PY 2024 PCF PEC Survey Sample File Will Be Ready 9/10
folder_openSample Downloadcalendar_todayPosted September 3, 2024

Sample files for the Performance Year (PY) 2024 PCF PEC Survey will be available for download Tuesday, September 10, 2024 through Friday, September 13, 2024 on the PCF PECS website by survey vendors who have been authorized by one or more PCF practices to collect and submit survey data on their behalf.

The PCF PECS website has a Downloading Sample Files Quick Link to walk vendors through the download process. To download the sample file, vendors should:

• Log in to the PCF PECS website using their user credentials.
• Under the "Data Submission" tab, choose the “Sample File Download” option.
• Read and confirm that they agree to the attestation statement.
• Click on the link to their encrypted sample file.

Vendors will receive an email notification on Tuesday, September 10 with a password to open the encrypted file. Due to CMS rules regarding data security, only the registered vendor point of contact can receive this email notification. We are unable to include other vendor staff on this communication. Please review this Quick Link on How to Add or Update Vendor Point of Contact Information if you need to make a change to your registered vendor point of contact prior to September 10.

The sample file to be downloaded by the survey vendor will be a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet containing contact information (information needed to administer the survey) for each sampled patient. The sample patient variables contained in each sample file are listed in the Example Sample file that was posted to the PCF PECS website. If a survey vendor is authorized to administer the survey on behalf of multiple PCF practice sites, patient information for sampled patients from all the PCF practice sites that have authorized the survey vendor will be included in one Excel file and will be sorted by Practice Site ID.

Please download and review an updated copy of your Survey Vendor Authorization Report. It is very important that vendors carefully review the sample file. Please note that practices that have recently withdrawn, closed, or been terminated have been removed from the sample file.

Vendors must email the PCF PECS Team within 24 hours of downloading the sample file and attest to all the following statements:

1. The vendor has downloaded the sample file.
2. The vendor has reviewed the sample file and compared it to their Vendor Authorization Report and their own records.
3. The file contains the sample for each practice with which the vendor has a contract to administer the survey in PY 2024.
4. The file does not contain the sample for any practice with which the vendor does not have a current contract.

Please note that if your practice(s) have more than 1 provider, the list of providers may be split across more than one variable column in your sample file. Please review the Example Sample file available on the PCF PEC Survey website to see how this may look. 

Per Section 4.6.4 in the Quality Assurance Guidelines (QAG): After the sample file is downloaded, survey vendors must verify each mailing address that is included in the sample file provided by CMS using a commercial address update and standardization service, such as the National Change of Address. When a new/forwarding address for a patient is known, the survey vendor should take advantage of that and send the mailing to the forwarding address.

Per Section 5.6.1 of the QAG, vendors must also attempt to obtain phone numbers for the subset of patients in the sample for which a phone number was not provided. Survey vendors shall use a secondary source, such as phone matching services or software, directory assistance, and other phone directory applications. Vendors should take steps to ensure the telephone numbers provided by the service are associated with the patient in the sample file.

Please review Sections 4.5 and 4.6 of the Quality Assurance Guidelines for more information about sample file protocols and required quality control steps for PCF PECS.

A Sample File Summary Report will be sent to each survey vendor via email message after the sample file is downloaded. This report will show the number of patients sampled for each practice that authorized the vendor to submit data on its behalf.

Vendors with questions should contact the PCF PECS Team via e-mail at pcfpecs@rti.org or call 1-833-997-2715. Practices should contact PCF Support at PCF@Telligen.com or call 1-888-517-7753.