What is HOS?
The Health Outcomes Survey (HOS) is a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) survey that gathers meaningful health status data from people with Medicare. Like HEDIS and CAHPS, HOS is part of an integrated system for use in quality improvement activities and to establish accountability in managed care. All managed care plans with Medicare Advantage (MA) contracts, including Humana, must participate.
A random sample of Medicare beneficiaries receive a baseline survey in the spring. Two years later, the same respondents are surveyed for follow-up measurement. Survey completion is voluntary. The difference in the scores for the two-year period shows if a member’s physical and mental health status is categorized as better, the same or worse than expected. Member responses are shared with Humana for use in quality improvement initiatives.
HOS may be of interest to physicians as they could receive questions about the survey from their Medicare patients. Survey questions pertain to patient-physician relationships and help identify areas for improving member health outcomes. Members are asked questions about overall physical and mental health status. They also are asked if they had a discussion about or received counseling or intervention from their physician on the following topics:
Management of urinary incontinence
Physical activity in older adults
Management of the risk of falls
Osteoporosis testing in older women
Actions physicians can take:
Understand that the survey is a patient-based, self-reported survey with questions about overall physical and mental health status
Discuss and provide counseling and/or interventions as needed for urinary incontinence, physical activity, risk for falls and osteoporosis testing
