MN Community Measurement

New MNCM Reports Highlight Minnesota Health Care Trends and Recognize Quality Leaders

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:32:16 GMT

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) has released two new reports highlighting the state’s health care performance: Health Care in Minnesota: Summary Report on Quality, Disparities, and Cost and Health Care in Minnesota: Health Care Quality Leaders . Together, these reports provide a comprehensive analysis of 2024 data, examining trends in health care quality, disparities, and costs, while also recognizing medical group quality leaders and those demonstrating meaningful improvement.

These reports, based on data submitted to MNCM in 2025 and reflecting care delivered in 2024, work in tandem with MNCM’s Performance Hub —an interactive platform providing statewide analyses of health care quality and cost measures. Collectively, these tools equip community partners, including medical groups, payers, policymakers, public health agencies, researchers, and community-based organizations, with actionable insights to drive improvements in care and advance health equity across Minnesota.

Report highlights include:

Health Care Quality

Significant gaps remain in asthma control, with thousands of patients needing improved care to meet statewide benchmarks.
Colorectal cancer screening rates for the newly eligible 45-49 age group continues to improve. While the 2024 rate for all age groups has significantly increased compared to 2023, it remains significantly lower than 2021.
Childhood immunization continues to show a decrease in statewide rate from year to year. This measure has not shown improvement in rates following the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were modest improvements in breast cancer screening, cervical cancer screening, controlling high blood pressure, diabetes eye exams, and immunizations for adolescents.

Health Care Disparities

Black, Indigenous, Multi-Race, and Hispanic/Latinx patients experienced the most disparities across multiple measures, particularly in Colorectal Cancer Screening.
Patients speaking Somali and Spanish, as well as those from Laos, Mexico, and Somalia, had lower rates of preventive care and chronic disease management compared to statewide averages.

Cost and Utilization

The total cost of care increased by 7.3% in 2024, primarily driven by an 8.9% rise in pharmacy costs and an 8.3% rise in professional fees.
All categories of medical services saw increased use, except for inpatient admissions. Women aged 36-64 had the highest number of claims, while men aged 18-35 had the lowest number of claims.

Quality Leaders

In 2024, 31 medical groups were recognized as quality leaders across the measures reported by medical groups.
In 2024, 58 medical groups were recognized as quality leaders across the measures reported by payers.

New MNCM Reports Highlight Minnesota Health Care Trends and Recognize Quality Leaders

April 28, 2026

Posted in Press Release

“The findings in this year’s report make it clear that while there are areas of progress, significant challenges remain—particularly in closing preventive care gaps and addressing barriers to better health outcomes,” said Dr. Mark Steffen, Board Chair of MN Community Measurement and Chief Medical Officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.

“Rising costs – especially in pharmacy and outpatient care – add further pressure to the system. At the same time, we are encouraged by the medical groups demonstrating that improvement in these areas is possible. These results should serve as both a call-to-action and a roadmap for where focused efforts can make the greatest difference.”

Beyond bringing together key performance measures, the Summary report also reflects community perspectives and provides practical insights to help partners use the data to strengthen their efforts and improve health outcomes. The Quality Leaders report complements these findings by recognizing medical groups that have achieved quality leadership and made notable progress in advancing care.

“There is so much great work being done around the state to improve care, and we are committed to supporting it—not only by providing data, but by offering clear pathways for how partners across the health care ecosystem can use that data to track progress and drive improvement. Improving community health extends beyond providers; it requires collaboration across the entire community. At MN Community Measurement, we remain committed to playing an active role in advancing better health through data and strong partnerships,” said Liz Cinqueonce, President & CEO of MN Community Measurement.

Importance of Measurement

Measuring and reporting on health care quality and cost helps consumers understand how care varies across providers, allows providers to identify improvement opportunities and how their measures compare to others, and helps health plans and other purchasers better understand and improve value for money that is spent on health care.

About MN Community Measurement

MN Community Measurement is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2005, MNCM works with doctors, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and state agencies to collect, analyze, and report health care data related to quality, cost, and equity of health care. Learn more at www.mncm.org .

Advancing a Cooperative Vision for Minnesota's Health Data Future

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 22:08:02 GMT

Aligning for Impact: Minnesota's Health Data Evolution

A 2026 Leadership Series from the MNCM Board Chair & President

As we begin 2026, MN Community Measurement’s Board of Directors has taken an important step toward strengthening Minnesota’s health data infrastructure. In January, the Board authorized the initiation of an Executive Leadership Council (ELC), convened in partnership with the Minnesota Electronic Health Records Consortium (MN EHRC) and Koble, to explore the development of a cooperative, statewide approach to health data.

This action reflects both urgency and opportunity. Across Minnesota, health care organizations, health plans, community based service providers, and public agencies share a common challenge: our health data ecosystem has become increasingly fragmented and duplicative. Multiple reporting pathways, inconsistent standards, and overlapping infrastructure create administrative burden, strain resources, and limit the full value that data can provide to improve care and outcomes.

At the same time, Minnesota has a strong foundation—trusted organizations, engaged stakeholders, and a longstanding commitment to quality measurement and transparency. We believe this moment calls for coordinated leadership to assess whether a more cooperative, aligned model can better serve all participants in our health system, including the communities at its heart.

Why an Executive Leadership Council?

The Executive Leadership Council is designed to bring together a small group of senior executives—leaders with system-level insight and decision-making authority—to examine a fundamental question:

Is there a viable path toward a cooperative health data model that reduces burden, improves data quality, aligns with national standards, and supports statewide priorities?

The ELC is not an operational working group. It is a strategic leadership body. Its purpose is to clarify the value proposition, define success, evaluate governance and sustainability models, and ultimately make a recommendation on whether—and how—to proceed.

Participation will be intentionally limited to ensure focused, decision-oriented dialogue. Members will include executive leaders representing MNCM, MN EHRC, Koble, key provider systems, health plans, and public-sector stakeholders. Council members are expected to participate personally, prepare in advance, and serve as ambassadors for thoughtful, cooperative stewardship within their organizations.

The Board’s January action signals our belief that this level of executive engagement is necessary to address questions of this scale and importance.

A Structured, Phased Approach

The ELC’s work will unfold over four strategic phases throughout 2026, supported by staff analysis and technical expertise. The Council’s role is to review synthesized findings, set direction, and authorize progression between phases.

Phase 1: Alignment and Defining Success (Q1 2026)

The Council’s initial work will establish a shared understanding of the challenges facing Minnesota’s health data infrastructure and define what “success” would look like in a cooperative model.

Key questions include:

What statewide problems must be solved to justify investment?
What outcomes—burden reduction, cost savings, quality improvement—matter most?
What decisions must be made by the end of 2026?

This phase will result in agreed-upon success criteria and a clear decision framework to guide the remainder of the year.

Phase 2: Value Proposition and Use Case Validation (Q2 2026)

In the second quarter, the ELC will evaluate where a cooperative model could deliver the greatest near- and medium-term value.

Rather than attempting to solve everything at once, the Council will prioritize specific use cases that demonstrate clear return on investment and meaningful reduction in administrative burden. Examples under consideration include advancing clinical quality measurement, improving Medicaid-related data workflows, and aligning with emerging digital quality standards.

The goal is to determine where a cooperative approach meaningfully outperforms siloed or incremental strategies—and to articulate a compelling value proposition for stakeholders and potential funders.

Phase 3: Governance, Business Model, and Sustainability (Q3 2026)

If value and priority use cases are validated, the ELC will turn its attention to structure and sustainability.

This includes evaluating governance and ownership models, assessing cost-sharing principles, exploring eligibility for federal matching funds, and identifying funding pathways that ensure long-term viability.

A core consideration throughout this phase will be trust and equity. Any proposed model must reinforce shared accountability, distribute benefits and responsibilities fairly, and leverage the strengths of existing organizations rather than displacing them.

Phase 4: Implementation Roadmap and Final Recommendation (Q4 2026)

The final phase will translate strategic decisions into an actionable roadmap.

The Council will review a phased implementation plan, identify required commitments and risk mitigation strategies, and issue a formal recommendation to the MNCM Board and partner organizations by the end of calendar year 2026.

Importantly, this process does not presume a predetermined outcome. The ELC’s mandate is to rigorously assess feasibility and value—and to recommend a path forward grounded in evidence, practicality, and shared benefit.

Guiding Principles

Throughout its work, the Executive Leadership Council will operate under a set of guiding principles:

Executive-level focus: Strategic direction rather than operational detail.
Value-driven decisions: Demonstrable reduction of burden, improved data quality, and statewide benefit.
Cooperative stewardship: Trust, transparency, and shared accountability.
Standards alignment: Readiness for FHIR, OMOP, digital quality measurement, TEFCA, and evolving CMS/Medicaid models.
Pragmatic, phased progress: Leveraging existing assets and advancing incrementally before building new structures.
Transparency: Clear documentation of assumptions, trade-offs, and recommendations.

These principles reflect both MNCM’s longstanding commitments and the collaborative ethos we share with MN EHRC and Koble.

Why This Matters Now

Health care organizations across Minnesota are navigating increasing complexity: federal interoperability requirements, digital quality reporting, Medicaid transformation efforts, and growing expectations for timely, actionable data.

Without coordination, these pressures risk compounding administrative burden and fragmenting investments further. With alignment, however, they present an opportunity to modernize our infrastructure in a way that better serves providers, payers, public agencies, and—most importantly—community members.

A cooperative approach has the potential to:

Reduce duplicative reporting and infrastructure costs
Improve data quality and consistency
Accelerate adoption of national standards
Strengthen Minnesota’s competitiveness for federal funding
Enable more meaningful measurement and improvement of health outcomes

This initiative is not about building something new for its own sake. It is about thoughtfully assessing whether a shared, cooperative model can create greater value than the status quo.

Looking Ahead

The Board’s January decision to initiate the Executive Leadership Council reflects our commitment to proactive, system-level leadership. We are grateful to MN EHRC and Koble for their partnership in this effort and to the executive leaders who will consider serving on the Council.

Throughout 2026, we will provide updates on the ELC’s progress and the insights emerging from its work. We also recognize that this conversation belongs to the broader Minnesota health community. As ideas take shape, stakeholder engagement will be essential.

Minnesota has long been recognized for innovation, collaboration, and commitment to quality. By bringing executive leaders together around a shared question—and by approaching that question with rigor, transparency, and cooperative spirit—we aim to position our state for a more coordinated, sustainable, and future-ready health data ecosystem.

We look forward to the work ahead.

Signed,
Mark Steffen, MD
Board Chair, MN Community Measurement

Liz Cinqueonce, MBA
President & CEO, MN Community Measurement

Connected Through Data: Uncovering Disparities in Cervical Cancer

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 21:13:51 GMT

CONNECTED THROUGH DATA:

Uncovering Disparities in Cervical Cancer

Disparities in Cervical Cancer

Despite the advancements made in the prevention and vaccination space, there remains differences in both diagnosis and death rates, particularly by age and race/ethnicity group.

Age

Women between the ages of 35 to 64 are the most frequent age group diagnosed with cervical cancer, with the median age at diagnosis being 50. ^1,2 However, women in the 55-64 age group have the highest percentage of cervical cancer deaths, with the median age at death being 60. ¹

Race/Ethnicity

In Minnesota, women of color are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cervical cancer, making it difficult to treat. ³ Women who are Indigenous/Native are four times more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cervical cancer compared to white, non-Hispanic women. ³ At the national level, Indigenous/Native and Black women have the highest rate of death from cervical cancer compared to other race groups. ^1,2

Cervical Cancer Screening Measure

The Cervical Cancer Screening measure is stewarded by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and is reported to MN Community Measurement by health plans. The measure is defined as:

The percentage of women who were screened for cervical cancer using any of the following criteria:

Women 21-64 years of age who had cervical cytology performed within the last 3 years.
Women 30-64 of age who had cervical hrHPV testing performed within the last five years.
Women 30-64 years of age who had cervical cytology/hrHPV co-testing within the last five years.

What MNCM Data Show

In 2024, approximately 70% of women in Minnesota were up-to-date on their cervical cancer screening. Since 2022, the statewide screening rate has increased by two percentage points. However, differences in screening rates varied by insurance type, with 73% of women with commercial insurance and 66% of women with Medicaid being up-to-date with their screening.

Why This Matters

The significant decline in the number of new cervical cancer highlights the importance of routine screening and vaccination for cancer prevention. The HPV vaccine can help prevent 90% of cervical cancers, and recent data shows a 79% decrease in cervical precancers among women aged 20-24, which is the group that is most likely to have been vaccinated against HPV. ⁵ As a result, the Minnesota Department of Health and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all adolescents (females and males) receive the HPV vaccine series between the ages of 9 and 12 years of age. In addition to vaccination, keeping up-to-date on cervical cancer screenings as recommended by health care providers can help catch cancer early and make it easier to treat.

There is still work to be done to address disparities in cervical cancer incidence and mortality. And, the effort should be a collaborative one. All sectors of the community should have a seat at the table, including but not limited to health care providers, local and state public health, tribal health, payers, community organizers, and patients. Together, we can work to close these gaps and save lives.

