FAQ Directory: HEDIS

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3.15.2018 Transitions of Care If an organization reports the measure using the hybrid method and reports two indicators using administrative data from one provider, is the organization limited to only the medical record of that provider when searching for medical record documentation for the other indicators?

No. The Notification of Inpatient Admission and Receipt of Discharge Information indicators do not have to be documented in the same provider chart as the indicators that were reported administratively. Organizations may search the medical record of a different provider for those indicators that were not reported using administrative data.
 

HEDIS 2018

2.15.2018 ECDS General Guidelines Should organizations include only paid claims for ECDS measures?

No. Organizations must include all paid, suspended, pending and denied claims for ECDS measures. Currently, ECDS General Guideline 4 states to include only services for which the reporting entity has paid or expects to pay, but because none of the other eligible sources require payment status, any claims should be accepted. The guideline is incorrect and will be corrected for HEDIS 2019

HEDIS 2018

2.15.2018 Adolescent Well-Care Visits Does sports participation meet the criterion for physical developmental history?

Yes. Documentation of participation in sports or in physical activity meets the criterion for physical developmental history. Bright Futures states that a goal of observing development in adolescents is to determine whether they are developing skills for becoming healthy adults—such as good nutrition and physical activity.

HEDIS 2018

2.15.2018 Transitions of Care A member is admitted to the hospital on December 30, 2016, and discharged in January 2017. To meet criteria, the Notification of Inpatient Admission must occur on either December 30 or 31, 2016, but the measure description states that the four elements must occur during the measurement year. Can we count the Notification of Inpatient Admission that occurs in the year prior to the measurement year?

Yes. In the scenario above, Notification of Inpatient Admission may be on the admission date or on the following date, even if it occurs in the year prior to the measurement year. The member in this example remains in the measure because the discharge date was in January 2017. Unless the patient’s PCP or ongoing care provider was involved in the patient’s care prior to the admission (e.g., conducted the patient’s pre-admission exam), a communication on the admission date or the date following meets criteria for the Notification of Inpatient Admission numerator.

HEDIS 2018

1.15.2018 Transitions of Care The criteria for TRC Notification of Inpatient Admission states that notification should occur on the day of admission or the following day. However, one bullet states that evidence of tests ordered by the PCP during the inpatient stay is valid, as well. If a member stays in the hospital for 10 days, and there is no evidence of the PCP ordering tests until day 4 of the stay, it is this compliant for the indicator?

No. To be compliant for the indicator, documentation that the PCP/care provider ordered tests/ treatment to occur during the inpatient stay must be documented on the day of admission or on the following day. Documentation on day 4 does not count.

HEDIS 2018

1.15.2018 Prenatal and Postpartum Care Is the ability to choose EDD or date of delivery based on the member level or on the organization level?

The determination whether to use EDD or date of delivery is made at the member level. Flexibility is allowed because in the case of pre- or post-term deliveries, the delivery date may not be the most accurate date for determining the first trimester.

HEDIS 2018

12.15.2017 Reporting Requirements Last year, NCQA added the IS 3.1 standard in the Roadmap, stipulating that if a facility is mapped to a provider type, all providers at the facility must be of that provider type. Clarify this standard and whether a majority-mapping should be allowed this year. If so, at what level should it be enforced? Should a percentage of providers on the facility roster be of the mapped type, or is it preferable to review for whether a certain percentage of sampled services on claims be those typically received with the provider type? Should all mapped facilities be investigated individually, or is it acceptable to review the two or three with the highest volume?

For HEDIS reporting, NCQA does not allow blanket mapping a facility to a provider type, unless all providers who render services at the facility meet requirements for the provider type.

For HEDIS measures with a provider-type requirement, the information must be present for the service to be counted. For a facility to be mapped to a PCP (or another provider type) the organization must provide evidence that everyone at the facility meets the provider type requirement.

NCQA does not have an acceptable threshold allowance for auditors to audit against. Each facility must be reviewed individually. The auditor determines the impact of each facility's data on measures that require a particular provider type. From there, the auditor must review, with a level of certainty, who practices at the facility, the services they are contracted to perform and the potential impact to measures if an unacceptable provider renders a service that might count for a measure.

HEDIS 2018

12.15.2017 Controlling High Blood Pressure When confirming a hypertension diagnosis, a code from the Essential Hypertension Value Set can be used. This value set includes only ICD-10 codes. May ICD-9 codes be used to confirm the diagnosis?

Yes. Organizations may look back any time during a member’s history to confirm the diagnosis (including when ICD-9 codes were in use). Documentation of ICD-9 diagnosis codes 401.0, 401.1 or 401.9 may also confirm a diagnosis of hypertension.

HEDIS 2018

12.15.2017 Unhealthy Alcohol Use Screening and Follow-Up In the HEDIS 2018 Volume 2 Technical Update memo, the updated measure specification for Unhealthy Alcohol Use Screening and Follow-Up (ASF) now indicates there are three strata, but the specifications still note there are four. Which is correct?

There are three strata. The text should be revised in the following two places:

  • Page 43, under “Single-Question (Positive) Response,” bullet 1 should reference “Males (Male AdministrativeGender Value Set) in Strata 1–2”; bullet 3 should reference “All members in Stratum 3.”
  • Page 44, “Single-Question (Negative) Response,” bullet 1 should reference “Males (Male AdministrativeGender Value Set) in Strata 1–2 and bullet 3 should reference “All adults in Stratum 3.”

HEDIS 2018

12.15.2017 Transitions of Care The HEDIS 2018 Volume 2 Technical Update states that documenting preadmission exams and communicating planned admissions are not limited to the time frame criteria as other evidence for the Notification of Inpatient Admission indicator. Are there time frames that must be met?

No. There are no additional time frame requirements for preadmission exams or communicating about planned admissions, other than what is documented in the measure specifications. For example, it may meet the standard time frame (on the day of admission or the following day) or it may occur earlier. To prevent information from "different discharges" from being counted, the measure requires that it "must clearly pertain to the denominator event."

HEDIS 2018

11.15.2017 Weeks of Pregnancy at Time of Enrollment The HEDIS 2018 Volume 2 Technical Update memo includes a RAND number for the “Weeks of Pregnancy at Time of Enrollment” measure. Is this correct?

No. “Weeks of Pregnancy at Time of Enrollment (WOP)” was retired in HEDIS 2017; the RAND number was inadvertently included in the HEDIS 2018 Volume 2 Technical Update memo.

HEDIS 2018

11.15.2017 Transitions of Care The HEDIS 2018 Volume 2 Technical Update memo indicates the following change in the Transitions of Care specifications: In the first sentence of the third paragraph, replace “date/time” with “date.”
Should this change also apply to the first bullet in the “Note” section of the technical specifications that reads, “The following notations or examples of documentation do not count as numerator compliant:
*Documentation of notification that does not include a time frame or date/time stamp.”

Yes. Replace the reference to “date/time” in the first bullet in the Note section with “date.”

HEDIS 2018