HEDIS/STARS Measure LDL-C Control

MEASURE: Diabetes Care – Cholesterol Controlled
NUMERATOR: % of denominator whose most recent LDL-C level during the measurement year was 100 or less
DENOMINATOR: Diabetic enrollees


LDL-C Control <100 mg/dL
Identify the most recent LDL-C test during the measurement year. The member is numerator compliant if the most recent LDL-C level is <100 mg/dL. If the result for the most recent LDL-C test during the measurement year is ≥100 mg/dL or is missing, or if an LDL-C test was not performed during the measurement year, the member is not numerator compliant.

LDL-C Control <100 mg/dL
The most recent LDL-C level performed during the measurement year is <100 mg/dL, as documented through automated laboratory data or medical record review.
Administrative
Date of most recent LDL Screening
Results of the LDL Screening
The member is compliant if the most recent LDL-C level is <100 mg/dL.
If the results are missing or the results are ≥100 mg/dL then they are not compliant

Medical record
Documentation in medical record must include, at a minimum, a note indicating the date when the LDL-C test was performed and the result.

This is a pretty straight forward measure.  Get the screening and report the results. Either you passed or you didn't. items

Things that can impact the score.

• Not getting the lab results sent to the plans when the plan pays for them(Pretty rare in most cases since the plans usually get the results with the billing info)
• Not getting the results because the tests were done by a third party not connected to the plan. Supplemental Insurance, VA, Community Health Organizations.
• Bad Data sent to the health plans.

How can you improve upon these scores?

Outreach, Care Coordination and  patient education plain and simple.

If a practice or a health plan doesn't not have a serious outreach program to re-engage their patients once they leave the exam room they will miss the out on closing gaps. The practice will need help to reach these members and that's where care coordination comes into play. It maybe be the practice staff or another organization that works with the practice or plan to reach out and engage these members. The final piece is education.  You need to make the members understand that these preventative measure help them live longer, happier lives. Once they make these gaps closures part of their yearly routine the plans and the practices will save money and increase their reimbursement rates.  This is very hard to do. You will need a mature education program in place.

Breast Cancer Screening(BCS) HEDIS Measure

OK here's another measure

MEASURE: Breast Cancer Screening

NUMERATOR: % of Denominator that had a mammogram during the measurement year or the year prior to the measurement year.

DENOMINATOR: Number of female enrollees aged 42 to 69 

It's applicable for Commercial, Medicare and Medicaid 

It has a 45 day allowable gap in enrollment for the denominator. So if they don't have coverage with your plan for 46 days you can get them out of the population.

It does have exclusionary criteria:

Women who had a bilateral mastectomy or for whom there is evidence of two unilateral mastectomies

The data elements are pretty straight forward

Year 
Collection 
Eligible population
Numerator events by population

Now this is another straight forward measure on the surface.  The provider needs to get the patient a mammogram screening every basically every two years and these records need to be verified.

The problem is that this can be an "uncomfortable" screening and compliance can be difficult to do.  Once again you might have to deal with dual coverages in the older populations and reporting can be difficult.  
Plus you may have several competing organizations offering these services that may not communicate. Below is an example

CDC's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) provides access to breast and cervical cancer screening services to underserved women in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, 5 U.S. territories, and 12 tribes

 

It's a federal program but they may not communicate with your provider or the insurance company.  It's just an example of where something very simple can get a bit complex.  This is another example of where supplemental data can be used to provide additional information.  You need evidence of this service has taken place and this must pass your HEDIS auditor scrutiny. I can't emphasis enough that you should have very clear channels of communication with your auditor and provide detail information of how

 

Glaucoma Testing measure

Now that I'm done with vacation and happily(no more summer camp for a year) back at work let's get back to talking about HEDIS and Medicare. Let's talk about a particular measure, Glaucoma Testing. 

MEASURE: Glaucoma Testing
NUMERATOR: % of denominator who had at least 1 glaucoma exam by an eye Dr. during year or year prior
DENOMINATOR: Enrollees aged 67 or older without a prior diagnosis of glaucoma

This seems to be pretty straight forward but this can be very deceptive.  How many health plans get information from eye doctors? Most plans do pay for eye exams but a lot of members do pay out of pocket. Plus members may have supplemental insurance and programs that may be better than what the plan offers.  Plus not all the eye doctors take all insurance. So how the heck does a plan figure out how to increase this score?

You got a couple of different ways. You could have a proactive system where you engage the members get their eye doctors into your provider program.  You could just link up with a national eye insurance program and get them to send you their data.  The other option is HEDIS supplemental data.  This can be pretty tough for a Health Plan if they don't have a good outreach program in place.  If you are going to use supplemental you will need a clinician that will have to collect date, results, type of eye doctor and verify it has no exclusion.Plus you'll need to get this data collection signed off by your auditor.  Be prepared to have a lot of material available for review.

