US · guidance
CMS Pub. 100-16, ch. 5, § 30.3
Medicare CAHPS® Requirements
The following organizations types of MAOs are included in the CAHPS® survey
administration provided that they have a minimum enrollment of 600 eligible members as
of July 1st of the previous year.
• All MA organizations, including all coordinated care contracts, PFFS, and MSA
contracts.
• §1876 cost contracts even if they are closed for enrollment.
• Employer/union only contracts.
The Programs of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) and HCPP 1833 cost
contracts are excluded from the CAHPS® administration.
Medicare Advantage organizations and §1876 cost contracts are required to contract with
an approved MA & PDP CAHPS® vendor for the survey administration. A list of
approved survey vendors is available on www.MA-PDPCAHPS.org. All approved
survey vendors are trained by the CMS CAHPS® Survey Coordination team.
CMS issues HPMS memorandums about the CAHPS® survey each year.
If an approved CAHPS® vendor does not submit a contract’s CAHPS® data by the data
submission deadline, the contract will automatically receive a rating of one star for the
required CAHPS® measures for the data that are updated on Medicare Plan Finder (in the
fall) which also impacts the MA Quality Bonus Payments.
For additional information on the CAHPS® survey, please email mp-
cahps@cms.hhs.gov.
History
(Rev. 117, Issued: 08-08-14, Effective: 08-08-14, Implementation: 08-08-14)
Provenance
- Source
- cms.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-25
- Edition
- iom-2026-08-25
- Content hash
8efe63885c92d7ab7b5a41fef24a4e02406e991bd26ce230e1ac09e69e010928
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