I'll profess right now all my knowledge comes from listening to a lot of people much smarter than me and reading NCQA's HEDIS technical specs. If you take the time to read the specs you'll reap the benefits down the road. I've worked on databases that fed cinical data in and out of coaching systems but never really appreciated the work and thought that went into developing HEDIS measures.
HEDIS Fun FACT 1: What the heck does HEDIS stand for??? I bet if you ask 6 people you'll probably get 6 different answers it actually stands for
Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set. Hence the name HEDIS. However there is a mountain in Turkey named HEDIS(Hedis Dagi) also so once in a while you might see a blog posting in turkish about HEDIS. Don't worry the turkish healthcare system hasn't hijacked the standard..
HEDIS Fun Fact 2: When did HEDIS get started? It actually got rolled out in 1991 but its name back then was the HMO Employer Data and Information Set. It was really created to compare HMO's against each other to see who had better ratings and how well it did in regional and national benchmarks. They changed the name to its current form back in 2007.
HEDIS Fun Fact 3: How many domains does HEDIS cover?
The Correct answer for 2012 is 5
- Effectiveness of Care
- Access/Availability of Care
- Experience of Care
- Utilization and Relative Resource Use
- Cost of Care
- Health Plan Descriptive Information
There were 8
♦ Effectiveness of Care
♦ Access/Availability of Care
♦ Satisfaction With the Experience of Care
♦ Health Plan Stability
♦ Use of Services
♦ Cost of Care
♦ Informed Healthcare Choices
♦ Health Plan Descriptive Information
HEDIS Fun Fact 4: How many HEDIS measures are there
Currently in the 2012 Standards there are 76.
NCQA has been fairly logical in adding measures. Back in 2007 there were 71. As new ideas and products come into the market to their credit NCQA has been fairly responsive to the changes. A good example of this is the Human Papillomavirus Vaccine measure that became effective for 2012. Measure do get retired also such as Relative Resource Use for People With Acute Low Back Pain. in 2012 also.
So now you too can win HEDIS Jeopardy!
http://ncqandy.blogspot.com/