Medication Vacations

This is just more of a personal post and something I ran into last week. I have 2 boys in Cub Scouts and I volunteer every summer to be a Cub Scout Day Camp counselor for a week(It's a week away from work). I ran into something that I had never heard of before and hope to never to again. "Medication Vacation" is a term when parents take their kids off their medication for issues that they deal with during the school year for the summer.  The unfortunate consequence is that the unpaid volunteer at the camp has no idea why your child is bouncing off the wall, hitting other kids, or generally telling you to shove it. Then the poor camp nurse has to delve through the medical records to figure out if there is an issue and has to ask the child if he's been taking his medication. That's where I heard the term "Medication Vacation" So please don't take your kids off their medication for the summer and then do a dump and run on a unpaid volunteer to be a babysitter for your child from 730 to 5pm.  I'm fine with dealing challenging kids but have some consideration for the volunteer and talk to them about your child.  I have to make sure all kids have a safe environment to have fun in. Plus you keep doing this you won't have volunteers to run programs for your children.

Medicare Stars and HEDIS

I thought I would start putting together some of the ideas I've been talking about into more concrete forms. I know when I talk about about NCQA and Compliance I get some interesting looks. But the facts are they are tied together. Whether or not you tie in performance measurements to clinical or compliance they still impact you when reporting to the Federal government. Let's talk about HEDIS measures in the STARS program.

1. MEASURE: Breast Cancer Screening NUMERATOR: % of Denominator that had a mammogram during the measurement year or the year prior to the measurement year. DENOMINATOR: Number of female enrollees aged 42 to 69

2. MEASURE: Colorectal Cancer Screening NUMERATOR: % of denominator that had an appropriate screening for colorectal cancer DENOMINATOR: Number of enrollees aged 51 to 75

3. MEASURE: Cholesterol Screening NUMERATOR: % of denominator who had LDL-C test during year (and for diabetics the year prior) DENOMINATOR: Enrollees with either ischemic vascular disease or diabetes

4. MEASURE: Glaucoma Testing NUMERATOR: % of denominator who had at least 1 glaucoma exam by an eye Dr. during year or year prior DENOMINATOR: Enrollees aged 67 or older without a prior diagnosis of glaucoma

5. MEASURE: Access to Primary Care Doctor Visits NUMERATOR: % of denominator that had an ambulatory/preventive care visit during year DENOMINATOR: All enrollees

6. MEASURE: Diabetes Care – Eye Care NUMERATOR: % of denominator who had a retinal or dilated eye exam by an eye care professional DENOMINATOR: Diabetic enrollees

7. MEASURE: Diabetes Care – Kidney Disease Monitoring NUMERATOR: % of denominator who either had a urine microalbumin test during the measurement year, or who had received medical attention for nephropathy during the measurement year DENOMINATOR: Diabetic enrollees

8. MEASURE: Diabetes Care – Blood Sugar Controlled NUMERATOR: % of denominator whose most recent HbA1c level is greater than 9, or who were not tested during the measurement year. DENOMINATOR: Diabetic enrollees

9. MEASURE: Diabetes Care – Cholesterol Controlled NUMERATOR: % of denominator whose most recent LDL-C level during the measurement year was 100 or less DENOMINATOR: Diabetic enrollees

10. MEASURE: Diabetes Care – Cholesterol Screening NUMERATOR: MA enrollees 18-75 with diabetes (type 1 and type 2) who had an LDL-C screening test performed during the measurement year DENOMINATOR: MA enrollees 18-75 with diabetes (type 1 and type 2)

   

11. MEASURE: Controlling Blood Pressure NUMERATOR: % of denominator whose most recent chart notation of systolic BP was 140 or less and diastolic BP was 90 or less during the measurement year DENOMINATOR: Sampled MA enrollees with hypertension on or before June 30th of the measurement year.

12. MEASURE: Rheumatoid Arthritis Management NUMERATOR: % of denominator who received at least one prescription for a disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) DENOMINATOR: Enrollees diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis during year

13. MEASURE: Osteoporosis Management NUMERATOR: Female MA enrollees 67 and older who suffered a fracture during the measurement year, and who subsequently had either a bone mineral density test or were prescribed a drug to treat or prevent osteoporosis in the six months after the fracture. DENOMINATOR: Female MA enrollees 67 and older who suffered a fracture during the measurement year

 

14. MEASURE: Adult BMI Assessment [Checking to See if Members are at a Healthy Weight] NUMERATOR: Members 18-74 years of age who had an outpatient visit and who had their body mass index (BMI) documented during the measurement year or the year prior the measurement year. DENOMINATOR: Members 18-74 years of age

15. MEASURE: Care for Older Adults – Medication Review [Yearly Review of All Medications and Supplements Being Taken] NUMERATOR: Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plan enrollees 66 years and older who received at least one medication review conducted by a prescribing practitioner or clinical pharmacist during the measurement year and the presence of a medication list in the medical record. DENOMINATOR: Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plan enrollees 66 years and older.

