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NCQA Updated IDSS System and New Format

by | HEDIS

NCQA Updated IDSS System and New Format

In efforts to innovate and make HEDIS measures easier to submit, the NCQA, or the National Committee for Quality Assurance, has redesigned the IDSS System and developed a new format for submission. Beginning with HEDIS 2021, the HEDIS measures will be collected in the new format and submitted through the updated IDSS system.

What is the IDSS System?

IDSS stands for Interactive Data Submission System, which is a fully web-based system used to collect non-survey HEDIS results by the NCQA and a few other health organizations. Recently, the NCQA has redesigned the IDSS by updating the system and by using a new format. The new format will allow the data elements under the measures to be more relational, modular, reusable, and meaningfully named and structured. The measures with different stratifications will have data points in groups such as age, gender, and socio-economic status. The submission file redesign has four main goals.

  • Eliminating unique variable names to align with Volume 2 descriptions by making measure data elements more relational, modular, and meaningfully named.
  • Enable validations by collecting allowed data elements under various stratifications to create a stronger schema.
  • Standardize measure structures that segregate metadata and stratification data and allow for the inclusion of rates, if needed, at total and subtotal levels.
  • Collect only plan reported data elements and not collect IDSS calculated data elements.

Additionally, as part of the HEDIS submission file redesign, the IDSS results files were rearranged and provided in two formats:

1. XML format: For all product lines.

2. CSV format: There are two CSV templates, one single CSV file for all HEDIS measures and three separate CSV files for specific measure types:

• Quality (Effectiveness/Access/Availability/Experience of Care)

• Use (Utilization, Risk-Adjusted Utilization)

• HP (Health Plan Descriptive Information)

HEDIS Nurses can help!

At Chart Review Nurses it is our job to stay up to date with the annual changes and updates that are made to the HEDIS Quality Measures. Our team of qualified nurses pays close attention to changes and how these impact your business. We will stay on top of the updates posted by NCQA on their website on the updated IDSS system and the new format. We know where to go to get answers. Don’t get frustrated over keeping track of all the updates and changes yourself. Reach out to let us help you! Call us at (877) 328-2343 today to get started!