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A collaborative approach to examine the quality of health care among Montana adults with diabetes enrolled in Medicaid
Study Questions:What is the quality of health care for Montana adults with diabetes enrolled in Medicaid?
Methods:Montana Medicaid Office operated by the Department of Public Health and Human Services organized a multi-agency workgroup to share local data for 26 Core Set of Health Care Quality Measures for Medicaid-Enrolled Adults including diabetes. Data analysts developed dashboards to give easy access for data interpretation and comparison of health conditions by geographic regions, county and state levels, race, age, and gender. The dashboards present statistical information on the prevalence, quality measure adherence by primary care providers, utilization and spending among Medicaid beneficiaries.
Results: The dashboard for Adult Quality Measures had a total of 31,596 adults aged 18-75 years enrolled in Medicaid in 2012. The prevalence of diabetes was 16%, of which 56% adhered to diabetes care. In the last 12 months, 61% had an HbA1c test and 52% had a LDL cholesterol screening. Patients aged 18-64 years were more likely to have their annual HbA1c test (63%) compared to patients aged 65-75 years (48%). The younger group was more adherent to LDL cholesterol screening (54%) compared to the older group (38%). American Indian/Alaskan Native enrollees aged 18-75 years were less likely to have an annual HbA1c test and LDL cholesterol screening (48%, 36%) than White adults of the same age (65%, 57%). The hospital admission rate for diabetes short-term complications was 215 per 100,000 population.
Conclusions:The information obtained from the dashboards gives researchers and policymakers access to quick and easy output to better understand the burden for diabetes and diabetes complications among Medicaid enrollees.
Public Health Implications: The development of a dashboard with quantitative information can guide efforts to improve health care quality among adults with diabetes enrolled in Medicaid.
Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and preventionEpidemiology
Learning Objectives:
Assess the quality of health care among Montana adults with diabetes enrolled in Medicaid.
Keyword(s): Medicaid, Diabetes
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have eight years of experience in public health including over five years of epidemiology experience. I conduct surveillance of diabetes and evaluate diabetes-related interventions for quality improvement in health systems and for diabetes primary prevention and diabetes self-management education in community settings. I partner with Montana Medicaid.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.