Understanding the HEDIS Measurement Year 2024 Updates and Changes from NCQA

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) annually updates and releases measures in the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®). This process ensures that the measures remain relevant and feasible for implementation. For Measurement Year (MY) 2024, NCQA has retired four measures, updated the diabetes measures, and made smaller changes across multiple measures. In this article, we review these changes and talk about how they will affect reporting for MY 2024.

Revised Measures for Diabetes Patients

One of the significant changes is the revision of the Glycemic Status Assessment for Patients With Diabetes. Formerly known as Hemoglobin A1c Control for Patients With Diabetes, this measure now includes a glucose management indicator with hemoglobin A1c. Moreover, NCQA reassessed how seven other diabetes measures identify individuals with diabetes. They have simplified the new method to avoid including individuals who take diabetes-related medications for reasons other than diabetes, as that number continues to grow with the popularity of these medications for weight loss and control.

Cross-Cutting Topics: Race/Ethnicity Stratification and Gender-Affirming Approaches

NCQA introduced race and ethnicity stratifications to nine HEDIS measures, ensuring an equity-centered data and measurement approach. Moreover, to acknowledge and affirm members' gender identity, NCQA expanded the Breast Cancer Screening and Cervical Cancer Screening measures to include transgender members recommended for routine breast and cervical cancer screening.

Transition to ECDS Reporting

In a bid to modernize and streamline reporting, NCQA retired the Administrative and Hybrid reporting methods for three measures. Only the Electronic Clinical Data Systems (ECDS) reporting method will be used for these measures moving forward, marking the continued shift toward electronic reporting.

Retirements

To reduce burden and evolve HEDIS, NCQA is retiring four measures. This decision is aimed at enabling health plans to direct resources towards improving the collection of electronic clinical data.

While HEDIS updates and changes are taken seriously and follow a rigorous process, they are a necessary part of ensuring the measures remain relevant and effective. As NCQA continues to make these changes, it's crucial for health professionals and stakeholders to stay informed and adapt accordingly. Vital Data Technology is proud to be a certified HEDIS vendor with 12 consecutive years of certification. Affinitē Quality Improvement (QI) is a year-round HEDIS solution that provides end-to-end quality improvement for health plans, seamlessly aligning quality management with care coordination, provider engagement, risk adjustment, and member activation. With no recertifications, health plans can anticipate a streamlined process with Vital Data Technology to stay ahead of HEDIS changes and deadlines and to achieve year-round insights. 

For more detailed information on these updates and changes for MY 2024, refer to HEDIS MY 2024 Volume 2: Technical Specifications for Health Plans.