Care Compare Has Been Refreshed (02/25/2026)
The January 2026 Care Compare Refresh includes HCAHPS scores from April 2024 through March 2025 data collections.
Summary Analyses Page Tables Have Been Updated (02/25/2026)
The following tables have been added to the HCAHPS Web site Summary Analyses page:
- January 2026 Summary of HCAHPS Survey Results Table
- January 2026 HCAHPS Percentiles Table
- January 2026 HCAHPS Survey Individual Question Top-Box Scores
The Star Ratings Distributions Have Been Updated (02/25/2026)
The following tables have been added to the HCAHPS Web site Star Ratings page:
- January 2026 HCAHPS Star Rating Distributions
- January 2026 HCAHPS Summary Star Distributions by US State
HCAHPS Survey Individual Question Top-Box Scores Table Has Been Updated (02/25/2026)
The HCAHPS Survey Individual Question Top-Box Scores table has been added to the Summary Analyses page:
- January 2026 Public Report: April 2024 - March 2025 discharges
2026 HCAHPS Quality Assurance Guidelines Addendum and Training Information (02/20/2026)
An addendum to the HCAHPS Quality Assurance Guidelines (QAG) V19.0 will be posted on the HCAHPS Website (www.hcahpsonline.org) in late April 2026. The addendum will include clarifications to the current QAG version, as well as a limited number of new items. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will not be releasing a new version of the HCAHPS Quality Assurance Guidelines (QAG) in 2026.
HCAHPS Update Training will not be conducted in 2026.
Introduction to HCAHPS Training will be available via a self-paced training module the week of May 4, 2026.
Who is required to Participate in Introduction to HCAHPS Training:
- Currently approved survey vendors and self-administering hospitals that are adding a new mode
- Newly approved survey vendors and self-administering hospitals
- Subcontractor(s)/partner(s) and other organizations with responsibility for major survey administration functions (e.g., mail/phone/web operations, XML file preparation) for the above organizations
- New Project Managers for currently approved survey vendors and self-administering hospitals or as required by CMS
Please note that Introduction to HCAHPS Training is also recommended as a training/refresher course for new staff members at organizations that are currently approved to administer the HCAHPS Survey.
Training Registration for Introduction to HCAHPS Training will open on April 1 and will close at 5 PM ET on April 22, 2026.
Please note that there is no fee for HCAHPS Training.
Please monitor the HCAHPS Website for further information regarding 2026 Introduction to HCAHPS Training.
For more information, please contact HCAHPS Technical Assistance at hcahps@hsag.com or 1-888-884-4007.
The April 2026 Public Report Preview Period Begins February 19, 2026 (02/19/2026)
The April 2026 Public Report Preview Reports are now available on the Hospital Quality Reporting (HQR) System (https://hqr.cms.gov/), formerly the QualityNet Secure Portal, to participating providers and Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs). The Preview Reports will be available from February 19, 2026 through March 20, 2026. (To access the report, you must be registered as a HQR system user and have been assigned the QIO Clinical Data Warehouse Feedback Report role). The data that appear in the Preview Reports will be reported on Care Compare for Medicare & Medicaid Services Web site for Medicare beneficiaries and the general public in April 2026.
Patient-Mix Adjustments and National Means for April 2026 HCAHPS Results Have Been Posted (02/19/2026)
The Patient-Mix Adjustments and National Means for the April 2026 HCAHPS results are now available. Please click here to access the Mode & Patient-Mix Adjustment page.
Star Ratings: April 2026 Technical Notes Have Been Posted (02/19/2026)
The Technical Notes for the April 2026 HCAHPS results are now available. The April 2026 HCAHPS Star Ratings are included in the hospital Preview Reports (available to hospitals from February 19, 2026 through March 20, 2026), and will be Publicly Reported on Care Compare in April 2026. Please click here to access the HCAHPS Star Ratings page.
HCAHPS Public Reporting Periods for October 2025 Through October 2026 Have Been Updated (02/03/2026)
Clck here to view the HCAHPS Public Reporting Periods document. This document indicates which calendar quarters HCAHPS results will be publicly reported on the Care Compare Website through October 2026.
Please Note: The dates of future preview periods and public reporting are estimates based on current timetables and are thus subject to change.
V.43 MS-DRG Codes Effective October 1, 2025 (10/01/2025)
CMS has adopted V.43 MS-DRG Codes effective October 1, 2025. Please click here for the Table of V.43 MS-DRG Codes and HCAHPS Service Line Categories.