As we kick off MNCM’s 2026 infographic series, we’re putting the spotlight on cervical cancer. Cervical cancer, which is primarily caused by persistent infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV), was once the most common cause of cancer death in American women. ^1,2,3 Fortunately, since the development of the HPV vaccine and screening, the rate of death from cervical cancer has dropped more than half since the mid-1970s. ² In fact, cervical cancer is the 22 ^nd cause of new cancer cases, accounting for approximately 0.7% of all new cancer cases. ¹ Compared to breast cancer, which is the number one cause of new cancer cases (15.5% of new cases), cervical cancer is considered rare. ¹ Prevention through vaccination and screening is key.

Cervical Cancer Screening Tests

Three methods are available for cervical cancer screening, and the most suitable choice depends on current guidelines and the individual's age: ⁴

1. High-risk HPV test (hrHPV)

2. Pap smear (cytology)

3. HPV + pap smear (co-testing)

By Jess Donovan, MPH (MN Community Measurement) & Matt Flory (American Cancer Society)

Cervical Cancer Resources

NRTCC – National Cervical Cancer Round Table

Cervical Cancer | American Indian Cancer Foundation

Cervical Cancer in Minnesota

HPV Vaccination Resources

HPV Vaccination and Cancer Prevention | ACS | American Cancer Society

Don’t Wait to Vaccinate

Protecting Our Children from HPV Cancers

Prevention Matters!

References

National Cancer Institute. Cancer Stat Facts: Cervical Cancer. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. Retrieved from https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/cervix.html
American Cancer Society (2026). Key Statistics for Cervical Cancer. Retrieved from https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/cervical-cancer/about/key-statistics.html
Minnesota Department of Health (2025). Cervical Cancer in Minnesota. Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https://www.health.state.mn.us/data/mcrs/docs/cervicalfs.pdf
American Cancer Society (2025). The American Cancer Society Guideline for Cervical Cancer Screening. Retrieved from https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/cervical-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/cervical-cancer-screening-guidelines.html
Gargano JW, Stefanos R, Dahl RM, et al. Trends in Cervical Precancers Identified Through Population-Based Surveillance — Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Impact Monitoring Project, Five Sites, United States, 2008–2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2025;74:96–101. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7406a4
Minnesota Department of Health (2026). Vaccines for Infants, Children, and Adolescents. Retrieved from https://www.health.state.mn.us/people/immunize/basics/kids.html#schedule

Empowered by Data: Uncovering Screening Disparities and Reducing Breast Cancer Risk

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 17:46:00 GMT

This October marks the 40th anniversary of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in their lifetime. Fortunately, however, early detection through screening and advances in treatment have decreased mortality by 44% since 1989. Screening can catch cancer early, when it is easier to treat. When caught early, the five-year survival rate is approximately 99% compared to 32% when caught in the later stages. ¹ Despite these findings, significant racial disparities exist in both breast cancer screening and mortality. In Minnesota, although the incidence of breast cancer is higher in white women, breast cancer mortality is highest among American Indian and African American women. ²

Measure Definitions

The Breast Cancer Screening measure that is the focus of October’s infographic is stewarded by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). The data are aggregated and reported to MN Community Measurement (MNCM) by health plans across the state.

For the 2023 measurement year, the measure is defined as the percentage of women between the ages of 50 and 74 who received a mammogram in the past two years. ³

What the Data Shows

MNCM’s data show that 75.8% of Minnesota women between the ages of 50 and 74 received a mammogram within the last two years in 2023. However, screening is not equal across the population. Approximately 58% of women with MHCP insurance received a mammogram in 2023, compared to 80% of women with either commercial or Medicare coverage. Persistent disparities exist even within the MHCP population, where, over the last three years, Black and Indigenous/Native women have significantly lower rates of screening compared to the MHCP average.

Social Determinants of Health & Breast Cancer

Social determinants of health such as access to transportation, health insurance coverage, and the cost of health care can create significant barriers to both breast cancer screening and treatment for certain populations. Addressing these social determinants of health is essential for developing breast cancer screening programs, interventions, and policies that target populations most in need of improved outcomes. This interactive dashboard from MDH illustrates how selected social determinants of health impact both breast cancer burden (incidence and mortality) and screening rates in Minnesota. This tool is designed to support program planning, decision making, and resource allocation. The resource section at the end of this page includes links to additional data sources, as well as background information on social determinants of health.

Understanding Risk Factors

Some risk factors for breast cancer are things you cannot change, such as getting older or inheriting certain gene changes. These make your risk of breast cancer higher. But certain breast cancer risk factors can be modifiable and are related to personal behaviors, and include:

Physical activity: Evidence is growing that regular physical activity reduces breast cancer risk, especially in women past menopause. The main question is how much activity is needed. Some studies have found that even as little as a couple of hours a week might be helpful, although more seems to be better. Exactly how physical activity might reduce breast cancer risk isn’t clear, but it may be due to its effects on body weight, inflammation, and hormone levels.
Alcohol consumption: Drinking alcohol is another modifiable risk factor that is clearly linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. ⁴ The risk increases with the amount of alcohol consumed. Women who have 1 alcoholic drink a day have a small (about 7% to 10%) increase in risk compared with those who don’t drink, while women who have 2 to 3 drinks a day have about a 20% higher risk.

Other lifestyle-related risk factors include decisions about having children and taking medicines that contain hormones. You can learn more about risk factors by visiting the American Cancer Society website .

Why This Matters

While significant progress has been made in both the screening and treatment of breast cancer in the last decade, there is still more work to do. A collaborative and culturally tailored effort from health care providers, payers, community organizers, and local public health is essential to address the disparities and barriers that persist in breast cancer screening.

Resources

ACS CancerRisk360 Assessment : Assessment tool from the American Cancer Society to learn more about what you can change to improve your health and lower your cancer risk.
African American Breast Cancer Alliance : Nonprofit organization dedicated to providing culturally tailored education, resources, advocacy, and support for Black individuals and families affected by breast cancer.
American Indian Cancer Foundation : National, Native-governed nonprofit dedicated to eliminating cancer disparities among Indigenous people by improving access to prevention, early detection, treatment, and survivor support.
Breast Cancer Education Association : Volunteer-run Minnesota nonprofit that provides information, support, and resources for those affected by breast cancer.
Breast Cancer GAPS Project : Nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing breast cancer disparities among Black women by partnering with communities and providers to ensure equitable care.
MDH Sage Program : Information on access to breast cancer screening for low-income or uninsured Minnesotans.
National Breast Cancer Roundtable : National coalition of member organizations established by the American Cancer Society dedicated to ensuring that everyone understands breast cancer risk and screening and has access to timely, high-quality, and compassionate care.

Sources

American Cancer Society (2018). Breast Cancer Statistics. Retrieved from https://cancerstatisticscenter.cancer.org/types/breast
Minnesota Department of Health (2020). Breast cancer disparities in Minnesota women. Retrieved from https://www.health.state.mn.us/data/mcrs/docs/breastfs.pdf
National Committee for Quality Assurance. Breast Cancer Screening (BCS). Retrieved from https://www.ncqa.org/report-cards/health-plans/state-of-health-care-quality-report/breast-cancer-screening-bcs/
American Cancer Society (2025). Alcohol Use and Cancer. Retrieved from https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/diet-physical-activity/alcohol-use-and-cancer.html

Matt Flory

Jess Donovan, MPH, BSN

American Cancer Society

MN Community Measurement

Empowered by Data: Uncovering Screening Disparities and Reducing Breast Cancer Risk

October 21, 2025

Posted in Blog

Empowered by Data: Spotlight on Screening for Sexual Health

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 15:25:00 GMT

Jess Donovan, MPH, BSN

September is Sexual Health Awareness Month. As we close out September, we’re highlighting two of the measures we report on – Cervical Cancer Screening and Chlamydia Screening in Women.

Cervical cancer, once one of the most common cancers affecting women in the United States, has significantly decreased since the 1970s. The reason for the decline can mainly be attributed to routine cervical cancer screenings, which can be done through routine Pap smears and HPV tests. ^1,2 In recent years, there has also been a notable decrease in cervical cancer rates among women between the ages of 20 and 24, and is likely a result of the introduction of the HPV vaccine series. ¹ While the human papillomavirus (HPV) is not the only cause of cervical cancer, it is considered the most important risk factor and accounts for nine of out ten cervical cancer cases. ^3,4 HPV is a very common virus, spread through skin-to-skin contact, including sexual activity, and affects approximately 13 million people each year. ^3,5 Fortunately, the HPV vaccine has been found to prevent more than 90% of cancers caused by HPV, including cervical cancer. ^4,5

Chlamydia, a common and treatable bacterial infection, is also spread through sexual contact with an infected partner. ⁶ Individuals can be infected with chlamydia without showing symptoms, making it difficult to diagnose on symptoms alone. ⁷ Additionally, repeat infections are also possible. ⁷ If left untreated, chlamydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease in women, which can lead to complications such as ectopic pregnancy, infertility, and chronic pelvic/abdominal pain. ⁷ The most effective way to diagnose chlamydia and prevent long-term complications is through recommended urine tests or vaginal swabs. ⁷ Fortunately, cases have declined 8% across the United States since 2023. ⁸

Measure Definitions

Both measures are stewarded by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Below are the measure definitions:

Cervical Cancer Screening : Assesses women who were screened for cervical cancer using any of the following criteria:
Women 21-64 years of age who had cervical cytology performed within the last 3 years.
Women 30-64 years of age who had cervical high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) testing performed within the last 5 years.
Women 30-64 years of age who had cervical cytology/high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) cotesting within the last 5 years.

Chlamydia Screening in Women : Percentage of persons 16-24 years of age who were recommended for routine chlamydia screening, were identified as sexually active, and had at least one test for chlamydia during the measurement period.

What the data shows

The data for these measures are aggregated and reported to MNCM by health plans. Analyses of these measures show:

Cervical Cancer Screening

The number of women with an up-to-date cervical cancer screening has decreased slightly in 2023 compared to 2021: 68.0% and 70.2%, respectively.
Women with commercial insurance coverage had a higher rate of screening compared to women with Medicaid coverage: 71.8% and 63.8%, respectively.

Chlamydia Screening

The number of women who received a recommended chlamydia screening has increased slightly in 2023 compared to 2021: 48.4% and 47.7%, respectively.
Women with Medicaid coverage had a higher rate of screening compared to women with commercial insurance coverage: 55.4% and 43.6%, respectively.

Why This Matters

Despite the advances in cervical cancer prevention and chlamydia screening, there is still work to be done. In the case of cervical cancer screening, approximately 32% of women between the ages of 21 and 64 were missing an updated cervical cancer screening in 2023. And, even more desperate, approximately 52% of sexually active women between the ages of 16 and 24 received a recommended chlamydia screening in 2023.

But this work does not lie solely on the shoulders of providers and health systems. Rather, a collaborative effort is needed not only to raise awareness on the importance of screening, but to also provide education on preventive efforts such as vaccination and safe sex practices. Empowering patients with data, fostering open and non-judgmental conversation, and providing community resources such as where to receive low-cost vaccines or free, confidential STI testing can be incredibly valuable. Evidence-based knowledge is power.

And it is important to note that while the measures discussed here are specific to female patients, sexual health is applicable to everyone – all sexes, gender identities, sexual orientations, and demographic groups.

Rethinking the Chlamydia Screening in Women Measure

MNCM’s Measurement and Reporting Committee (MARC) reviewed the Chlamydia Screening in Women measure in March 2025. Members expressed concerns with the how the measure identifies sexually active patients (i.e., through use of oral contraception as a proxy), and the exclusion of male patients. Ultimately, the committee recommended that a public comment be submitted to NCQA with the recommended changes, which will be drafted in the next few months. If your organization has any specific comments related to the measure, please email publiccomment@mncm.org .

Resources for Cervical Cancer

General Information

HPV Vaccination Resources
Find vaccination resources near year.

ACS – HPV Vaccine Information
CDC – General information on HPV vaccination
CDC- Finding vaccines near you
MDH – Find Vaccines Near You
MDH – Minnesota Vaccines for Children (MnVFC)
MDH – Uninsured and Underinsured Adult Vaccine (UUAV)
MDH – Low- or No-Cost Vaccine Locations

Resources for Chlamydia

General Information

Get Tested
Find testing resources near you.

Sources

American Cancer Society (2025). Risk Factors for Cervical Cancer. Cervical Cancer. Retrieved from https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/cervical-cancer/causes-risks-prevention/risk-factors.html
American Cancer Society (2025). Cervical Cancer Early Detection, Diagnosis, and Staging. Cervical Cancer. Retrieved from https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/cervical-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging.html
American Cancer Society (2025). Key Statistics for Cervical Cancer. About Cervical Cancer. Retrieved from https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/cervical-cancer/about/key-statistics.html
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (2025). Cancers Caused by HPV. Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/about/cancers-caused-by-hpv.html
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (2024). HPV Vaccination. Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/vaccines/
Planned Parenthood. Chlamydia. Retrieved from: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/stds-hiv-safer-sex/chlamydia
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (2025). About Chlamydia. Sexually Transmitted Infections. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/chlamydia/about/
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (2025). Sexually Transmitted Infections Surveillance, 2024 (Provisional). Sexually Transmitted Infections. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/sti-statistics/annual/index.html#cdc_research_or_data_summary_findings-highlights

Posted in Blog

Empowered by Data: Spotlight on Screening for Sexual Health

September 30, 2025

Elevating Local Voices: Insights from MNCM’s Regional Community Conversations

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 18:38:00 GMT

Liz Cinqueonce, MBA

President & CEO, MN Community Measurement

“It feels like we’re doing everything we can, but sometimes the barriers are difficult to overcome on our own.”

