HEDIS Performance: Routine reporting drives improvement

MANAGED CARE October 2000. ©2000 MediMedia USA

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The National Committee for Quality Assurance introduced several new measures in HEDIS 1999, many focusing on management of chronic conditions. Results of these first-year measures, published in NCQA's State of Managed Care Quality 2000, put a stake in the ground in terms of how well health plans care for members with costly chronic conditions — and established how much room exists for improvement. Unfortunately, there is a lot of room, as evidenced by the numbers. But annual reporting can have the effect of generating performance improvement; indeed, on some older process measures, health plans posted their best on-the-whole improvement since the first State of Managed Care Quality was published in 1997.

SOURCE: STATE OF MANAGED CARE QUALITY 2000, NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE, WASHINGTON