How will health care home outcomes be measured in 2012?

On January 14, 2012, the Commissioner of Health issued a letter that describes the Health Care Home outcome measures for 2012. Medical groups participating as certified health care homes will continue to submit measurement data to Minnesota Community Measurement (MNCM). This data will be used for benchmarking, re-certification and for overall evaluation of the health care homes initiative.
Health care homes are expected to participate in data collection for the following measurement activities in 2012:

• Optimal Vascular Care
• Optimal Diabetes Care
• Depression Remission at 6 months
• Optimal Asthma Care
• Colorectal Cancer Screening
• Patient Experience Survey

These measures are aligned with the Minnesota Statewide Quality Reporting and Measurement System with the addition of Health Care Home specific risk tiering data where applicable.
In addition, the cost measure - 30-day, All Cause Hospital Readmission - has been approved. Initially, cost data will be provided through Medicaid and Medicare claims. This measure will eventually be aligned with the CMS national standards and, where appropriate, with the work of the Reducing Avoidable Readmissions Effectively (RARE) collaborative.
These measures are part of the Health Care Home Outcome Measurement system recommended by the Health Care Homes Performance Measurement Advisory Work Group, a public-private stakeholder group.
The work group’s recommendations are available online the week of February 6, 2012 at http://www.health.state.mn.us/healthreform/homes/outcomes/index.html.  For more information, contact Cherylee Sherry, planner for the Health Care Homes Initiative at 651-201-3769 or Cherylee.Sherry@state.mn.us.