That was one of the candid reflections shared during MN Community Measurement’s (MNCM) first Regional Community Conversation , held on September 10 at the Medi-Sota Clinic Managers Networking meeting. It captured the spirit of the day: local health leaders working hard to improve outcomes, while recognizing that real progress requires collective effort, shared resources, and fresh strategies.

The Regional Community Conversation series is designed to bring those voices together—taking a closer look at health care outcomes at the local level, identifying barriers that stand in the way, and sharing promising solutions aimed at improving health across the region.

MNCM presented regional data for communities served by Medi-Sota members across several key clinical measures. In many areas—such as colorectal cancer screening, asthma control, diabetes care, vascular care, depression remission, and adolescent mental health screening—results were significantly lower than statewide averages. These numbers sparked discussion about what’s being tried locally and where support is most needed.

1 | Community-Led Solutions Are Taking Shape

From clinician expert panels to expanded use of electronic health record (EHR) systems, communities are innovating. Mailing at-home screening kits, hosting marketing events, and engaging licensed school nurses in care coordination are just some of the strategies being tested. While school-based clinics were seen as a promising avenue, complex billing rules remain a barrier to scaling them

2 | Persistent Barriers Continue to Challenge Progress

Several common themes surfaced: outreach is difficult and sometimes unwelcome, compliance remains a struggle, and resources for smoking cessation are scarce. Transportation barriers prevent many from accessing care, while limited internet access undermines the promise of video visits. Vaccine hesitancy—particularly around flu shots—was also called out as a growing concern, requiring more creative communications.

3 | The Value of Collaboration and Shared Learning

Participants highlighted the importance of collaboration across clinics, public health, schools, and community organizations. They emphasized that MNCM’s role in bringing transparent, meaningful data to the table creates the foundation for these shared conversations and helps guide collective action.

What emerged most clearly was this:

Communities are committed to improving health outcomes, but they cannot do it alone. Meaningful progress depends on working together, learning from one another, and aligning data with action.

MNCM is committed to evolving its work based on what we hear in these dialogues—empowering communities with data that matters and delivering services that help us reach our shared goals.

Interested in hosting a Regional Community Conversation in your area?

We invite you to reach out to us at support@mncm.org . Your voice matters, and your input will help shape the future of health care improvement across Minnesota.

MNCM extends our sincere thanks to Medi-Sota for welcoming us to host our first Regional Community Conversation during the Clinic Managers Network meeting. We truly appreciate the opportunity to engage with clinic leaders from across the region and begin meaningful conversations about the importance of collaboration in improving health outcomes. To learn more about Medi-Sota and their work, please visit their website .

Elevating Local Voices: Insights from MNCM’s Regional Community Conversations

September 25, 2025

Posted in Blog

Looking at the Data

Key Themes that Emerged

Empowered by Data: Uncovering Immunization Gaps in Children and Adolescents

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 20:53:00 GMT

By Jess Donovan, MPH, Clinical Measurement Analyst, MN Community Measurement; and

Steven Inman, MD, Medical Director, Children’s Health Network

The Immunization Measures

MNCM reports on two immunization measures, the Childhood Immunization Status (Combo 10) measure and the Immunizations for Adolescents (Combo 2) measure, both of which are stewarded by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Measure definitions are provided below:

Childhood Immunization Status (Combo 10) : The percentage of children 2 years of age who had four diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP); three polio (IPV); one measles, mumps and rubella (MMR); three haemophilus influenza type B (HiB); three hepatitis B (HepB), one chicken pox (VZV); four pneumococcal conjugate (PCV); one hepatitis A (HepA); two or three rotavirus (RV); and two influenza (flu) vaccines by their second birthday. ²

Immunizations for Adolescents (Combo 2) : The percentage of adolescents 13 years of age who had one dose of meningococcal vaccine, one Tdap vaccine, and the complete human papillomavirus vaccine series by their 13th birthday. ³

Spotlight on Gaps in Vaccination Coverage

The data for these measures are aggregated and reported to MNCM by health plans.

Analyses of these measures show:

The number of children who received all recommended vaccines by their second birthday has been steadily decreasing since 2021: 53.0%, 48.1%, and 44.4%, respectively.
The number of adolescents who received all recommended vaccines by their 13 ^th birthday has also been decreasing since 2021: 36.4%, 35.8%, and 34.0%, respectively.
In both the child and adolescent patient population, there are significant gaps between those with commercial insurance coverage and those with Medicaid insurance coverage:
- Children with Medicaid coverage have a vaccination completion rate that is 26 percentage points lower than children with commercial coverage.
- Adolescents with Medicaid coverage have a vaccination completion rate that is 9 percentage points lower than adolescents with commercial coverage.

What’s Causing These Gaps?

Because MNCM does not receive the individual vaccine coverage rates for these measures, we spoke with community partners to better understand the decline in rates. In each population, our partners found that there are two vaccines that are likely driving the declines: Influenza, or flu, vaccine for children and HPV for adolescents.

In our report released in the beginning of 2025, Health Care in Minnesota: Summary Report on Quality, Disparities, and Cost , we spoke with Dr. Steven Inman from the Children’s Health Network (CHN) for more insight on vaccine coverage rates among children. CHN’s internal analysis showed that while most other vaccine rates have remained stable, uptake of the flu vaccine has declined every year since the peak rate in 2020. National HEDIS results of the measure show similar findings as well (range of 37.7% to 60% by insurance population). ² In the report (page 18), Dr. Inman also discusses strategies for improving rates, including extended clinic hours, mobile flu clinics, and sending email and text reminders to patients.

Our Measurement & Reporting Committee (MARC) discussed both measures in their June 2025 meeting. The major driver for the decline in the Immunizations for Adolescents measure was the completion of the HPV series. The national HEDIS results for the measure also showed low completion rate of the HPV series (range of 35.7% to 37.1% by insurance population). ³ Members discussed parents’ hesitancy on their child receiving the vaccination because of its association with sexual activity. Dr. Inman shared that the CHN HPV series completion rate has increased over the past three years by encouraging initiation of the HPV vaccine at age 9 or 10 years, disassociating the vaccine with puberty and with messaging that explains how the vaccine can help prevent cancer caused by HPV, shifting the narrative away from its link to sexual activity ⁴ .

Vaccination Resources

Children and adolescents aren’t the only ones who need to stay up-to-date on their vaccinations – adults do, too! As we ramp up for flu and COVID season, it’s important that patients know their vaccination status and where they can find affordable vaccines in their community. A great place to start is by asking your primary care provider. If you don’t have a primary care provider, there are still resources available in your community, including:

CDC Recommended Vaccination Schedules : View recommended vaccines by age group
Immunization Record: Request your immunization record through the Minnesota Department of Health’s Minnesota Immunization Information Connection (MIIC) system
Find Vaccines Near You: Find a pharmacy in your community that provide vaccines
Low- or No-Cost Vaccine Locations: MDH offers two programs to provide low- or no-cost vaccines to children and adults. To find out if you’re eligible, click the links below –
Minnesota Vaccines for Children (MnVFC)
Uninsured and Underinsured Adult Vaccine (UUAV)

To learn more about vaccine-preventable diseases, visit:

Health Awareness Months

Does your organization have a special event or health initiative project that relates to one of these health topics? We’d love to feature it in our blog! Please submit information about your event/project using this form .

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (2025). Measles Cases and Outbreaks. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html
National Committee for Quality Assurance. Childhood Immunization Status (CIS). Retrieved from https://www.ncqa.org/report-cards/health-plans/state-of-health-care-quality-report/childhood-immunization-status-cis/
National Committee for Quality Assurance. Immunizations for Adolescents (IMA). Retrieved from https://www.ncqa.org/report-cards/health-plans/state-of-health-care-quality-report/immunizations-for-adolescents-ima/
National HPV Roundtable from the American Cancer Society. Retrieved from https://hpvroundtable.org/

Posted in Blog

August 20, 2025

Empowered by Data: Uncovering Immunization Gaps in Children and Adolescents

Community at the Helm: Shaping Minnesota’s Future Health Data Landscape

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 17:46:00 GMT

By Greg Hanley, Chairman of the Board; and Liz Cinqueonce, President and CEO

At MN Community Measurement (MNCM), we’ve long believed that meaningful progress in health care begins with community—when those closest to the work and most affected by outcomes help shape the path forward. That belief is the foundation of our second strategic priority in MNCM’s new five-year strategic plan:

Strengthen and expand partnerships across all community partner segments in the health care ecosystem to drive measurable improvements in quality, equity, and value—while modernizing the business model and financial framework to sustain and accelerate our mission.

This priority reflects an ambitious but necessary evolution: to reimagine what partnership looks like in an era where trust, transparency, and shared action are more essential than ever. Minnesota’s health care ecosystem is a tapestry of health systems, primary care clinics and specialty practices, health plans, public health and human service agencies, employers, researchers, community organizations, and—critically—the patients and communities we all serve. Each brings unique insight, data, and power to the table. Our goal is to create the conditions where every voice is heard, and every sector is aligned toward common outcomes.

A Shared Vision for Better Outcomes

MNCM is building deeper, more intentional relationships across this diverse landscape. We are listening and learning from our partners about what matters most—whether that’s closing persistent gaps in care, making data more usable at the point of decision-making, or accessing more complete information to understand and address the root causes of disparities. By aligning our work with the real-world challenges faced by our partners, we are ensuring that MNCM’s measurement and data infrastructure continues to support relevant, timely, and actionable insights.

This shift also demands that we modernize the way we do business. Sustaining and accelerating our mission means rethinking how our work is funded, structured, and governed. It means pursuing new collaborations and innovative funding models that allow MNCM to stay nimble, responsive, and independent—while remaining rooted in community purpose. We’re embracing opportunities to co-design solutions with our partners, to pilot and scale data-sharing initiatives that reduce burden and increase value, and to ensure our shared work reflects the lived experience of the communities we seek to serve. As part of this work, we are aligning with national standards for measurement and interoperability where possible to enhance scalability and comparability—while continuing to innovate in areas where existing standards and measures fall short of addressing community-defined needs.

A Call to Collective Leadership

We know that meaningful improvement in health care quality and equity can’t be achieved in silos. That’s why MNCM is inviting new and existing partners alike to be part of shaping what comes next. Together, we can build a modern health data landscape that’s community-centered, trusted, and sustainable—one that supports bold action to close disparities, improve outcomes, and ensure accountability across the system.

The road ahead will require innovation, courage, and deep collaboration. But we are confident that with the community at the helm, Minnesota will continue to lead the way.

What Community Partners Can Do

Every organization in the health care ecosystem—regardless of size, role, or resources—has a stake in and a contribution to make toward this shared future. Here’s how you can engage:

Share your priorities. Let us know what data, insights, and supports would help you most in your work to improve health outcomes, equity, and value. Reach out to us through support@mncm.org .
Collaborate on innovation. Partner with us on pilot projects or new models that reduce burden, close gaps, and strengthen system-wide learning. Special notices to partners are announced to those who subscribe to receive updates .
Join the conversation. Volunteer to participate in MNCM workgroups, advisory committees, and strategic planning inquiries—your voice shapes the direction of our collective work. New opportunities are announced to those who subscribe to receive updates .
Invest in the mission. Consider joining as a member or supporter, and reach out to explore opportunities for partnerships that leverage MNCM data and data services to help advance your goals focused on improving quality, equity, and value. For more information email support@mncm.org or donate online .
Uplift community perspectives and stories. Help MNCM showcase community examples of how data is being used to drive meaningful change and share best practices. If your organization has a an improvement initiative that you feel is important to share with the community, please submit information via our online form .

If we are to achieve the goals we share—better quality, greater equity, and more value across Minnesota’s health care system—it will take all of us. We look forward to working alongside you to continue building a health data landscape that is aligned to meet the needs of our community.

Community at the Helm: Shaping Minnesota’s Future Health Data Landscape

July 24, 2025

Posted in Blog

Empowering Rural Health Care Providers: Leveraging Data for Quality, Equity, and Research

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 18:21:00 GMT

By Liz Cinqueonce, President and CEO; and Will Muenchow, Vice President of Technology, Security, and Administration at MN Community Measurement (MNCM)

June 10, 2025

Empowering Rural Health Care Providers: Leveraging Data for Quality, Equity, and Research

Posted in Blog

Empowered by Data: Mental Health Impact on Diverse Communities

Tue, 27 May 2025 15:13:00 GMT

By Maegi Yang, MPH, Governance Manager

The importance of mental health continues to grow and has a profound impact on many people’s lives. Minnesota ranks 34 ^th in prevalence of mental illness and 14 ^th in accessibility to care in 2024 ¹ . Although there is higher access to mental health care, Minnesota still ranks on the higher end for prevalence. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, emphasizing its significance and necessity to understand how our diverse communities are impacted. Here at MN Community Measurement (MNCM), we strive to dig deeper into the data and provide a greater understanding of what is going on not only within provider organizations, but the communities being served.

