National Health Care Surveys Registry
About the National Health Care Surveys and the National Health Care Surveys Registry
The National Health Care Surveys are nationally-representative surveys of healthcare utilization across hospitals, provider/clinician practices and long-term care settings. The surveys are administered by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Division of Health Care Statistics.
The National Health Care Surveys Registry is a Public Health Reporting Registry that facilitates United States healthcare providers’ participation in the National Health Care Surveys. The Registry allows its registrants to participate in specialized or public health reporting through electronic data submission.
The National Health Care Surveys Registry, Promoting Interoperability and the Merit-based Incentive Payment System
The National Health Care Surveys are working together with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs: Promoting Interoperability (PI), and the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). All Eligible Clinicians (EC), Eligible Professionals (EP), Eligible Hospitals (EH), and Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) can register their intent to submit data to NCHS. Registration is free of charge. National Health Care Surveys Registry registrants can attest to meeting one of the public health reporting measures of PI or MIPS. The Registry also allows any interested providers or provider organizations to register their intent to participate as well.
Those participating in one or more of the CMS EHR Incentive Programs are immediately in active engagement with the National Center for Health Statistics upon registration with the National Health Care Surveys Registry.
Declaration of Readiness
The National Health Care Survey’s Declaration of Readiness [PDF – 180] provides references to applicable CMS and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) regulatory rules. It also states data standards and formats by which NCHS accepts National Health Care Surveys electronic data.
Details about participating in the Registry and the National Health Care Surveys
We are excited to announce that the new National Health Care Surveys (NHCS) Registry Portal is now live! As you may recall, the NHCS Registry Portal was temporarily shut down on November 16, 2020 to undergo technical repairs to enhance your user experience. During this time, we made significant improvements to the Registry Portal to address your concerns and include requested enhancements. The new Portal will make it easier to create and maintain your registrations by ensuring the following.
To access the newly revamped NHCS Registry Portal, click the link below or copy it into your browser.
New NHCS Registry Portal Click HERE
- Participating in the National Health Care Surveys and Promoting Interoperability/MIPS [PDF – 1 MB]
- National Health Care Surveys Registry FAQs [PDF – 286 KB]
National Health Care Surveys Implementation Guide
The information provided in this section is based on the 2015 Edition Health IT certification criteria. 45 CFR 170.315(f)(7), Transmission to Public Health Agencies – Health Care Surveys, an electronic health records incentives program criterion, is included in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Stage 3 final rule and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) 2015 Edition final rule.
The standards and format for 45 CFR 170.315(f)(7), Transmission to Public Health Agencies – Health Care Surveys is:
HL-7 CDA documents as described by the Implementation Guide for the National Health Care Surveys which are the preferred format for submission of data and the format required for Stage 3 accreditation for this measure. The Implementation Guide for the National Health Care Surveys.
Certification/Testing Procedures and NIST Validator
Additional guidance is available on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) 2015 Edition Test Method web page and provides the certification requirements set forth under the ONC Health IT Certification Program:
- Certification Companion Guide*
- Testing Procedures and
- Testing Tool: NIST’s HL7 CDA National Health Care Surveys Validator
* Important Note: According to the May 2017 Certification Companion Guide, “ONC will permit and provide testing and certification for conformance to NHCS IG Release 1.2 to meet this criterion.” While vendors already certified to Release 1 are not required to certify to Release 1.2, Release 1.2 is NCHS’s preferred version of the Implementation Guide and reflects vendor community comments for improvement over earlier versions.
National Health Care Surveys Testing Tool Google Group
This Google Group is for technical support of the National Health Care Survey Testing Tool.