U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

Federal Employees Health Benefits Program

I am pleased to announce that Office Remedies, Inc. (ORI) has been selected to continue as OPM's survey research contractor. Therefore, again this year, your NCQA certified vendor will be reporting Consumers Assessment of Health Plans Survey (CAHPS® ) results to ORI on your behalf for OPM.

Each plan participating in the survey is responsible for a pro rata share of the total cost of compiling, processing and reporting survey data to OPM. The 2006 data processing fee is $474.14 per dataset submitted to OPM. Any plan that withdraws from the FEHB Program after submitting CAHPS data to OPM is liable for the processing fee. ORI will send you an invoice for the data processing fee and your payment will be due on June 16, 2006.

As a reminder, all plans must submit member level data files to NCQA for calculation of survey results and generation of validated member level and summary level data files. Before submitting your results to NCQA, you will need to complete NCQA's Healthcare Organization Questionnaire (HOQ) through NCQA's secured Website. Please check with your vendor or contact NCQA's Data Collection department directly at HOQ@ncqa.org if you need help or have questions regarding the HOQ.

Also, as mentioned in Carrier Letter 2006-01, we require you to provide a Crosswalk file along with your survey results that maps your NCQA submission ID(s) to your FEHB plan name and Sub-Code. The Crosswalk will allow us to match up NCQA submission IDs with your plan's unique FEHB Sub-Code. Also, it will identify plans that are sharing survey data. The Crosswalk file must include the names of the plan(s) surveyed, the state(s) in which the plan provide services, and the plan's unique FEHB Sub-Code. We have updated FEHB Sub-Codes ID's to standardize how we identify the different plan options offered under the Program. Under the new definition, FEHB Sub-Codes ending in "000" indicate a High Option Plan, "001" represents a Standard or Basic Option Plan, "002" indicate a High Deduction Health Plan Option (HDHP) and "003" represent a Consumer Driven Health Plan (CDHP). Please use the new FEHB Sub-Code ID's contained in Attachment I when completing your Crosswalk File. See Attachment II for an example of a properly completed Crosswalk file. The Crosswalk file is due May 1, 2006. Please e-mail your completed Crosswalk file to: sue@officeremediesinc.com. Please direct questions regarding the Crosswalk to: Paul Kallaur or Pauline Kim with the Center for the Study of Service at (202) 454-3030 or (202) 454-3059, or by email at: pkallaur@cssresearch.org or pkim@cssresearch.org.

To ensure consistency and comparability of survey results we require all plans to have the survey vendor submit the member level data files to NCQA for calculation of survey results. NCQA will calculate survey results and create validated member level data files and summary level data files on behalf of vendors. To comply with HIPAA's privacy rules, survey vendors should use appropriate encryption technology to transmit survey data.

The deadline for you to report your final member-level data files and summary-level data files in NCQA format to ORI is June 16, 2006. When your vendor submits member level and summary level data to OPM, the vender need to include a copy of your "Crosswalk" file to identify plan data submissions.

Reporting Format

We will accept your member level data files and summary level data files after they have been processed by NCQA. Your vendor may submit data via email, diskette or compact disc (CD). You may include results for multiple plans on a single diskette or CD. All submissions must include a content label/sheet and a Crosswalk. Please direct questions regarding data files to Sue Lynd or Carla Trexler with ORI at (703) 478-0910. Please send all data files to ORI via email at sue@officeremediesinc.com or by overnight mail to:

Please contact Ralph Pierce at ralph.pierce@opm.gov or by telephone at (202) 606-2758 if you have any questions.

Attachment 1: FEHB Subcode ID Crosswalk [76 KB]
Attachment 2: Sample Crosswalk [42 KB]
Download this Letter as a PDF File [26 KB]

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