Spotlight on Disparities in Depression Suite of Measures

MNCM reports on the depression suite of measures, which includes six measures, tracking patient outcomes over six and twelve months from the initial PHQ-9 score and diagnosis. These measures evaluate follow-up PHQ-9 assessments, treatment response, and depression remission.

Analysis of the Adult depression data showed:

Residents in the Minneapolis, St. Cloud, and Willmar regions had lower rates for all six depression outcome measures compared to Minnesota Resident Average
Black and Hispanic/Latinx adults had lower rates for all six depression outcome measures compared to the statewide average.
Adults who are uninsured had lower rates than the statewide average on all six depression outcome measures.
Adults who are on Medicaid had lower rates on five of the six depression outcome measures.

Disparities exist in various communities, and it is common for individuals to exist within multiple of these areas.

Additional measures stratified by race and ethnicity can be found in our recently released report, Health Care in Minnesota: Summary Report on Quality, Disparities, and Cost , and in MNCM’s Statewide Performance Hub .

Why This Matters

It is essential to measure depression prevalence because it supports providers in guiding treatment and care and individuals in assessing mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing. The depression suite has notoriously been the most challenging measures for providers to address because of the complexity of identifying and tracking patients. Another layer that makes it hard to support individuals is the stigma surrounding mental health. It continues to exist in all communities, often leading to individuals delaying or not seeking care even if it was available ² .

As a state, it is important for us to continue to identify at risk individuals and ensure there is continuation in monitoring them. Depression is not a linear line, which is why it is critical to assess patients for a prolonged period. However, it is equally important to have diverse resources available for patients, as no two patients or treatments are the same. This includes having cultural and linguistic resources, or support groups readily accessible ³ . By identifying the communities at risk, we can continue to address the gaps in care, resources, and our commitment to serve them to our highest potential.

Health Awareness Months

Does your organization have a special event or health initiative project that relates to one of these health topics ? We’d love to feature it in our blog! Please submit information about your event/project using this form .

References:

Empowered by Data: Mental Health Impact on Diverse Communities

Posted in Blog

May 27, 2025

MN Community Measurement Releases Latest Report on Health Care Disparities by Insurance Type

Fri, 23 May 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Persistant gaps highlight need for targeted action to address disparities for individuals enrolled in Minnesota Health Care Programs

MN Community Measurement (MNCM), in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), has released its latest report examining health care disparities across insurance types in Minnesota. The new report, Minnesota Health Care Disparities by Insurance Type , focuses on care delivered in 2023 and compares health care quality and outcomes between Minnesotans covered through state programs (Minnesota Health Care Programs Managed Care, or MHCP MCO) and those with private or Medicare Advantage insurance.

The data continues to show significant disparities in health care quality and outcomes, especially among patients enrolled in public insurance programs. While there were modest gains in some areas, gaps in care persist or have worsened across many key health indicators.

Key findings from the 2023 measurement year include:

Widening Gaps: MHCP patients had lower rates across all quality measures when compared to privately insured populations. The largest disparity was in Childhood Immunization Status, where there was nearly a 28-point gap between MHCP and other purchasers.
Improvements and Stability: There were modest improvements in Colorectal Cancer Screening, Optimal Diabetes Care, and Adolescent Mental Health Screening. However, several other measures including Breast Cancer Screening, Controlling High Blood Pressure, Optimal Vascular Care, Depression Remission at Six Months, and Optimal Asthma Control showed no significant progress.
Notable Declines: Childhood Immunizations declined nearly five percentage points from 2022 for MHCP populations, mirroring a broader statewide trend.
Persistent Racial and Ethnic Disparities: Patients who are Black, Indigenous/Native, and Hispanic/Latinx continue to face disproportionately lower rates of screening, chronic disease management, and preventive care. Notably, Black and Indigenous/Native patients fell below the statewide MHCP average in over 60% of measures.

“The persistent disparities in outcomes for Minnesotans enrolled in public insurance programs are alarming,” said Liz Cinqueonce, President & CEO of MN Community Measurement. “Closing these gaps requires more than just data. It demands meaningful collaboration across all sectors. By working together—providers, health plans, policymakers, employers, and community-based organizations—we can identify solutions and drive sustainable improvements to ensure that all Minnesotans have access to equitable, high-quality care.”

View more information and access the full report.

About MN Community Measurement

MN Community Measurement is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2005, MNCM works with community partners including doctors, clinics, insurance companies, and state agencies to collect, analyze, and report health care data related to quality, cost, and equity of health care. Learn more at www.mncm.org .

About MN Department of Human Services

The MN Department of Human Services (MN DHS) is the state Medical Assistance (Medicaid) agency responsible for purchasing health care services for approximately 1.4 million Minnesotans, about 25% of the state’s population. Most Minnesotans enrolled in Medicaid receive services through the state’s contracted managed care organizations. Minnesota Medicaid plays a critical role in ensuring access to high quality care for vulnerable populations including children, persons with disabilities, and seniors. DHS’s mission is, working with others, to help people meet their basic needs so they can live in dignity and achieve their highest potential.

MN Community Measurement Releases Latest Report on Health Care Disparities by Insurance Type

May 23, 2025

Posted in Press Release

Empowered by Data: Raising Awareness on Racial Health Disparities in Minnesota

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 20:52:00 GMT

By Ma Xiong, MPH – Vice President, Data Strategy & Analytics

April is a month dedicated to raising awareness of racial and ethnic health disparities and taking action to close the gaps. Minnesota continues to be ranked as the best state in the nation for health care ¹ . However, it is also one of the states with some of the largest health disparities between the White population and communities of color ² .

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) has been a leader in collecting and analyzing data on Race, Ethnicity, Preferred Language, and Country of Origin (RELC) since 2010. By publicly reporting results on quality measures stratified by RELC, it shines a light on health disparities, equipping community partners with the insights needed to take meaningful action.

Spotlight on Disparities in Diabetes and Vascular Health

This April, MNCM is focusing on health disparities in two key areas: Optimal Diabetes Care and Optimal Vascular Care based on data from 2023.

Optimal Diabetes Care is achieved when five health goals are met:

Controlled blood pressure (<140/90 mmHg)
Statin use as recommended to lower bad cholesterol
Blood sugar under control (A1c <8%)
Tobacco-free status
Use of aspirin as recommended

Optimal Vascular Care includes four of these same goals, excluding blood sugar control.

MNCM’s data reveals significant disparities in achieving optimal diabetes and vascular care:

Black, Indigenous, Multi-race, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic/Latinx patients had significantly lower rates of having their diabetes optimally controlled compared to the overall statewide average of 46.3%.

While Asian patients overall exceeded the statewide average, MNCM’s analysis showed that Hmong and Karen language speakers had much lower rates, highlighting the importance of looking beyond broad racial categories.

Black, Indigenous, and Multi-race patients had lower rates of having their vascular disease optimally controlled compared to the overall statewide average of 55.4%.

Breaking these measures down further, MNCM also reports on the individual components. Tables 1 and 2 show the component rates stratified by race and ethnicity, showing significant gaps. For instance, all racial groups had lower-than-average percentages of diabetes patients achieving A1c levels below 8%. These insights pinpoint where health initiatives can focus to have the greatest impact on helping patients and providers work together to effectively manage health.

Additional measures stratified by race and ethnicity can be found in our recently released report, Health Care in Minnesota: Summary Report on Quality, Disparities, and Cost , and in MNCM’s Statewide Performance Hub .

Why This Matters

Minnesota’s population is growing and becoming more diverse. According to the U.S. Census, the state’s diversity index rose from 30.3% in 2010 to 40.5% in 2020 ³ . As of 2023, Minnesota is home to 5.8 million residents, with people of color making up about 23% of the population. These communities are growing at a faster rate than the White population, and by 2055, it’s projected that over 2.1 million Minnesotans, or 35% of the population will identify as people of color ⁴ .

If racial disparities in health care persist, they will only grow alongside our changing population. That’s why this data matters. It helps shape a more equitable health care system by guiding where resources and attention are most needed. By elevating these disparities and working collaboratively, Minnesota can strive toward a future where health equity is achievable.

Are you a provider, health plan, or community organization using MNCM data to drive health equity efforts? We’d love to share your story. Reach out to us at support@mncm.org to share your work.

References:

April 17, 2025

Posted in Blog

Empowered by Data: Raising Awareness on Racial Health Disparities in Minnesota

Community at the Helm: Charting MNCM’s Future Together

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 11:42:00 GMT

By Greg Hanley, Chairman of the Board; and Liz Cinqueonce, President and CEO

In February, the MNCM Board of Directors convened for a strategic planning session to chart the course for the organization over the next five years. This pivotal gathering was grounded in insights from the community and a shared commitment to advancing MNCM’s mission in a way that maximizes collaboration, transparency, and impact.

The meeting included a series of learning discussions featuring representatives from Civitas Networks for Health, the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality, and the Wisconsin Statewide Health Information Network. These sessions provided valuable perspectives on regional and national trends in health data collaboration and measurement, helping us to situate MNCM’s strategy within the broader landscape.

We were pleased to have active participation from representatives of the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, Minnesota Management and Budget, the Minnesota EHR Consortium, Stratis Health, and Koble. Their contributions ensured that the perspectives of key collaborative partners were reflected in the strategic plan, reinforcing the importance of shared goals and aligned efforts in improving health and health care quality, equity, and value across Minnesota.

The approach to this planning effort underscores the principle that the community is truly at the helm. MNCM exists to serve as a trusted convener and data steward, and our direction is guided by the needs and priorities of those we serve. By fostering collaboration and leveraging high-impact data, we will continue to support efforts that drive measurable improvements in health, health outcomes, and system performance.

As we refine our strategic plan and set a course for the future, we remain deeply committed to engaging with our partners and the broader community. Together, we will ensure that MNCM continues to deliver value in meaningful and innovative ways. We look forward to sharing more in the months ahead and continuing to work in partnership to advance improvements in health and health care in Minnesota.

April 3, 2025

Posted in Blog

Community at the Helm: Charting MNCM’s Future Together

Empowered by Data: Boosting Colorectal Cancer Screening in Minnesota

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 19:44:00 GMT

By Jess Donovan, MPH – Clinical Measurement Analyst

Download Infographic

Colorectal cancer screening is an essential tool for early detection and reducing cancer-related mortality. In 2023, the statewide screening rate increased by nearly 3 percentage points, rising from 67.8% to 70.4%.

A key factor in this shift was the 2022 update from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which lowered the recommended screening age to 45-75 years. As expected, this change initially led to a dip in overall screening rates in the first year as the health care system and patients adjusted. However, in the second year, screenings among the 45-49 age group increased by 13 percentage points, marking significant progress.

So, how do we keep momentum going? Collaboration.

Health care providers, community organizations, and public health agencies across the state are continuing to lead this work. To support efforts, analyzing screening data and identifying gaps in care can help expand outreach and education. Data-driven strategies can play a key role in ensuring screenings are accessible to all populations.

For more information on colorectal cancer, screenings, and improvement initiatives, check out the links below:

General Information :

Screening Events:

We’d love to hear more about what health systems and community organizations are doing across Minnesota related to colorectal cancer screening! If you have an event you’d like us to highlight, please contact support@mncm.org .

Empowered by Data: Boosting Colorectal Cancer Screening in Minnesota

March 21, 2025

Posted in Blog

Join the MNCM Community Engagement and Events Committee

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 18:05:00 GMT

MNCM seeks passionate and engaged leaders to join our Community Engagement and Events Committee (CEEC) . This committee plays a vital role in shaping MNCM’s strategic efforts in community engagement and event planning, including organizing our Annual Conference, MNCM Webinar Series, and special events such as our 20th Anniversary celebration.

We invite you to recommend colleagues who would bring valuable perspectives and expertise to this committee. Ideal candidates will have an interest in community engagement and represent key community partner groups, including health plans, provider organizations, practicing providers, community-based organizations, government agencies, and employers/purchasers.

Committee Details:

Meets quarterly (or as needed) to guide and execute initiatives.
Members actively contribute to event planning and engagement efforts.
Terms are two years , with an option to renew for up to two additional terms.

Posted in Blog

Join the MNCM Community Engagement and Events Committee

March 7, 2025

Celebrating 20 Years of Advancing Healthcare Measurement & Innovation!

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 22:45:00 GMT

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) has been at the forefront of health care quality improvement and data transparency for two decades. In a recent interview with Healthcare Innovation , our President & CEO, Liz Cinqueonce, discusses MNCM’s evolution, our leadership in outcomes-based measurement, and the groundbreaking Common Health Information Reporting Partnership (CHIRP) —a collaborative effort to streamline data sharing between payers and providers to enhance care quality and efficiency.

Read the full interview to learn more about how MNCM is driving health care transformation.

Celebrating 20 Years of Advancing Healthcare Measurement & Innovation!

March 4, 2025

Posted in Uncategorized

New Report Unveils Trends in Minnesota Health Care: Quality, Disparities, and Costs

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 14:32:00 GMT

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) has released its latest report, Health Care in Minnesota: Summary Report on Quality, Disparities, and Cost , providing a comprehensive analysis of the state’s health care performance in 2023. The report highlights trends in health care quality, disparities, and costs, offering valuable and actionable insights for community partners including medical groups, payers, policy makers, public health agencies, researchers, and community-based organizations.

