FAQ Directory: HEDIS

NCQA will remove the RAND table from the Guidelines for Calculations and Sampling with the release of the HEDIS MY 2025 Technical Update on March 31, 2025. Future releases of the HEDIS Volume 2: Technical Specifications for Health Plans publication will not contain a RAND table.

Beginning MY 2025, NCQA will use an alternative timeline and approach to distribute RAND numbers for HEDIS reporting. This information will be released in the NCQA store for purchasers of HEDIS Volume 2 in the November before production of systematic samples for hybrid reporting (e.g., November 2025, for MY 2025).  

Organizations participating in NCQA’s Measure Certification program will receive separate guidance on how NCQA will accommodate this change for certification of systematic sampling logic.

HEDIS MY 2025

Common themes include:

• Clinical accountability for the information.
  An arrangement may exist where a provider, such as a PharmD, interacts with members to collect information on their last colorectal cancer screening or breast cancer screening. It is unclear if a PharmD has the appropriate clinical training to document the complete context of the service or interpret the information being shared. Nor is it evident that a PharmD would be clinically accountable for that aspect of the member’s care (preventive cancer care).

Another arrangement that may exist includes workflows where providers (e.g., NPs, PAs) contact a plan’s membership annually to assess a member’s medical history, including when they received their last cancer screenings. It is unclear if a singular touchpoint by the NP/PA indicates that the provider has clinical accountability for the member’s care. Organizations are not allowed to call members to collect data.

• Including and maintaining information in the health record.
  A member’s health record should be accessible to the member and the care team responsible for that aspect of their care. Systems that are internal-facing only to a plan do not represent a source of data that contribute to an individual’s ongoing clinical care. Further, an individual’s health record should be available to them to reference or share with a care team in the future.

HEDIS MY 2025

Example: During a new-patient office visit, the patient reports receiving a colonoscopy in the previous year to their primary care provider. During the discussion, the provider documents the details (when and where the procedure occurred, findings) in the office visit progress notes in the patient’s EHR.

This example represents the intent behind the HEDIS guidelines because:

• The provider collecting the information has the appropriate clinical experience to interpret what the patient is sharing and assumes clinical accountability for that aspect of the patient’s clinical care.
• The provider documents the colonoscopy in the patient’s medical record allowing it to be accessible to other care team providers and to the member for clinical decision making.

HEDIS MY 2025

HEDIS Volume 2 provides guidance in several places:

• Member-reported services and biometric values general guideline.
  This general guideline states that member-reported services may be used only if collected by a primary care practitioner or specialist (if the specialist is providing a primary care service related to the condition being assessed, in the course of taking a member’s history), and if the information is included in the member’s health record.
• Supplemental data general guideline.
  Information on services reported by members often reside in non-standard supplemental sources. The supplemental data general guideline states that there must be evidence of provider accountability for the information documented. The guideline also states that documentation of member-reported services must be complete (e.g., date, place of service, procedure, prescription, test result or finding, practitioner type).
• Electronic Clinical Data Systems general guidelines.
  Organizations may develop workflows that result in documentation of member-reported services. A common example is documentation in systems identified as case management. The ECDS general guideline states that case management systems are shared, meaning that there is bidirectional access to the data. These data would be accessible to members and to members’ care teams for care coordination and planning.

HEDIS MY 2025

The Colorectal Cancer Screening (COL-E) measure is based on the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines for colorectal cancer screening. The guidelines do not recommend serum (blood) testing (e.g., blood-based biomarker) and for this reason it does not meet criteria for the HEDIS measure. NCQA continually monitors clinical practice guidelines as they are updated.

HEDIS MY 2025

Yes. Organizations may not use PCS responses that are over 3 years old. If your question relates directly to a measure specification or general guideline that was revised from a previous measurement year, submit the question rather than using the answer in PCS.

HEDIS MY 2025

Only the LTI flag in the Monthly Membership Detail Data File may be used when identifying this exclusion. No other data sources may be used.

HEDIS MY 2025

Yes. Organizations may use the same sample for all measures, the same sample for two measures and a different sample for the third measure, or different samples for the three diabetes measures (GSD, EED, BPD).

HEDIS MY 2024

No. Although the Asthma Controller and Reliever Medication List includes RxNorm codes, they should not be used to identify dispensing events for this required exclusion. Only use pharmacy data (NDC codes) when assessing asthma controller or reliever medication dispensing events for this required exclusion. Because a dispensing event is required to calculate the numerator, members who had no dispensing events should be removed from the measure.

HEDIS MY 2024

Yes, as described in the Guidelines for Risk Adjusted Utilization Measures, organizations must use the Inpatient Stay Value Set for the risk adjustment comorbidity category determination (use the Inpatient Stay Value Set to identify acute and nonacute inpatient discharges with a discharge date during the classification period). The value set was mistakenly deleted from the EDH measure in the VSD. Because the guidelines clearly state that the value set must be used, NCQA does not intend to reissue the VSD.

HEDIS MY 2024

Yes, as described in the Required exclusions section of the CCS measure, use LOINC code 76689-9 to exclude members with a sex assigned at birth of male any time in the patient’s history. The code was mistakenly removed from the CCS measure in the 4-1-2024 release of the VSD (Direct Reference Code spreadsheet). Because the information needed for reporting is in the measure specification NCQA does not intend to reissue the VSD.

HEDIS MY 2024

When only a single code exists for a service or condition, it is included directly in the measure specification, and referred to as a Direct Reference Code (DRC). It is a best practice to not create value sets that include only a single code; some code systems prohibit this because it results in assigning another code (an OID) to a concept that already has a code.
DRCs are listed in the measure specifications and in a Direct Reference Codes spreadsheet in the value set directory.
For MY 2024, a number of single code value sets were converted to DRCs. The Summary of Changes – Value Sets spreadsheet indicates the value set was deleted. The Summary of Changes – Codes spreadsheet indicates the code was added as a DRC (filter Column A on “Direct Reference Code”).

HEDIS MY 2024