to an average of 6.9 out of 10 across all vendors. Arbor Associates (8.2 out of 10) received the highest average vendor satisfaction score among vendors with at least 10 facility contracts, followed by JL Morgan & Associates (7.8), Press Ganey (6.4) and Nexus Health Resources (5.9).

The OAS CAHPS Survey has five approved survey administration modes: electronic with mail follow-up, electronic with phone follow-up, phone only, mail only and mail with phone follow-up. In the March 2025 survey, 52 percent of facilities reported using the electronic with mail follow-up survey method. The next most common methods were electronic with phone follow-up (21 percent) and phone only (10 percent).

Notably, ASCs that are jointly owned between physicians and a hospital reported much higher usage of the mail only survey method compared to the overall average (18 percent versus 9 percent). ASCs that are jointly owned between physicians and a corporation reported much higher usage of the phone only survey method compared to the overall average (16 percent versus 10 percent).

When all facilities were asked whether they would consider moving to an internet-only or text-only based survey mode, 72 percent (169/234) responded that they would be interested.

ASCA introduced the 60-Second Survey, a quarterly survey series, in spring 2021. As the name suggests, each survey takes 60 seconds or less to complete and asks fewer than 10 questions on a current topic. The topic changes survey to survey, but each aims to take the pulse of the ASC community and help ASCA better serve its members and the ASC community at large.

Write Alex Taira at ataira@ascassociation.org with questions about this survey or to propose topics for future surveys.