This report complements MNCM’s recently launched Performance Hub , which provides statewide analyses of health care quality and cost measures through an interactive platform. Data on cost and quality outcomes by specific medical groups and clinics is available on MNHealthScores , which allows consumers to compare and make informed choices when accessing care.

The new results come from data reported to MNCM in 2024, covering services received by patients in 2023. The report includes measures across preventive health, chronic conditions, mental health for adults and children/adolescents, total cost of care, and utilization.

Report highlights include:

Health Care Quality

Colorectal cancer screening rates for the newly eligible 45–49 age group have improved. While the 2023 rate for all age groups has significantly increased compared to 2022, it remains significantly lower than 2021.
Childhood immunization continues to show a decrease in statewide rate from year to year. This measure has not shown improvement in rates following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Significant gaps remain in asthma control and depression care, with thousands of patients needing improved care to meet statewide benchmarks.
There were modest improvements in breast cancer screening, controlling high blood pressure, and diabetes eye exams.

Health Care Disparities

Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic/Latinx patients experienced the most disparities across multiple measures, particularly in Colorectal Cancer Screening.
Patients speaking Hmong, Karen, Somali, and Spanish, as well as those from Laos, Mexico, and Somalia, had lower rates of preventive care and chronic disease management compared to statewide averages.

Cost and Utilization

The total cost of care increased by 8.4% in 2023, primarily driven by a 15.3% rise in pharmacy costs and higher outpatient hospital service utilization.
All categories of medical services saw increased use, except for inpatient admissions. Women aged 36–64 had the highest number of claims, while men aged 18–35 had the lowest number of claims.

This year marks a shift from focusing solely on the performance of the health care system to a broader view of how Minnesotans are collectively doing in achieving the best outcomes. By examining quality, disparities, and cost together in a single, comprehensive report, we gain a more holistic view of health care performance, and a deeper understanding of where we can make the most impact.

The report not only consolidates key metrics but also incorporates community perspectives with valuable insights for community partners on how they can leverage the data to enhance their work and drive improvements in health care outcomes.

“By broadening our focus to include both outcomes and equity alongside cost, this report takes an important step toward transforming how we understand health care in Minnesota. It’s no longer just about what the system does, but about how the collective efforts across communities contribute to the well-being of all,” noted Liz Cinqueonce, President and CEO of MN Community Measurement. “Our goal is to create a clearer pathway for everyone — health plans, providers, employers, policy makers, government agencies, and community organizations — to work together toward reducing disparities and improving care and value for everyone.”

Importance of Measurement

February 28, 2025

Posted in Press Release

New Report Unveils Trends in Minnesota Health Care: Quality, Disparities, and Costs

MNCM Launches the Performance Hub

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 23:06:00 GMT

MNCM is enhancing its public reporting to provide timely, actionable data to drive advancements in health care quality, equity, and affordability. By sharing meaningful insights, MNCM aspires to foster collaboration among community partners, ultimately enhancing health outcomes across diverse populations.

In lieu of the community reports that MNCM releases throughout the second half of the year, MNCM will be launching a comprehensive annual report that provides in-depth analyses and actionable insights tailored to community needs. The report for 2023 Measurement Year (MY) results will be released in early 2025. MNCM will continue to release the Disparities by Insurance Type Report in collaboration with the MN Department of Human Services (DHS).

MNCM also transitioned its Appendix Tables to an on-request model to allow assessment of its utility. The appendix tables are available for each measure that MNCM publicly reports. These tables provide medical group and/or clinic level performance rates for each measure, including a comparison to the statewide average (i.e., rating). Please submit a request using this form .

Medical group and clinic level performance results can also be accessed through MNHealthScores , which offers unbiased, trustworthy performance data for medical groups and clinics, enabling consumers to make informed decisions based on quality and cost ratings.

> Launch Performance Hub

January 29, 2025

MNCM Launches the Performance Hub

Posted in Blog

Analyzing Trends in Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates: Insights and Impacts

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 20:21:00 GMT

2022 measurement year

Colorectal cancer screening is a crucial preventive measure, especially given that early detection significantly increases treatment success. One of the clinical quality measures MN Community Measurement reports on is based on NCQA’s HEDIS measure for colorectal cancer screening. In this post, we’ll dive into the 2022 data on screening rates, the impacts of changing eligibility guidelines, and disparities across demographics.

On November 12 , the Minnesota Department of Health , the Minnesota Cancer Alliance , and the American Cancer Society will co-host a meeting to bring together health care payors, providers, and patient advocates. This event will focus on ways to increase cancer screening through coordinated strategies, including presentations and collaborative small-group discussions.

One highlight will be a presentation by MNCM’s Jess Donovan on colorectal cancer screening insights from the 2022 annual reports. Jess joined MNCM in 2017 and brings a unique blend of clinical and public health expertise to her role. Starting as a Project Coordinator focused on clinical data validation and analysis, Jess transitioned to the role of Clinical Measurement Analyst in 2018, where she now specializes in data analysis of clinical quality measures and data visualizations. Jess holds a master’s in public health with a focus in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota and is a Registered Nurse.

Understanding the Colorectal Cancer Screening Measure

The colorectal cancer screening measure targets adults aged 45 to 75 who are up-to-date with recommended screenings. Acceptable tests include colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, CT colonography, and stool blood tests. By analyzing patient-level data submitted to us by medical groups, we can assess screening rates across age, race, language, geographic location, and insurance type, providing valuable insights for tailoring public health efforts.

How Have Screening Rates Changed Over Time?

Since 2019, we’ve observed shifts in statewide screening rates. Expectedly, the pandemic caused a significant drop in screenings during 2020, with rates recovering slightly in 2021. However, in 2022, screening rates fell again to 67.8%. This decrease aligned with NCQA’s adjustment of the eligibility age from 50–75 to 45–75, which likely contributed to the decline, especially as the younger age group (45-49) had not yet been regularly screened.

We recalculated the 2022 rate using only the 50–75 age group and found that rates were closer to pre-2022 levels but still below the 2021 mark. This suggests that while the age expansion affected the decline, other factors may have also played a role—such as the challenges of scheduling colonoscopies as people returned to in-office work.

Figure 1: Three-Digit ZIP Code Analysis

Exploring Geographic and Demographic Variations

Our geographic analysis (Figure 1) highlights significant variations in screening rates across Minnesota’s ZIP codes. We used a Minnesota-resident average (68.0%), rather than a statewide average (67.8%), for a more localized comparison. In general, areas with darker color-coding on our maps indicate higher screening rates, while lighter areas show lower participation. Three-digit ZIP code regions with higher than average rates of screening include: 553, 558, 559, 562, 563, 564, and 565.

Looking at demographic breakdowns (Figure 2), our health disparities reports reveal important trends:

Race and Ethnicity : In 2022, screening rates were consistently lower across race groups, except for the white population. For Hispanic/Latinx populations, screening rates also fell below the statewide average. We also analyzed screening rate trends across racial groups and found that, except for the multi-race group, whose rates remained stable, all groups had significantly lower screening rates in 2022 compared to both 2021 and 2019.
Language : In 2022, English-speaking patients had significantly higher screening rates compared to the statewide average, while patients who spoke Hmong, Somali, or Spanish has significantly lower rates. When we analyzed trends by splitting the population into English-speaking and non-English-speaking groups, both showed substantial declines in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels (2019).
Country of Origin : We also examined patients by country of origin, finding that U.S.-born patients had higher screening rates, while those from Laos, Mexico, and Somalia had lower rates than the statewide average.

Figure 2: Trend by RELC Subpopulations

The Influence of Insurance Type

Another crucial factor in screening rates is insurance type . Our data on Minnesota Health Care Program (MHCP) patients show a consistent gap in screening rates between those with MHCP and those with commercial or Medicare insurance. Although both groups experienced declines in 2022, the gap remained. Within the MHCP population, age breakdowns revealed a low screening rate for the newly eligible 45–49 age group, consistent with the findings at the statewide level.

Health Disparities Within the MHCP Population

Our 2022 analysis for MHCP populations showed disparities across race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin (Figure 3):

Race and Ethnicity : In comparison to the statewide MHCP screening rate, rates were higher among Asian and White MHCP patients, while lower rates were observed for Black, Indigenous, Multi-race, Native Hawaiian, and Hispanic/Latinx groups.
Language and Country of Origin : Among MHCP patients, those speaking Vietnamese or English had higher screening rates, while Hmong and Somali speakers had significantly lower rates in comparison to the statewide MHCP rate. Similarly, patients born in the U.S. had higher rates, while those from Ethiopia, Laos, and Somalia had lower rates.

Figure 3: Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates among MHCP Patients by RELC

Minnesota Healthcare Disparities by Insurance Type (Results for care delivered in 2022)

Screening Methods: Trends in Test Choice (Figure 4) In 2018, we analyzed screening types, revealing that colonoscopy was the most popular option among patients up-to-date on screenings. For the 2022 data, colonoscopy remains the most common method, though stool blood tests saw a slight increase, from about 10% to just over 11%. Increased awareness of this less-invasive option and possible logistical challenges of colonoscopy may explain the shift.

Figure 4: Screening Test Usage

Moving Forward: Addressing Disparities and Encouraging Screening

As we continue to assess colorectal cancer screening data, identifying the root causes of disparities and screening rate drops remains a priority. Our ongoing efforts aim to provide actionable insights, particularly as both patients and providers adapt to recent guideline changes. By targeting outreach and resources to underserved populations, we can help close these gaps, ultimately increasing preventive care for all.

Posted in Blog

November 11, 2024

Analyzing Trends in Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates: Insights and Impacts

Minnesota Health Care Quality Report – Part 1: Clinical Quality Measures Reported by Medical Groups (results for care delivered in 2022)

Minnesota Health Care Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, Preferred Language, and Country of Origin (Results for care delivered in 2022)

Transitioning to Digital Quality Measurement: Insights from MNCM’s Experience

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 19:32:00 GMT

At the recent Core Quality Measures Collaborative (CQMC) annual strategic planning session, Rowan Mahon, PharmD, MPH, MHI, Manager of Data Integrity & Clinical Informatics at MNCM, shared invaluable insights into the transition from traditional clinical quality measures (CQMs) to digital quality measures (DQMs). With a background as both a clinical laboratory scientist and pharmacist, Dr. Mahon offered a unique perspective on the technical and clinical sides of healthcare data and the process of standardizing clinical data extraction for quality measurement.

Understanding Digital Quality Measures

Digital quality measures, or DQMs, present a fundamental shift in how healthcare organizations assess performance. Unlike clinical quality measures that often rely on manual chart reviews and unstructured data from clinical notes, DQMs are fully automated, using structured data and standardized processes such as Clinical Quality Language (CQL) for calculations. While MNCM does not yet use CQL for its measures, the transition to automation and structured data collection mirrors many elements of the DQM framework.

The Benefits and Challenges of DQMs

Dr. Mahon emphasized the advantages of DQMs, noting their efficiency, scalability, and ability to improve population-level accuracy once fully implemented. However, she highlighted the complexities involved in transitioning from CQMs to DQMs. The initial setup requires significant investment in infrastructure, collaboration between technical and clinical teams, and the expertise needed to design and manage digital measures effectively.

While CQMs offer a nuanced and detailed view of individual patients, DQMs excel at scaling this insight to large populations, making healthcare quality data more actionable and impactful at the system level.

Key Barriers to DQM Implementation

One of the primary barriers identified by Dr. Mahon is the lack of standardization in healthcare data. Despite the widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), there remains significant variability in how data is housed and structured. This lack of uniformity poses substantial challenges for data integration and the automation of measure calculations. Furthermore, the use of complex technical languages like CQL presents learning curves for both measure developers and clinicians.

Dr. Mahon also highlighted challenges related to clinical value sets, which define the specific populations targeted by a measure. Building a clinical value set is essential for the accuracy and effectiveness of any healthcare measurement. If the wrong patients are included or if appropriate patients are excluded, the results will be incorrect, rendering the entire evaluation process invalid. She advocated for standardizing value sets whenever possible to enhance consistency and reliability in healthcare measurements.

MNCM’s Role in Advancing Digital Quality Measurement

Founded in 2005, MNCM has been at the forefront of advancing healthcare quality, affordability, and equity in Minnesota through data-driven insights. As a convener, measure developer, and data aggregator, MNCM has created an environment where healthcare providers, payers, and other stakeholders can collaborate to standardize data collection and improve healthcare outcomes across the state.

A critical aspect of this standardization is MNCM’s Process Intelligence Performance Engine (PIPE), which streamlines data collection processes and ensures uniformity across various medical groups. By facilitating the submission of standardized data from the majority of medical groups in Minnesota, PIPE enables MNCM to efficiently run and analyze its publicly reported clinical measures. This comprehensive approach not only enhances the accuracy of the reported measures but also provides valuable insights into healthcare performance and outcomes across the state.

MNCM’s work extends beyond simple data collection; their data are used for benchmarking, value-based contracting, and addressing health disparities. The organization’s development of PIPE is a key example of how they have reduced the reporting burden on providers while improving the timeliness and accuracy of data collection.

