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FAQ Directory: HEDIS

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11.15.2017 Supplemental Data Is it acceptable to flag records in a supplemental data file as paid or denied when there is no payment attached to the records in the file?

No. It is not acceptable to classify a supplemental data source as paid or denied unless it is known whether the data in the data source were paid or denied. This is especially true when the data are being used for measures that require claims payment statuses (e.g. LBP, NCS). Organizations should not assume services were denied services just because there isn't a payment status associated with them. For measures where payment status is required, the auditor must be able to validate that the payment status is accurate.

HEDIS 2018

11.15.2017 Guidelines for Calculations and Sampling The footnote on page 45 of HEDIS 2018 Volume 2 indicates that the lowest Prior Year rate from “Prenatal and Postpartum Care” and “Frequency of Prenatal Care” should be used to reduce the sample size for PPC. Given that FPC was retired with the HEDIS 2018 Volume 2 Technical Update, should the PPC MRSS use the lower rate of the Postpartum and Prenatal care indicators?

Yes. With the retirement of the FPC measure, organizations may reduce the sample size for the PPC measure using the lowest rate of the 2 indicators from the current year’s administrative rate or the prior year’s audited, product line-specific rate.

HEDIS 2018

11.15.2017 General Guidelines General Guideline 17 says that "Members with dual commercial and Medicaid coverage must be reported in the commercial HEDIS reports. These members may be excluded from the Medicaid HEDIS reports." If a member has primary insurance in a Medicaid plan and secondary insurance in another Medicaid plan at any time during the measurement year, should the secondary Medicaid plan report the member in their HEDIS report?

To meet criteria for dual coverage, the member should have dual coverage at the end of the continuous enrollment period (dual coverage is assessed on a measure-by-measure basis). For example, if a measure's continuous enrollment period ends on December 31 of the MY and has dual Medicaid and commercial enrollment on that date, then the member may be excluded from the Medicaid HEDIS reports for the measure and only be reported in the commercial product line (General Guideline 23 in HEDIS 2018 Volume 2). In cases where the member is dually enrolled in two Medicaid plans, the secondary Medicaid payer would have the choice to exclude the member if the primary Medicaid coverage was offered through a different organization.

HEDIS 2018

11.15.2017 Use of Opioids at High Dosage In the HEDIS 2018 Volume 2 Technical Update memo Table UOD-A includes a variable ranging from 4-12 for the MED Conversion Factor for methadone based on mg/day of methadone used. However, in the HEDIS 2018 NDC MLD Directory all NDCs for Methadone under the medication list "Opioid Medication" have a MED Conversion Factor (column M) of 3. For performing the MED calculation in UOD, which MED Conversion Factor should be used for methadone?

For HEDIS 2018 reporting, for methadone, the MED conversion factor of "3" should be used as listed in the NDC list; not the factors listed in Table UOD-A. We will reevaluate using the sliding scale conversion factors for HEDIS 2019.

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 Reporting Requirements The HEDIS 2018 Volume 2 Technical Update memo announced the retirement of “Annual Monitoring for Patients on Persistent Medications (MPM)” for Medicare and the name change from “Inpatient Hospital Utilization (IHU)” to “Acute Hospital Utilization (AHU).” This caused a discrepancy between the CMS Reporting Memo and HEDIS 2018 Volume 2 Technical Specifications. Will CMS release a clarification on what must be reported for HEDIS 2018 for Medicare?

Yes. CMS released a clarification on October 11, 2017, through HPMS, announcing that MPM was retired and is not required for HEDIS 2018 reporting; it also clarified that “Inpatient Hospital Utilization” is now “Acute Hospital Utilization” and should be reported as the updated measure. If you have additional questions, contact CMS at HEDISquestions@cms.hhs.gov.

HEDIS 2018

11.15.2017 Hospitalization for Potentially Preventable Complications On Page 37 of the HEDIS 2018 Volume 2 Technical Update memo, the “Number of Chronic ACSC Non-Outliers and Acute ACSC Non-Outliers” and “Number of Chronic ACSC Outliers and Acute ACSC Outliers” reporting categories have the same description.
Should the first reporting category listed above state ‘non-outlier’ instead of ‘outlier’?

Yes; the specifications should read “Reporting: Number of Chronic ACSC Non-Outliers and Acute ACSC Non-Outliers:The number of chronic ACSC non-outlier members and the number of acute ACSC non-outliers for each age and gender group and the overall total.”

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

10.15.2017 ECDS How do vendors get the ECDS technical specifications for the submission file format?

HEDIS ECDS technical specifications are available in the NCQA store in PDF format: http://store.ncqa.org/index.php/catalog/product/view/id/2822/s/hedis-2018-volume-2-measures-for-electronic-clinical-data-systems/. They are also available in HEDIS 2018 Technical Specifications for Health Plans, which can be purchased at the NCQA store.

Complete digital measure packages for HEDIS ECDS measures will be available for download at a future date.

HEDIS 2018

10.15.2017 ECDS If the same data source is used as ECDS and as supplemental data, are health plans required to submit separate Roadmaps/documentation?

Plans should work with their NCQA-Certified auditor to accurately identify all data sources being considered for HEDIS reporting, whether the source is used for ECDS measures or for other HEDIS domain measures. If a plan completed an Audit Roadmap (Section 5) and will use the data source for both supplemental data and ECDS, this should be noted.

HEDIS 2018

10.15.2017 ECDS What file formats are acceptable for transmitting data between the plan and the care team at the point of service?

NCQA does not specify file formats for exchanging clinical information, but strongly encourages adherence to Health Level Seven International (HL7) standards for clinical document exchange (e.g., QRDA, CCD) and electronic health care information exchange (e.g., FHIR).

HEDIS 2018

10.15.2017 ECDS What happens if members seek services from a provider who cannot share health care data using ECDS?