Control High Blood Pressure – 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 High Blood Pressure.

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.

• Process and implementation.
• Changes in use of evidence-based services and health outcomes.

It may be hard to identify reliable, consistent data sources. We suggest that you (state, local, and tribal staff/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.
• Create a plan to address gaps.

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

• Have access to claims data.
• 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. Blood pressure screenings
  2. Blood pressure control with use of evidence-based services
• 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 (e.g. managed care, fee for service). More information: Adult and Child Health Care Quality Measures.

• Choosing quality measures – Million Hearts Clinical Quality Measure Alignment.
• Territorial example – Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands: Controlling High Blood Pressure.