FY 2026 IPPS Final Rule Has Been Published (08/06/2025)
The Final Rule and related tables are now available on the Federal Register at the following URL: 2025-14681.pdf (Federal Register)
2025 HCAHPS Update Training Q&A Summary Now Available (06/30/2025)
CMS and the HCAHPS Project Team are providing a Q&A Summary Document that includes questions and answers from the 2025 HCAHPS Update Training session on May 7, 2025.
Summary of Key Changes to Content of Updated HCAHPS Survey (12/17/2024)
- Updated HCAHPS Survey Includes 32 Questions (or items):
- 8 new questions added to survey
- 5 questions removed from survey
- 3 new measures of patient experience
- Care Coordination (3 questions)
- Restfulness of Hospital Environment (3 questions)
- Information about Symptoms (1 question)
- 1 measure removed
- Care Transition (3 questions)
- Responsiveness of Hospital Staff measure altered
- "Help right away" question added to survey
- "Call button" question removed from survey
- Changes to "About You" section:
- "Hospital stay planned in advance" question added to survey
- "Emergency room admission" question removed from survey
- The order of several "About You" questions has been changed
Summary of Key Changes to Administration of Updated HCAHPS Survey (12/17/2024)
- 3 new modes of survey administration available:
- Web-Mail: E-mail survey with mail follow-up of non-respondents
- Web-Phone: E-mail survey with telephone follow-up of non-respondents
- Web-Mail-Phone: E-mail survey with mail and telephone follow-up of non-respondents
- Mail Only, Phone Only, and Mail-Phone (Mixed) modes remain available
- The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) mode is discontinued
- Official Spanish translation must be administered to all Spanish-preferring patients
- Applies to all modes of survey administration
- Maximum of 12 supplemental items may be added to the survey
- Formerly unrestricted
- Proxy respondents not prohibited from answering survey for patient
- Formerly prohibited
Updates to HCAHPS Public Reporting on Care Compare (12/17/2024)
Because four quarters of data are required for public reporting, there will be changes to the roster of HCAHPS measures on Care Compare between October 2025 and October 2026. Please see the Technical Specifications page for a summary of these changes.
HCAHPS Survey Changes and Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (12/17/2024)
Changes to the HCAHPS Survey coupled with the requirements of the Hospital VBP program will result in several sequential changes to the HCAHPS dimensions. Please see the HCAHPS and Hospital VBP page for a summary of these changes.
HCAHPS Response Rate by Survey Mode Table Added to the Summary Analyses Page (12/06/2024)
The HCAHPS Response Rate by Survey Mode Table has been added to the Summary Analyses page.
This table displays the response rate of hospitals that used the Mail Only, Telephone Only, or Mixed Mode (mail followed by telephone contact for non-respondents) in a recent four-quarter roll-up. Mode-specific response rates are shown at the 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles. These percentiles allow a hospital to compare its own response rate, which can be found on the Care Compare Website (https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/?providerType=Hospital) under “Patient Survey Rating,” to other hospitals that employ the same mode.
Hospitals whose response rate falls below the 50th percentile should consider taking steps to improve (see podcast: https://hcahpsonline.org/en/podcasts/#improve). We encourage all hospitals to examine how well their survey mode resonates with the patient population they serve (see podcast: https://hcahpsonline.org/en/podcasts/#ImprovingRepresentativeness).
Update on Progress of the 2021 HCAHPS Mode Experiment Has Been Posted (07/14/2022)
Information on the 2021 HCAHPS Mode Experiment was presented during the 2022 HCAHPS Update Training. Please click here to view the Update on Progress of the 2021 HCAHPS Mode Experiment document.
Update: HCAHPS 2021 Mode Experiment (06/21/2021)
The 2021 CMS HCAHPS mode experiment includes a test of new survey modes as well as new and revised survey items. CMS and its HCAHPS Project Team are testing an expanded HCAHPS Survey instrument using six different survey administration protocols: 3 standard modes (Mail Only, Telephone Only, and Mixed Mode (mail followed by telephone), and three new mixed mode protocols that begin with a web-based survey followed by a standard mode: Web-Mail, Web-Telephone, and Web-Mail-Telephone.
In addition to testing web-based survey administration, the mode experiment also tests new and revised survey content. The mode experiment survey contains 43 items. The core of the survey includes 26 items that generally duplicate the current HCAHPS Survey, though with one deletion and some minor revisions to item wording and sequence. This core is followed by 17 test items that include new patient experience topics, new items on existing topics, and proxy help items. A copy of the survey is available for informational purposes.
Please note: The HCAHPS mode experiment survey instrument is for testing purposes only. It is not intended to represent the future survey and is not approved for use.