The Future of Digital Quality Measurement

The transition to digital quality measures, while challenging, is an essential step toward improving healthcare at scale. As Dr. Mahon concluded, the journey toward full DQM implementation demands both technical and clinical expertise, as well as ongoing collaboration between stakeholders. MNCM’s success in developing PIPE and in supporting statewide reporting requirements highlights the value of standardized, automated data collection in driving meaningful change. Through continued innovation and collaboration, organizations like MNCM are paving the way for a healthcare system that is more efficient, equitable, and capable of leveraging data to improve patient outcomes. As the field of digital quality measurement evolves, Dr. Mahon’s insights offer a valuable roadmap for navigating the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

Rowan Mahon, PharmD, MPH, MHI
Manager of Data Integrity & Clinical Informatics

Dr. Rowan Mahon is a healthcare leader with advanced degrees in Pharmacy (PharmD), Public Health (MPH), and Health Informatics (MHI), and is a certified Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS ASCP). As the founder and Managing Director of RoundtableRx, Minnesota’s first state-approved medication repository program, Dr. Mahon led efforts to pass legislation to redistribute surplus medications to underserved communities. With over a decade of experience in data analytics, HEOR/RWE, and clinical quality improvement, they have driven health equity through strategic partnerships and innovative solutions. Dr. Mahon is also skilled in Python, SQL, and R, excelling in translating complex data into actionable insights.

Transitioning to Digital Quality Measurement: Insights from MNCM’s Experience

Posted in Blog

October 28, 2024

Dr. Joe Bianco Welcomes Guests to MNCM’s 2024 Annual Conference and Shares Strategic Vision for the Year Ahead

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:00:00 GMT

On September 25, 2024, Dr. Joe Bianco, Chair of the Board of Minnesota Community Measurement (MNCM), kicked off the organization’s Annual Conference in Brooklyn Park, MN. In his opening remarks, Dr. Bianco reflected on the vital work of healthcare professionals and shared key highlights of MNCM’s strategic initiatives for the coming year.

Dr. Bianco began by recounting a conversation with a friend who is an interventional cardiologist. When asked what her best day as a physician looked like, she described saving a patient from a life-threatening heart attack (ST-elevated myocardial infarction, or STEMI) through coordinated teamwork and expert intervention. “No doubt,” he noted, “that would be a good day—good for the patient and good for the cardiology team.”

For Dr. Bianco, however, his best days come from the steady, long-term management of chronic conditions—seeing a patient’s A1C reach a healthy level after months of hard work, or achieving blood pressure and cholesterol goals through careful medication management. He emphasized that these outcomes can prevent patients from needing critical interventions like the ones his cardiologist friend performs.

Dr. Bianco reflected on The Heroism of Incremental Care , an article by Atul Gawande, which draws a distinction between the life-saving work of rescue care and the slower, ongoing effort of chronic disease management. “Continuity is fundamental to this care,” Dr. Bianco said, sharing his personal experience of over 30 years in Ely, Minnesota. He highlighted the importance of measurement, which enables healthcare professionals to track a patient’s progress and assess larger interventions by clinics and health systems. “Knowing what works and what doesn’t relies on being able to measure what matters,” he added. For 20 years, MNCM has been a key partner in this work, providing essential data and tools that allow clinicians to improve patient outcomes.

Looking ahead, Dr. Bianco outlined the strategic initiatives approved by MNCM’s board of directors for the coming years. Central to these initiatives is enhancing partnerships by listening to and understanding the perspectives of stakeholders, including health plans, medical groups, state government, employers, community organizations, and patients. MNCM will continue advancing measure alignment, ensuring that metrics are meaningful, and making reporting more actionable and user-friendly. The organization will also strive to align with national standards and lead initiatives for improved data sharing. In addition, MNCM seeks to collaborate more on a regional level, pursuing new opportunities for partnership.

Dr. Bianco concluded by expressing his gratitude to the many participants at the conference, noting that there are important conversations yet to come. He thanked everyone for their participation and looked forward to continued collaboration in the years ahead. As MNCM charts a path forward, its focus on measurement, partnership, and meaningful improvement will continue to drive efforts to enhance healthcare quality across Minnesota.

September 25, 2024

Dr. Joe Bianco Welcomes Guests to MNCM’s 2024 Annual Conference and Shares Strategic Vision for the Year Ahead

Posted in Blog

Shaping Minnesota’s Health Data Future: Insights from MNCM President Liz Cinqueonce at the 2024 State of Reform Conference

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 18:09:00 GMT

On September 5, 2024, Liz Cinqueonce, President and CEO of MN Community Measurement (MNCM), participated in a dynamic panel discussion at the 2024 Minnesota State of Reform Health Policy Conference. The panel, titled “What’s Next for Improving Minnesota’s Health Data Landscape?”, explored key topics in health data, quality measurement, and policy, featuring insights from other prominent leaders including Jennifer Lundblad (Stratis Health), Chad Peterson (Koble Group), and Dr. Tyler Winkelman (Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute). Here are some of Liz Cinqueonce’s responses to the moderator’s questions during the session:

Introduction to MN Community Measurement

Liz began by introducing MN Community Measurement, a nonprofit community collaborative established in 2005. The organization’s board includes diverse perspectives, ranging from health care providers and health plans to state government, employers, consumers, and researchers. MNCM was founded on the belief that collaboration and transparency can drive improvements in health care.

MNCM’s mission is to empower health care decision-makers by providing meaningful data that drives improvement in quality, equity, and affordability. This includes:

Convening stakeholders from various sectors to identify common priorities for health care improvement.
Developing and validating measures focused on outcomes of care.
Providing private and public reports on quality, equity, and cost, enabling a deeper understanding of the current landscape and areas for improvement.
Collaborating with health plans and medical groups to share data that helps address gaps in care and improve patient outcomes.

The organization’s data is widely used by health plans, providers, and researchers to guide quality improvement initiatives, value-based payment models, and efforts to address health disparities.

The Future of Health Data in Clinical Care

In discussing health data within clinical care, Liz emphasized MNCM’s role in empowering care providers with meaningful, actionable data that can be easily integrated into workflows. She highlighted MNCM’s ongoing efforts to modernize data collection and reporting processes, as well as the introduction of the Common Health Information Reporting Partnership (CHIRP) program.

The CHIRP program aims to address data-related barriers to value-based care by creating standardized data flows between health care providers and payers. This bidirectional feedback loop ensures timely, accurate data exchange. As of March 2024, provider-to-payer data feeds were fully operational, with payer-to-provider feeds slated for rollout in mid-2025.

Liz highlighted that this approach creates efficiencies for both providers and payers by reducing the need for manual data collection, improving the accuracy of gap reports, and facilitating better care coordination. The program’s design also leverages existing data submitted to MNCM, minimizing additional effort while maximizing value.

The Horizon of Health Data in Quality Measurement

Quality measurement remains at the heart of MNCM’s work. Liz outlined three key focus areas for the organization’s future:

Measure Prioritization : MNCM has identified maternal/child health, well-child visits, and opioid use as high-priority areas for future measures. The first of these, well-child visits, provides the best opportunity for near-term implementation and is set to move forward, pending funding to integrate it into MNCM’s data systems. MNCM will be continuing to explore opportunities to implement measures for maternal/child health and opioid use in the future.
Asthma Measure Review : In response to concerns about the current asthma measures, MNCM is convening a workgroup to review and improve how asthma control is measured. Recruitment for this group will begin in late September and will be announced in the Measurement Minute newsletter.
Social Risk Factors (SRF) : MNCM has began collecting SRF data in early 2024 to better understand how social determinants influence health outcomes. Liz noted that 59 organizations have already submitted SRF data, representing over a million patients, and MNCM is committed to expanding this effort to improve data completeness in the coming year.

Health Data in Research and Evaluation

Liz emphasized the importance of research partnerships in advancing MNCM’s mission. She outlined four foundational elements that MNCM brings to these partnerships: trust as a neutral convener, a robust legal framework, secure technical infrastructure, and rich historical data on clinical quality and costs.

Currently, MNCM is engaged in two major research initiatives:

Minnesota EHR Consortium : MNCM helps small and mid-sized medical groups that are submitting data through its PIPE system to participate in public health and research initiatives through the EHR Consortium, ensuring their voices are included in valuable studies.
MNCARES Project : MNCM partners with the HealthPartners Institute and the Minnesota Department of Health to evaluate the impact of including social workers in care coordination teams. Though the first stage of the MNCARES project has been completed, the organization is hopeful this work will continue, pending additional funding.

Balancing Minnesota-Specific and Federal Approaches

Liz highlighted that while it’s beneficial to leverage national standards and federal opportunities, Minnesota has a history of innovation. MNCM’s philosophy is to adopt national solutions when feasible, but the organization doesn’t wait for federal standards to catch up. Instead, it informs and influences those standards, drawing on local needs and experiences.

For example, MNCM’s early work on Social Risk Factors data collection serves as a model for national conversations. Liz acknowledged that sometimes state-level innovations can be “leapfrogged” by national standards, but taking the innovative approach means Minnesota remains at the forefront of improvements in quality, equity and affordability. To mitigate risks, MNCM closely monitors federal developments while continuing to prioritize what works for Minnesota.

Navigating Minnesota’s Unique Privacy and Consent Environment

Minnesota’s privacy and consent laws create a more complex environment for health data exchange, but Liz noted that it’s something MNCM is well-prepared to manage. Contracting with Minnesota health organizations requires diligent legal oversight to ensure compliance with both state and federal laws. While this can lengthen the process and increase costs, it also strengthens the legal framework.

MNCM’s software and data infrastructure are built to comply with Minnesota’s privacy requirements, and the organization conducts annual reviews to ensure ongoing compliance with changes in the law.

Conclusion

Liz Cinqueonce’s contributions to the 2024 Minnesota State of Reform Health Policy Conference provided valuable insight into MNCM’s ongoing efforts to improve health care quality, equity, and affordability in Minnesota. By focusing on collaboration, innovation, and transparency, MNCM continues to play a crucial role in advancing the state’s health data landscape.

Shaping Minnesota’s Health Data Future: Insights from MNCM President Liz Cinqueonce at the 2024 State of Reform Conference

Posted in Blog

September 9, 2024

MN Community Measurement Releases Latest Report on Health Care Disparities by Insurance Type

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 12:23:00 GMT

Disparities continue for individuals enrolled in Minnesota Health Care Programs

ROSEVILLE – APRIL 18, 2024

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) has released its newest report shedding light on health care disparities in Minnesota. The report, titled “Minnesota Health Care Disparities by Insurance Type,” is produced in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), and focuses on care delivered in 2022. The report compares health care quality and outcomes for people who received health insurance coverage through Minnesota Health Care Programs managed care (MHCP) and people with private health insurance or Medicare Advantage plans. This year’s report underscores ongoing challenges and highlights opportunities for improvement in health care access and quality. Key findings include:

Overall Gaps: Patients with MHCP insurance are falling behind those with other insurance types in almost every area measured. The biggest gap is in the Childhood Immunization Status measure.
Childhood Immunizations: The completion rate of recommended vaccinations by age 2 for children with MHCP insurance dropped by 6.1%. This decrease matches what has been seen statewide. Experts believe fewer flu shots in recent years are a big reason.
Racial Disparities: Black and Indigenous/Native MHCP patients still face lower rates than the overall MHCP group in many areas.
Trends: Since 2018, gaps have narrowed for the Optimal Asthma Control measure for adults and children, and for the Adolescent Mental Health and/or Depression Screening measure. During the same period, gaps have widened for the following measures: Breast Cancer Screening, Childhood Immunization Status (Combo 10), Colorectal Cancer Screening, and Controlling High Blood Pressure.

“In Minnesota, we are fortunate to have data available that can pinpoint where disparities exist for people with health coverage through state programs. We are grateful for the partnership with DHS that allows us to bring these disparities to light – but we know it can’t stop there,” said Liz Cinqueonce, President of MN Community Measurement. “With the release of this latest report, we hope to spark community level conversations that can provide insights on the specific challenges and barriers that are root causes for what we are seeing in the data – and ultimately lead to new strategies that are both data- and community-informed to make meaningful progress in closing these gaps.”

In response to the findings, DHS Commissioner Jodi Harpstead remarked: “As Minnesota strives to address disparities in quality of care through our managed care public health insurance programs, this report shows there is still much work to be done. We remain strongly committed to engaging communities that are experiencing health disparities. We aim to break down persistent barriers and close these unconscionable gaps in quality of care and health outcomes.”

For more information and to access the full report, click here .

About MN Community Measurement

About MN Department of Human Services

MN Community Measurement Releases Latest Report on Health Care Disparities by Insurance Type

April 18, 2024

Posted in Press Release

MN Community Measurement Appoints Liz Cinqueonce, MBA, as President and CEO

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 20:25:00 GMT

ROSEVILLE, MN – MARCH 7, 2024

MN Community Measurement (MNCM), a national leader in health care quality, cost, and equity data, proudly announces Liz Cinqueonce as its new President and CEO, effective March 14, 2024. Cinqueonce, currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer (COO), brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success to this role.

As COO, Cinqueonce demonstrated exceptional leadership, strategic vision, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. She drove operational efficiency, fostered innovation, and built strong cross-functional teams, contributing significantly to MNCM’s growth and impact in Minnesota.

