Data from HEDIS Reporting Shows Improvement in Care for Kids

More kids are receiving BMI assessments, nutritional counseling, and vaccinations

HEDIS reporting is a vital activity because it not only helps verify health plan effectiveness based against various benchmarks, but also provides important information about the state of health care in our country today. Recently, the organization responsible for setting HEDIS guidelines, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), released its State of Health Care Quality Report 2013. This report, which was based on HEDIS data from 2012, has some encouraging things to say about care for kids.

More Kids Received BMI Assessments

For the first time, BMI (body mass index) assessments were given to over half of kids between ages 3 and 17 by both commercial and Medicaid HMOs. NCQA president Peggy O’Kane regards this as commendable progress but warns that there is still more work to do in getting these figures up even higher. O’Kane would like to see 90 percent of kids getting BMI assessments. These assessments are regarded as a vital first step in controlling what many consider to be a national epidemic of childhood obesity.

More Kids Were Referred to Nutritional Counseling

NCQA also found that referral rates for nutritional counseling have improved. According to the HEDIS data surveyed, 30 to 35 percent of kids got nutritional counseling in 2012, which was up from the previous year’s rate of 25 to 30 percent. Again, this activity is important for controlling childhood obesity, but it is also important for all children because proper nutrition is vital for healthy development of kids’ growing bodies. Doctors like Charles Homer, MD, CEO of the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality, says that ideally every child should have their own healthy weight plan and nutritional advice for achieving it.

More Kids Got Vaccinated

Rates of compliance with “Combination 2” immunization series vaccinations, which cover measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and other diseases have also improved. This is significant because health care providers have been working hard to help vaccination rates recover after widely discredited claims linking vaccinations and autism caused many parents to resist vaccinations starting in 2009. HEDIS reporting made it easy to detect the drop in vaccination rates and to track the ongoing recovery towards the 2008 peak.

If your organization wants to show that it too is improving on delivering care for kids, accurate HEDIS reporting is vital. HEDIS Nurses can help by providing the necessary staff and software. Please contact us to learn more.