From the staff of the AEA Committee on Economic Statistics:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/01/28/2020-01385/agency-information-collection-activities-proposed-collection-comment-request
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) seeks public comment on its draft proposal to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the information collection project: “Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Health Plan Survey Database.” Comments are due to AHRQ by Monday, March 30, 2020.
The CAHPS Health Plan Database consists of data from the AHRQ CAHPS Health Plan Survey. Health plans in the U.S. are asked to voluntarily submit data from the survey to AHRQ, through its contractor, Westat. The CAHPS Health Plan Database was developed by AHRQ in 1998 in response to requests from health plans, purchasers, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide comparative data to support public reporting of health plan ratings, health plan accreditation and quality improvement.
This research has the following goals:
(1) To maintain the CAHPS Health Plan Database using data from AHRQ's standardized CAHPS Health Plan Survey to provide results to health care purchasers, consumers, regulators and policy makers across the country.
(2) To offer several products and services, including aggregated results presented through an Online Reporting System, summary chartbooks, custom analyses, and data for research purposes.
(3) To provide data for AHRQ's annual National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report.
(4) To provide state-level data to CMS for public reporting on Medicaid.gov and Data.Medicaid.gov that does not display the name of the health plans.
Survey data from the CAHPS Health Plan Database is used to produce four types of products:
(1) An annual chartbook available to the public on the CAHPS Database website (
https://www.cahpsdatabase.ahrq.gov/CAHPSIDB/Public/Chartbook.aspx);
(2) individual participant reports that are confidential and customized for each participating organization (e.g., health plan, Medicaid agency) that submits their data;
(3) a research database available to researchers wanting to conduct additional analyses; and
(4) data tables provided to AHRQ for inclusion in the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports.
This study is being conducted by AHRQ through its contractor, Westat, pursuant to AHRQ's statutory authority to conduct and support research on healthcare and on systems for the delivery of such care.
Draft information collection materials are available to AEA members in this folder
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y0vvv0z6yfqslx0/AABjmsPPmEflta6WVdCQ_YkZa?dl=0
Items available include draft data collection instrument and supporting statements that describe purpose, content, methods, and plans.
Questions about the proposed data collection may be directed to Erwin Brown (Erwin.Brown@ahrq.hhs.gov) and Elma Chowdhury (Elma.Chowdhury@ahrq.hhs.gov).
The AEAStat primer on how to respond to a call for comments on a federal data collection is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806