Board Chair, Dr. Joe Bianco, expressed confidence in Cinqueonce’s ability to lead the organization forward, highlighting MNCM’s ongoing dedication to innovation, strong community stakeholder relationships, and delivering effective data solutions to accelerate improvements in care. Dr. Bianco stated, “Liz Cinqueonce’s appointment marks an exciting new chapter for MN Community Measurement. Her leadership qualities and dedication to our mission make her the ideal candidate to lead us into the future.”

With over 15 years of experience in health care policy, management, and strategy, Cinqueonce is ideally positioned to lead MNCM. Her dedication to advancing the organization’s mission and vision was evident in her successful engagement of stakeholders, consensus building, and modernization efforts as COO.

“I am deeply honored to step into the role of President and CEO at MN Community Measurement. This organization has long been at the forefront of accelerating improvements in health care quality, equity, and affordability, and I am excited to build upon our successes,” said Cinqueonce. “Together with our talented team and dedicated partners, I am committed to fostering innovation and driving positive change that benefits patients and communities across Minnesota.”

Under Cinqueonce’s leadership, MN Community Measurement remains steadfast in its commitment to collaboration, transparency, and delivering actionable data to inform health care improvements.

Cinqueonce succeeds Julie Sonier, President and CEO until March 13, 2024, to whom the organization extends gratitude for her significant contributions.

About MN Community Measurement

MNCM empowers health care decision-makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. Since 2005, MNCM has collaborated with stakeholders to collect, analyze, and report health care data related to quality, cost, and equity. Learn more at www.mncm.org

Posted in Press Release

MN Community Measurement Appoints Liz Cinqueonce, MBA, as President and CEO

March 7, 2024

New Report Recognizes Minnesota Medical Groups for High Quality Performance

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 13:21:00 GMT

Several top performers on quality also achieve low costs

A new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM) combines data from multiple sources to determine which Minnesota medical groups consistently perform well on measures of health care quality. The report was released by MN Community Measurement (MNCM), an independent non-profit that serves as an objective, trusted source of information on Minnesota health care quality, cost, and equity.

The report, Minnesota Health Care Quality Report Part 3: Top Performing Medical Groups Across All Quality Measures , combines data from quality measures reported to MNCM throughout 2023 to identify top performing medical groups, defined as those with statistically better than average performance on at least half of the quality measures that were applicable to them.

New this year, the report also recognizes medical groups that are top quality performers and also achieve lower total cost of care for privately insured patients than the statewide average.

Top Performing Medical Groups

Seven medical groups in Minnesota achieved the designation as top performing groups for their overall quality performance in 2022. The seven top performing groups include:

Central Pediatrics
Essentia Health
HealthPartners Clinics
Mankato Clinic, Ltd.
Mayo Clinic
Park Nicollet Health Services
South Lake Pediatrics

Of the seven medical groups recognized for high quality, four also achieved lower than average total cost of care for their privately insured patients in 2022: Central Pediatrics, HealthPartners Clinics, Park Nicollet Health Services, and South Lake Pediatrics.

“It’s no small feat to achieve consistently high health care quality across a wide range of measures,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “Recognition of these high performing medical groups is well deserved. In addition, the fact that several of them achieve lower than average costs is important – it demonstrates that high quality and low cost can go hand in hand.”

“Patients need health care quality and affordability to go hand in hand, and this report demonstrates that health systems can achieve both,” said Andrea Walsh, HealthPartners President and CEO. “Our team of 27,000 colleagues is focused on improving quality and access while lowering total cost of care. We remain committed as ever to making much more urgently needed progress.”

Importance of Measurement

“Minnesota is unique in the capabilities that we’ve built to measure and report on health care outcomes,” said Sonier. “Having a common set of priorities and common set of data have been huge assets to our state in focusing efforts to drive improvement.”

About MN Community Measurement MN Community Measurement is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2005, MNCM works with doctors, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and state agencies to collect, analyze, and report health care data related to quality, cost, and equity of health care.

Posted in Press Release

New Report Recognizes Minnesota Medical Groups for High Quality Performance

January 11, 2024

MNCARES Study Insights for Care Coordination

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 20:17:00 GMT

The Minnesota Care Coordination Effectiveness Study (MNCARES) is focused on learning which approaches to care coordination for patients with complex health care needs and/or high health care costs produce the best outcomes for patients. As the study continues in its final year, the study team will be analyzing study data and writing papers that highlight learnings that have emerged regarding how care systems and care coordinators can produce the best care quality, utilization, and patient-centered outcomes.

Highlighted Learnings from MNCARES Series:

How did the pandemic affect patients with complex medical and social needs?

In order to answer this question, we interviewed 19 patients from 19 different and diverse types and locations of primary care systems. These patients were potentially high risk for being seriously affected by health care and social disruptions during the early COVID pandemic. From careful analysis of these interviews, we learned:

There had been little or no impact on these patients’ physical health or their medical services.
On the other hand, most reported major disconnections from family, friends, and community. Together with anxiety about their health, this had serious impact on their mental health and wellbeing.
Those retired or on government support had few financial impacts, unlike those still working.
Nearly all reported that their care coordinators had been very helpful in providing support and connections with care needs.

Key takeaways: Patients with complex medical and/or social needs found their relationship with their care coordinator to be especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Access to the full article is available here:

Whitebird RR, Solberg LI, JaKa MM, Kindt JM, Bergdall AR, LaPlante B, Dehmer SP. The Impact of COVID-19 on Patients Receiving Care Coordination in Primary care: a Qualitative study . Published online June 15, 2023.

Posted in Blog

MNCARES Study Insights for Care Coordination

January 8, 2024

MN Community Measurement President and CEO Julie Sonier to Step Down in 2024

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 15:32:00 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS – JANUARY 3, 2024

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) announced today that Julie Sonier, who has led the organization as its President and CEO since 2017, plans to step down in the spring of 2024. During her tenure, Sonier has led major transformational efforts to position MNCM for continued success in its role as a multi-stakeholder nonprofit that drives improvement in health care quality, cost, and equity.

“During her tenure as President of MNCM, Julie Sonier has guided our organization to become a national leader and a premier source of data addressing health care quality, costs, and health disparities,” noted Joe Bianco MD, Chairman of the Board, MNCM. “Her leadership has brought us into a new era of quality assessment and monitoring. She has made a tremendous impact on this work both statewide and nationally.”

MNCM has long been a national leader in collecting, analyzing, and reporting information about health care quality, cost, and equity. It publishes several reports each year on health care quality, cost, and disparities in Minnesota, and serves as a neutral convener of health care providers, health plans, employers, consumers, researchers, and state agencies to establish common priorities for measurement and improvement.

MNCM is unique in the nation in the breadth and depth of measures that it collects from both electronic medical records data and health plan claims data. In recent years, MNCM’s accomplishments include:

Transforming and modernizing data collection from health care providers and health plans to improve timeliness and consistency of the data, as well as ease of reporting;
Establishing the Common Health Information Reporting Partnership, or CHIRP, to facilitate efficient and timely data sharing between health care providers and health plans aimed at improving quality of care and patient outcomes;
Designing and implementing a unique roadmap for collecting and harmonizing data about social risk factors such as food and housing insecurity; and
Expanding MNCM’s analytic capacity to support quality improvement activities and research aimed at improving health care outcomes.

“I am so proud of the progress that MNCM has made over the past several years that positions the organization to adapt and innovate in response to evolving needs for data related to health care quality, cost, and equity,” said Sonier. “MNCM is a place where stakeholders with many different perspectives come together to work on how we can use data together to drive improvement in health care, and it’s been a great privilege to lead this work over the past seven years.”

Bianco notes, “The Board of Directors is currently engaged in a search process for a new President. Our goal is to have a smooth transition to new leadership within the next few months.”

About MN Community Measurement

MNCM is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2005, MNCM works with doctors, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and state agencies to collect, analyze, and report health care data related to quality, cost, and equity of health care. Learn more at www.mncm.org .

January 3, 2024

Posted in Press Release

MN Community Measurement President and CEO Julie Sonier to Step Down in 2024

New Report Shows Post-Pandemic Decline in Many Key Minnesota Health Care Quality Measures

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 04:25:00 GMT

Childhood immunizations among the largest impacts

A new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM) finds that while several measures of preventive health care and care for acute and chronic conditions improved in 2022, some key measures worsened and only one has improved compared to pre-pandemic levels. MNCM is an independent non-profit that serves as an objective, trusted source of information on Minnesota health care quality, cost, and equity.

The report, Minnesota Health Care Quality Report Part 2: Clinical Quality Measures Reported by Payers , includes 2022 data for eleven measures of preventive care like immunizations and cancer screening as well as care for acute and chronic health conditions. MN Community Measurement collected the data from ten health plans that provide insurance coverage in Minnesota. In addition to statewide averages and trends presented in the report, a detailed set of appendix tables includes results for each quality measure by medical group.

Key Report Findings

In 2022, statewide performance rates improved for four measures and declined for three. The largest improvement was seen in appropriate prescribing of antibiotics for acute bronchitis (7.5 percentage points), and the largest decline was in immunizations for children (4.9 percent points).
Compared to pre-pandemic levels (2018 data), seven of the eleven measures included in the report were significantly worse in 2022, and one measure (immunizations for adolescents) was better. The biggest declines compared to pre-pandemic performance were for measures of spirometry testing for diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD (9.4 percentage point decline) and childhood immunizations (8.0 percentage point decline).

Childhood Immunizations

The measure used in the MNCM report for childhood immunizations represents the percentage of children who received a series of recommended vaccinations by their second birthday and is also referred to as the Childhood Combo 10 immunization rate. It is important to better understand the factors driving the large decline in this measure in 2022 and compared to pre-pandemic levels. According to Steven Inman, MD, a practicing pediatrician and Medical Director for Children’s Health Network, a majority of the decline in the childhood immunizations measure has been driven by children missing influenza vaccinations. Dr. Inman is also a member of MN Community Measurement’s Board of Directors.

According to Dr. Inman, in 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a greater than usual increase in Childhood Combo 10 immunization rates at Children’s Health Network as parents worried about Covid-19 vaccinated their children for influenza in greater numbers due to fear of the “triple pandemic” (Covid-19, RSV and Influenza). In 2022, the Children’s Health Network Combo 10 rate was down 4.8 percentage points from its peak in 2020 driven in large part by a 5.9 percentage point decrease in the influenza immunization rate. Because the Combo 10 measures vaccines given over a 2-year period the “Covid-19 bump” persisted somewhat in the 2021 measure year, but now we are starting to observe the effects of declining influenza immunization rates. “Unfortunately, that trend has continued. Through October 2023, the Children’s Health Network influenza immunization rate is down 9.3 percentage points from the 2020 peak, which may be an indicator that the statewide rate for the Combo 10 measure will decline further in 2023,” said Dr. Inman. The data from Children’s Health Network represent a combination of pediatric practices that are reported separately by MNCM.

Overall Trends

“It’s clear from the findings in this report and earlier findings from MNCM that there is still a lot of work ahead to get important measures of health care quality back to where they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “In addition, the medical group level results in this report show that there is substantial variation and room for improvement even beyond that baseline.”

Importance of Measurement

Measuring and reporting on health care cost, utilization, and quality helps consumers understand how care varies across providers, allows providers to identify improvement opportunities and how their measures compare to others, and helps health plans and other purchasers better understand and improve value for money that is spent on health care.

“Minnesota is unique in the capabilities that we’ve built to measure and report on a robust set of measures related to health care cost, utilization, quality, and disparities,” said Sonier. “Having a common set of priorities and common set of data have been huge assets to our state in focusing efforts to drive improvement.”

New Report Shows Post-Pandemic Decline in Many Key Minnesota Health Care Quality Measures

December 20, 2023

Posted in Press Release

Minnesota Health Care Costs Continue Post-Pandemic Rebound With 7% Increase in 2022

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:35:00 GMT

New report highlights cost trends and variation for people with private health insurance

MINNEAPOLIS – NOVEMBER 30, 2023

A new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM) finds that the cost of health care services for people with private health insurance increased by 7.0 percent in 2022 in Minnesota. The report highlights cost and utilization trends by type of health care service as well as variation by region within Minnesota and by medical group. MNCM is an independent non-profit that serves as an objective, trusted source of information on Minnesota health care quality, cost, and equity.

The report, Health Care Cost & Utilization in 2022 , analyzes data for about 1.2 million people with private health insurance and nearly $10 billion in health care spending in 2022. Detailed analysis for 102 medical groups is available through a set of appendix tables to the report.

Key Report Findings

Statewide, the total cost of care (TCOC) for people with private insurance increased by 7.0 percent per person in 2022. Growth in 2022 was slower than the 12.5 percent experienced in 2021, much of which likely represented “catch-up” back to normal levels of service utilization following pandemic declines. The most recent 3-year average growth rate was 5.5 percent, which was higher than the average annual growth of 4.9 percent from 2014 to 2019.

Costs grew fastest in 2022 for prescription drugs (17.1 percent per person). The slowest rate of growth was for inpatient hospital services, which increased by 0.4 percent. Costs for outpatient hospital services and professional services grew by 8.3 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively.

Costs per person with private insurance vary substantially by region of the state. The lowest cost region in 2022 was St. Cloud, with costs 8.8 percent below the state average due primarily to lower use of services but also lower prices. The highest cost region was Rochester, with costs 37.4 percent above the state average, due to higher prices. The regional analysis is based on where patients live, not where they receive services.

