Control Asthma – Example Indicators

Intended audience: Staff from Medicaid and public health teams from states, tribes, local jurisdictions, and territories (STLT), who are working to build and strengthen partnerships to improve coverage and uptake of the 6|18 Initiative’s interventions to Control Asthma.

Note: 6|18 teams are not required to select, collect, or report indicators or data as part of CDC’s 6|18 Initiative.  This indicator table supports, and does not take the place of, other CDC program assessment materials.

The indicators you choose are based on the program activities and quality improvement activities, if any, of your state, tribe, local jurisdiction, or territory (STLT).  If you are funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), you can link your indicators to your funded strategies and related logic model outcomes.

This document provides examples of ways to measure progress resulting from your program activities and quality improvement activities of interest.

• Strategies and Activities (Process Measures)
• Changes in health outcomes and cost impact.

It may be hard to identify reliable, consistent data sources. We suggest, as a first step, that you (National Asthma Control Program staff/state team members) meet with your state Medicaid data staff.  When you meet with the appropriate Medicaid staff, you can:

• Quickly learn what is available;
• Identify gaps; and
• Create a plan to address gaps.

You might ask the questions below to identify Medicaid staff who:

• Have access to claims data and/or
• Can make claims data query requests.
• Or both.

Questions:

• Who can access state Medicaid claims data?
• Who reviews and approves data requests?
• What process measure or quality measure data are collected, and by whom, for the following? What process measure or quality measure data are reported, and by whom, for the following?  Which, if any, of these measures are currently required, and by whom?
  1. Asthma self-management education (AS-ME)
  2. Asthma control
  3. Emergency department visits due to asthma emergencies
• Which agency, department, or staff member(s) leads quality improvement (QI)?

The Medicaid and CHIP Core Set technical specifications for state-level reporting apply to all states regardless of health care delivery system (such as: managed care, fee for service). More information: Adult and Child Health Care Quality Measures.

• Identifying and using appropriate quality measures – Review and Selection of Core Asthma Quality Measures and EXHALE: A Technical Package to Control Asthma (Resource Document).
• State examples – Control Asthma – Implementing CDC’s 6|18 Initiative: A Resource Center (chcs.org).