Required Address Verifications Prior to Data Collection
folder_openOther Announcementscalendar_todayPosted September 14, 2022

Now that PEC Survey vendors have received the survey sample, they must perform the following protocols prior to the start of data collection. 

1. Ask practice sites for their name and physical address. Vendors should ask their client PCF practice site for the practice site’s name and address that sample patients will recognize, and use that name in the survey cover letter, the mail survey questionnaire, and telephone script. The PEC Survey team provided the practice dba name and mailing address on the sample files, exactly as they were entered into the PCF Portal by the practice. It is possible the patient-recognizable name and address differ from the name and address on the sample file, if the practice site elected to use a legal or other name in the PCF model. Ask your client practices- “What name is on your front door? What name is on your website?” Performing this check with practices is also an excellent way to identify any typographical errors. A common reason for nonresponse to the survey is lack of recognition to the practice name and address. Completing this step can help boost response rates! Please see section 4.6.1 in the Quality Assurance Guide for more information. 
2. Employ Address Standardization and Forwarding Address Techniques. Vendors must verify each mailing address in the sample file by using a commercial address update and standardization service. A commercial address update service that fixes address formatting errors (promoting timely delivery) and accesses Address Forwarding requests, such as National Change of Address (NCOA) or the U.S. Postal Service Zip+4 software, are recommended. 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. Survey vendors are permitted to ask the client practice sites to provide updated address information for all patients they treated during the sampling window, if the vendor has an appropriate agreement with the practice sites. Survey vendors cannot give a list of the sampled patients to the practices to request this information. Please see sections 4.6.4 and 5.5.7 in the Quality Assurance Guide for more information. 

Vendors with questions should contact the PCF PECS Team via e-mail at pcfpecs@rti.org or call 1-833-997-2715.