The 2021 HCAHPS mode experiment is being conducted on a random sample of HCAHPS-eligible patients discharged from April through September 2021 from more than 40 hospitals. The hospitals were randomly selected and are broadly representative of all hospitals participating in HCAHPS. Within each hospital, sampled patients are randomly assigned to the six survey administration protocols. Patients assigned to the three web-based administration protocols receive invitations to the web survey via email. The mode experiment will assess different data collection windows for the web-based survey: 6, 8, and 10 days. The mode experiment will allow up to 49 days for initial contact of patients, and 49 days for completion of the survey after the initial contact. The table below provides an overview of the schedule of contacts for the mode experiment.
Schedule of HCAHPS Mode Experiment Contact Attempts
|
Day |
Standard Mail Only |
Standard Phone Only |
Standard Mixed Mode |
Web-Mail |
Web-Phone |
Web-Mail- Phone |
|
1 |
Mail out first survey |
Phone calls begin |
Mail out survey |
Email first survey invitation |
Email first survey invitation |
Email first survey invitation |
|
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
|
Email second survey invitation |
|
|
|
4 |
|
|
|
|
Email second survey invitation |
Email second survey invitation |
|
5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6 |
|
|
|
Email third survey invitation |
|
Mail out survey |
|
7 |
|
|
|
|
Email third survey invitation |
|
|
8 |
|
|
|
Mail out first survey |
|
|
|
9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 |
|
|
|
|
Phone calls begin
|
|
|
21 |
Mail out second survey |
|
|
|
|
|
|
28 |
|
|
Phone calls begin
|
|
|
Phone calls begin |
|
30 |
|
|
|
Mail out second survey |
|
|
|
49 |
End data collection
|
End data collection |
End data collection |
End data collection |
End data collection |
End data collection |
The additional email invitations and the secondary modes are enacted only for patients who do not respond to the initial contact. Patients randomly assigned to a web-based mode who lack a valid email address receive their first contact when the secondary mode begins.
After the completion of mode experiment data collection in late 2021, CMS will analyze the data and use the results to inform decisions about HCAHPS modes of survey administration, survey content, proxies, schedule and timing of contacts, and length of survey administration. Any changes to current HCAHPS Survey content or administration procedures will be proposed through the CMS rulemaking process.
Care Compare Web Site Now Available (09/03/2020)
CMS Care Compare Empowers Patients when Making Important Health Care Decisions
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched Care Compare, which contains HCAHPS survey results and many other measures, and is a streamlined redesign of eight existing CMS healthcare compare tools available on Medicare.gov.
Full Press Release can be found here: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-care-compare-empowers-patients-when-making-important-health-care-decisions
Direct links to the tools & additional resources
Care Compare on Medicare.gov - https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/
Care Compare resources for consumers and partners – Medicare blog, Promotional video, Conference card
Provider Data Catalog on CMS.gov - https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/
Provider Data Catalog and Medicare Care Compare
Webinar Recordings Now Available
Go to the “Videos” Section on the CMS National Training Program page here. Direct links below:
Provider Data Catalog (PDC) Webinar (Recorded August 10, 2020)
eMedicare: Improving Compare Tools (Recorded August 24, 2020)
Extraordinary Circumstances Extension (ECE) (12/31/2025)
For recent Extraordinary Circumstances Extensions (ECE) the key HCAHPS content is displayed below. To review the entire Quality Reporting Notifications please click below:
- Texas Severe Storms (Q1 2025) please click here
- Mississippi Storms (Q4 2022) please click here
- Hurricane Ian (Q2 2022) please click here
- Hurricane Ida (Q2-Q3 2021) please click here
- Texas Winter Storms (Q1 2021) please click here
- Hurricane Laura (Q3 2020) please click here
- California and Oregon Wildfires (Q3 2020) please click here
- Hurricane Dorian (Q3 2019) please click here
- Tropical Storm Barry (Q3 2019) please click here
- California Wildfires (Q3 2018) please click here
- Hurricane Michael (Q3 2018) please click here
- Hurricane Florence (Q2-Q3 2018) please click here
- California Wildfires (Q3-Q4 2017) please click here
- Hurricane Nate (Q2-Q3 2017) please click here
- Hurricane Irma (Q2-Q3 2017) please click here
- Hurricane Harvey (Q2-Q3 2017) please click here
The National Support Team for the Hospital IQR Program is available to answer questions or supply any additional information you may need. Please contact the team at InpatientSupport@viqrc1.hcqis.org or call toll-free at (844) 472-4477.
This page was last modified on (02/25/26)