16. MEASURE: Care for Older Adults – Functional Status Assessment [Yearly Assessment of How Well Plan Members Are  Able to Do Activities of Daily Living] NUMERATOR: Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plan enrollees 66 years and older who received at least one functional status assessment during the measurement year. DENOMINATOR: Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plan enrollees 66 years and older.

17. MEASURE: Care for Older Adults – Pain Screening [Yearly Pain Screening or Pain Management Plan] NUMERATOR: Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plan enrollees 66 years and older who received at least one pain screening or pain management plan during the measurement year. DENOMINATOR: Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plan enrollees 66 years and older

18. MEASURE: Plan All-Cause Readmissions [Readmission to a Hospital within 30 Days of Being Discharged]    (Lower percentages are better because it means fewer members are being readmitted) NUMERATOR: Senior plan members discharged from hospital stays who were readmitted to a hospital within 30 days, either for the same condition as their recent hospital stay or for a different reason. DENOMINATOR: Plan enrollees 66 years and older

     All these measure are part of STARS and these are HEDIS.  So who owns them? Clinical or Compliance? The reality is both. Sure these are clinical measures that are monitored and coached upon but these are also results that get reported to Federal agencies.  Sure these get reported and audited and sent to NCQA but then they get used for medicare STARS scores which then affects how much money the HMO might receive.  The lines are blurring between many groups.  Also who actually pulls this information and puts them into a report??  It might be a group's IT department so maybe they own a chunk.  It's going to become an increasingly complex world with blurred lines of responsibilities. Many things will fall through the cracks and you really need to be forward thinking.

I'm going to suggest bring back the old Tripartite Pact just replacing them with Clinical, Compliance and IT as the three partners.  Anyone who works in the HIPAA world knows how important having IT and Clinical on board to be being successful.  But I'm going to take it one step further that in order to be successful in Health Care Compliance you need this pact in the 21st century.  Next I'm going to take a specific measure and break it down.

Compliance-- Recent events

Well after a some vacation time its back to blogging again on topics I enjoy. I'm going to ramble a bit on the next few posts about the ever changing world of Health Care Compliance and throw in a little HEDIS and NCQA for good measure.  Well since the Supreme Court punted on the Health Care Act and said it was Congress's responsibility it still doesn't really settle the issue. However in the world of compliance, funding may change but regulations and requirements don't... One thing is for certain is that Federal Dollars are going to be tighter and hard to get. In some ways the regulations that HHS have developed are cost saving benefits. If you don't have a 4 or 5 star Medicare rating you aren't going to get the maximum federal payout as the years go by.  As the populations gets older and the strain on the system is going to get heavier and compliance with federal guideline with get more stringent. Plans will need to show improvement with their HEDIS measures covered by STARS. Some measures will get new weight others less but these ranking will never go away.

Congress really doesn't get this deep into regulations and rules and allows this to be the responsibility of the governing federal agency. That's why the funding may change but the rules won't.  Or they might become an unfunded mandate(a nightmare for many entities).   Most of the people serving in congress do not have technical or clinical backgrounds and really have no idea what is being discussed. They rely on staff members to make recommendations with constituent feedback(hopefully). Throw in a whole bunch of lobbyists and you get the current mess we have. That's why congress punts most of the time on regulations and relies on the governing body to put those in place.

Let's take the topic of the ICD-10 conversion. It's scheduled to go live in October of 2013. However they might move to 2014 now. However that's only a proposed change so what do you do? Well you better assume that its going to be next year.  Compliance is about risk avoidance and good practices.  The safe path is to be ready for next year and if it changes you are already prepared and have less work to do.. Besides you'll get better identification and stratification by converting as the level of detail with ICD-10 is greater(unfortunately a bit more complex). I find it surprising that they  want to delay it again(there must be some lobbyist group putting pressure on HHS). At this rate you might as well convert to ICD-11...

Kudos to Health Ed

I follow this blog a bit and wanted to say kudos to them :)

This past week we received word that HealthEd has been named a finalist for the 2012 MM&M Awards in the category of Best Multichannel Campaign, Large Client Organizations for the Xeloda Multichannel Patient Adherence Campaign.
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