Reports from University of Michigan Advance Knowledge in Blood Research (Considerations When Aggregating Data To Measure Performance Across Levels of the Health Care System): Blood Research

2022 MAY 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Current study results on Blood Research have been published. According to news reporting from Ann Arbor, Michigan, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Measuring quality at varying levels of the health care system requires attribution, a process of determining the patients and services for which each level is responsible. However, it is important to ensure that attribution approaches are equitable; otherwise, individuals may be assigned differentially based upon social determinants of health.”

Funders for this research include Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Michigan, “First, we used Medicaid claims (2010-2018) from Michigan to assess the proportion of children with sickle cell anemia who had less than 12 months enrollment within a single Medicaid health plan and could therefore not be attributed to a specific health plan. Second, we used the Medicaid Analytic eXtract data (2008-2009) from 26 states to simulate adapting the 30-Day Pediatric All-Condition Readmission measure to the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) level and examined the proportion of readmissions that could not be attributed. For the sickle cell measure, an average of 300 children with sickle cell anemia were enrolled in Michigan Medicaid each year. The proportion of children that could not be attributed to a Medicaid health plan ranged from 12.2% to 89.0% across years. For the readmissions measure, of the 1,051,365 index admissions, 22% were excluded in the ACOlevel analysis because of being unable to attribute the patient to a health plan for the 30 days post discharge. When applying attribution models, it is essential to consider the potential to induce health disparities.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Differential attribution may have unintentional consequences that deepen health disparities, particularly when considering incentive programs for health plans to improve the quality of care.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Considerations When Aggregating Data To Measure Performance Across Levels of the Health Care System. Academic Pediatrics, 2021;22(3). Academic Pediatrics can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Inc, Ste 800, 230 Park Ave, New York, NY 10169, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Academic Pediatrics - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/academic-pediatrics/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Sarah L. Reeves, University of Michigan, Dept. of Pediatrics, Susan B Meister Child Hlth Evaluat & Res Chear Ct, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States. Additional authors for this research include Kevin J. Dombkowski, Brian Madden, Lindsay Cogan, Shanshan Liu, Sara L. Toomey and Paul B. Kirby.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2021.11.013. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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