New evaluation measure announced for kidney disease testing in people with diabetes
The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) in partnership with the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) announced a new Kidney Health Evaluation for Patients with Diabetes measure in an effort time improve kidney disease testing in people with diabetes. Diabetes is a key risk factor for developing kidney disease.
According to the NFK less than half of people with diabetes have blood and urine kidney tests every year. The new measure will help clinicians, health care leadership, and health plan executives recognize gaps in care for these patients.
The measure will gauge the number of adults with diabetes who have received blood and urine kidney tests within the past year. The Kidney Profile will be utilized to increase testing that combines the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), which assesses kidney function, with the urine albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR), which assesses kidney damage.
“For almost two years, NKF has been working in partnership with NCQA to advance the development of the Kidney Health Evaluation measure,” said Joseph Vassalotti, MD, Chief Medical Officer, NKF in a press release. “The inclusion of the new measure in the HEDIS Measurement Year 2020 & Measurement Year 2021 publication is a giant step towards engaging the nation’s health plans, integrated health networks, and individual primary care practitioners to improve the diagnosis of kidney disease.”
Read the full press release here.
