Assessing SDOH Risk For Quality Measures & Patient Interventions
A panel of industry professionals at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) 2024 Annual Meeting discussed the growing importance of social determinants of health (SDOH) data for risk assessments.
With better SDOH data collection, such as through structured Z codes in pharmacy claims, health plans have an opportunity to improve their quality measure performance in 2027 when the Medicare Part C and D Star Rating Program implements a Health Equity Index to adjust for social risk factors (SRFs). The panel also considered how SRFs should be used to inform targeted patient interventions, with a recent study revealing age as a strong predictor for medication nonadherence with a lower association for disability and low-income subsidy status. (American Journal of Managed Care, 4/18)
Tracking Homeless Mortality in Alameda County to Save Lives
Alameda County in California has been tracking mortality of its unhoused residents since 2018, revealing 52 years old as the average age of death for those experiencing homelessness. Researchers are pursuing data matching to identify and examine deaths among unhoused residents to better understand the causes and to inform strategies to decrease avoidable mortality, such as by delivering services directly to where people live. (ABC 7 News, 4/25)
- In Utah: Researchers are tracking homelessness status for all deaths that occur in the state to develop robust services to improve health outcomes among individuals experiencing homelessness.
AI Collaboration To Improve Patient Lab Test Comprehension
Through a federal grant from the HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Florida State University is leading a multi-institutional research collaboration to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) tool, called “LabGenie” to help older adults better understand their lab test results for more informed decision-making. The tool aims to leverage generative AI to produce insightful questions for patients to ask about their lab test results, and additionally seeks to offer personalized insights into results with conclusions formed from patient medical records. (Health IT Analytics, 4/30)
TEFCA V2 Released With FHIR Requirements
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) released Version 2 of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), requiring support for API-based exchange using HL7’s FHIR standards among framework enhancements, including better support for non-treatment use cases and easier onboarding for TEFCA participants. The update aims to support seamless and scalable nationwide exchange while modernizing exchange methods to align with health IT services and innovations that utilize standardized APIs. (Healthcare IT News, 4/22)