For most service types, utilization continued to rebound in 2022 from declines experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among service categories analyzed for this report, outpatient surgery had the largest increase at 8.0 percent.
- One exception to the trend of increased utilization was inpatient hospital admissions, which showed a 4.3 percent decline in 2022. Inpatient hospital admissions are the only category of service included in the report with utilization that remains below pre-pandemic (2019) rates for patients with private health insurance.

The report also sheds light on variation in prices for individual services. For example, in 2022 the cost for a chest x-ray ranged from $49 to $348, depending on where the service took place. The prices paid by private health insurance are substantially higher than other insurance types. For example, in 2022 private health insurers paid just over double Medicare reimbursement rates for a basket of comparable services that has been tracked over time by MNCM. The gap between private insurance and Medicare rates has been increasing over time.

“The analysis in this report is a powerful source of information about trends and variation in health care costs and utilization across Minnesota,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “With this data, we can better understand health care cost trends at the statewide, regional, and medical group levels, including how differences in use of services and differences in prices contribute to this variation.”

Methodology

This report is based on analysis of claims data for 2022 from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners, Medica Health Plans, and Preferred One. The analysis used the nationally-endorsed Total Cost of Care methodology developed by HealthPartners. Patients are attributed to medical groups based on where they receive the majority of primary care services. For analysis at the regional and medical groups levels, the data are risk-adjusted and high-cost outliers are truncated. More details on the methodology are available in the report.

Importance of Measurement

November 30, 2023

Minnesota Health Care Costs Continue Post-Pandemic Rebound With 7% Increase in 2022

Posted in Press Release

Uneven Progress, Mixed Results on Minnesota Health Disparities in 2022

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 12:39:00 GMT

New report provides data to support health equity improvement strategies

MN Community Measurement (MNCM), a nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting and reporting data on health care quality, cost, and equity to drive improvement in health care, has released its annual report on health care disparities by race, Hispanic ethnicity, language, and country of birth. The measures included in the report assess outcomes for diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and depression, along with preventive care screenings for cancer and adolescent mental health. Separate appendices to the report detail medical group level results by race/ethnicity, language, and country of origin.

Key Findings

The report documents continued wide disparities in health care quality and outcomes by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin using data collected by MNCM in 2023 that reflects care provided in 2022. Key findings include the following:

Groups that are most likely to have quality outcomes that are lower than the statewide average include people who are Black, Indigenous/Native, Hispanic/Latinx; people whose preferred language is Hmong, Somali, or Spanish; and people born in Laos, Mexico, or Somalia.
In general, the measure with the largest disparities across subpopulations is colorectal cancer screening. This has important health and equity impacts, because colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of death from cancer in the U.S., and early detection and treatment is associated with higher survival and lower treatment cost.
- This year, MNCM’s data on disparities in colorectal cancer screening show that screening for nearly all the race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin groups fell compared to 2021. In part, this was due to incorporating a U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation to begin screening at age 45 rather than 50.
- Even after adjusting for the impact of the new age range for screening, rates for many population subgroups fell in 2022. Two “bright spots” were improvements in rates for non-English speakers and people who identify as multi-racial.
Except for colorectal cancer screening, 2022 rates for most subpopulations were significantly higher or not statistically different than 2021 rates. Notable exceptions were declining rates for optimal vascular care and optimal asthma control for children among people who are White, Not Hispanic/Latinx, English speakers, or U.S.-born.
2022 results for most health care quality measures remained statistically below pre-pandemic (2019) baselines for most population subgroups. One notable exception was the measure for adolescent mental health and/or depression screening, where 11 of 12 subpopulations had a rate that was higher than their 2019 rate.
There is wide variation in health care quality measure results across medical groups and across subpopulations. Some medical groups achieved above average outcomes across patient subpopulations, while others had substantial variation in outcomes.

Implications of this Report

“In many ways, this report provides a roadmap for organizations like health plans, health care providers, employers, community groups, and others to show how they can focus their efforts to improve health equity,” said Julie Sonier, President and CEO of MNCM. For example, contractual incentives can be an effective tool for reducing disparities within medical groups. Investing in structural capacity to analyze and address disparities, including partnerships with community-based organizations, has the potential to address barriers to optimal outcomes and to reduce disparities. For measures like colorectal cancer screening, targeted education and outreach campaigns by community groups and employers about the importance of screening are also promising strategies to reduce disparities.

“As an organization that brings together data from across the state to drive improvement in health care, MNCM is proud of the role that we play in shining a spotlight on disparities and helping to drive improvement,” said Sonier. “The data that we produce calls attention to this important issue and helps to drive investment on many fronts to make progress toward health equity.”

Importance of Measurement

Measuring and reporting on health care quality and disparities in outcomes helps consumers understand how care varies across providers, allows providers to identify improvement opportunities and how their measures compare to others, and helps health plans and other purchasers better understand and improve value for money that is spent on health care.

“Minnesota is unique in the capabilities that we’ve built to measure and report on health care outcomes,” said Sonier. “Having a common set of priorities and a common trusted source of data have been huge assets to Minnesota in focusing efforts to drive improvement.”

Posted in Press Release

October 26, 2023

Uneven Progress, Mixed Results on Minnesota Health Disparities in 2022

How do other Minnesota care systems provide care coordination?

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 17:09:00 GMT

MNCARES Study Enters Final Year – Release of Study Findings Begins and Continues through 2024

The Minnesota Care Coordination Effectiveness Study (MNCARES) is focused on learning which approaches to care coordination for patients with complex health care needs and/or high health care costs produce the best outcomes for patients. As the study enters its final year, the study team will be analyzing study data and writing papers that highlight learnings that have emerged regarding how care systems and care coordinators can produce the best care quality, utilization, and patient-centered outcomes.

This post showcases the first paper. Please watch for additional publications to be highlighted in the newsletter and blog in 2023 and 2024.

Highlighted Learnings from MNCARES Series:

How do other Minnesota care systems provide care coordination?

The majority of primary care clinics in Minnesota provide care coordination services for their patients with complex medical or social needs, but there is some variety in how they do that. We surveyed leaders in 42 care systems of various sizes and locations around the state to learn about how their approaches differ. Some of what we learned was:

82% of large care systems, 40% of medium, and 25% of small ones had a social worker on their care teams, but nearly all reported addressing both medical and social needs.
Size of care system was not related to either the type of patients targeted for care coordination or the type of services provided.
Care coordination teams across care systems included: registered nurses (86%), practical nurse/medical assistants (55%), social workers (45%), nonclinical staff (40%), and community health workers (24%).
The majority (79%) of care systems bill payment sources for care coordination services.

Key takeaway: Though large and small care systems differ in resources and capabilities; different sized organizations were generally more similar to each other than different in their approach to care coordination.

Access to the full article is available here:

Solberg LI, Bergdall AR, Ziegenfuss JY, JaKa MM, Whitebird RR, Chrenka EA, Beran MS, McDonald K, Laplante B, Dehmer SP. Care coordination in primary care: mapping the territory. American Journal of Managed Care. 2023;29(10): In press. Preprint posted online July 12, 2023. https://link.edgepilot.com/s/eeda2f3a/E8lmfPO8LUq_Ida9p6rB-A?u=https://www.ajmc.com/view/care-coordination-in-primary-care-mapping-the-territory

How do other Minnesota care systems provide care coordination?

September 20, 2023

Posted in Blog

President’s Blog | Health Care Quality Report, Part 1 Insights

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 20:50:00 GMT

In late August, MNCM published its Health Care Quality Report: Part 1 for measures calculated from clinical data collected in 2023, primarily reflecting care delivered in 2022. The report includes data for a total of 20 clinical quality measures (11 for adults and 9 for children/adolescents).

Despite improvement in 2022 for some measures – notably optimal diabetes care, mental health screening for adolescents, follow-up for depression care, and the use of PHQ-9/9M for assessing symptoms in people who have depression — statewide performance for most measures is not yet back to pre-pandemic (2019) levels.

Statewide averages for 12 of the 20 measures included in the report showed movement in the wrong direction in 2022. Some of this was expected – for example, it is not surprising that colorectal cancer screening rates fell because 2022 was the first year that this measure was expanded to include people ages 45 to 49. However, some of the 2022 decline in statewide performance was more concerning: rates of optimal vascular care were 5 percentage points lower than in 2019, and the same is true of optimal asthma control for children.

Ongoing strains resulting from the pandemic — including workforce and financial challenges – are likely barriers to addressing the erosion in clinical quality. Anecdotally, we have heard about clinician shortages that make it hard to even keep up with the demand for appointments, never mind doing outreach to ensure patients are getting preventive or follow-up care.

However, we also know that even getting back to pre-pandemic levels would improve care and outcomes for thousands of Minnesotans. This isn’t an end goal, of course, because we know that there was plenty of opportunity for improvement even then.

MNCM brings objective, trusted data to the table to shed light on how we are doing statewide and where we have opportunities for improvement – but we will need sustained and focused attention from all stakeholders – health care providers, payers, employers, and others – to focus on this problem. This includes addressing some of the pressing issues like workforce and financial challenges that are preventing greater focus on quality improvement, as well as longer term strategies that create the right incentives and opportunities for better health outcomes for all Minnesotans.

With gratitude,

September 19, 2023

President’s Blog | Health Care Quality Report, Part 1 Insights

Posted in Blog

MNCM President & CEO Julie Sonier

Minnesota Health Care Quality Shows Mixed Performance in 2022

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 12:54:00 GMT

For Most Measures, Quality Has Not Returned to Pre-Pandemic Levels

MINNEAPOLIS – August 31, 2023

Statewide performance on key measures of health care quality improved in 2022 but remains below pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report from MN Community Measurement. The Minnesota Health Care Quality Report Part 1: Clinical Quality Measures Reported by Medical Groups includes information about trends for measures of health care quality, including asthma, depression, diabetes, heart disease, and colorectal cancer screening. The report includes data on statewide averages and trends, along with variation across medical groups and regions. Data on quality performance by specific medical groups and clinics is included in detailed appendices .

The new results come from data reported to MNCM in 2023, covering services received by patients in 2022. The report includes a total of 20 measures (11 for adults, and 9 for children and adolescents). Report highlights include:

Statewide rates for six quality measures improved in 2022, including diabetes care, mental health screening for adolescents, follow-up for depression care, and the use of specific tools for assessing symptoms in people who have depression.
Statewide rates for twelve quality measures worsened in 2022, including for colorectal cancer screening, adult depression remission and response one year after diagnosis, optimal vascular care, and optimal asthma control for children.
Statewide performance for many measures remains below pre-pandemic levels. For example, the rate of optimal vascular care for adults in 2022 was 5.0 percentage points below the rate for 2019 (55.3 percent vs 60.3 percent). For children, there was a 5.0 percentage point gap between the rate of optimal asthma care in 2022 vs. 2019 (53.5 percent compared to 58.3 percent).
Statewide rates of colorectal cancer screening declined substantially in 2022 (from 72.2 percent to 67.8 percent). In part, this decrease was because the age group for whom screening is recommended expanded to include people aged 45 to 49. Even without the expansion of the population included in this measure, however, the rate would still have decreased by a statistically significant amount in 2022.

“This report is a call to action that we need to pay sustained attention to improving health care quality in Minnesota,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “We know the health care system is still recovering from the financial and staffing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that certainly doesn’t make it easy. But even just getting back to where we were before the pandemic – which itself had a lot of room for improvement – would improve care and outcomes for tens of thousands of Minnesotans.”

The report includes performance data for approximately 117 medical groups that operate over 750 clinics in Minnesota and border communities in neighboring states.

Importance of Measurement

Measuring and reporting on health care quality helps consumers understand how care varies across providers, allows providers to identify improvement opportunities and how their measures compare to others, and helps health plans and other purchasers better understand and improve value for money that is spent on health care.

About MN Community Measurement

Minnesota Health Care Quality Shows Mixed Performance in 2022

August 31, 2023

Posted in Press Release

New Report Shows Bright Spots, Areas of Concern for Quality in Minnesota Public Health Insurance Programs

Thu, 04 May 2023 16:16:00 GMT

Disparities across payer types and within state insurance programs persist

Gaps in health care quality for people with coverage through Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare compared to other types of health insurance persisted in 2021, according to a new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM). The report was prepared for the Minnesota Department of Human Services and compares health care quality and health outcomes for people who received coverage through Minnesota Health Care Programs managed care organizations (MHCP MCO) to the same measures for people with private health insurance coverage or Medicare Advantage plans. The report includes 21 measures of health care quality for preventive care, chronic disease management, and mental health.

As health care disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic began to wane in 2021, many measures of health care quality started to rebound from the sharp declines that happened in 2020. As a result, several quality measures for MHCP MCO enrollees improved in 2021 — these included measures for colorectal cancer screening, controlling high blood pressure, optimal asthma control for adults, optimal diabetes care, and adolescent mental health screening. For these measures, performance gaps between MHCP MCOs and other payers have also narrowed or stayed the same over the past several years.

For breast cancer screening and childhood immunization, however, quality performance has been declining and gaps between MHCP MCO performance and other payer types have been widening over time. Just 54.4 percent of MHCP MCO enrollees were up to date on breast cancer screening in 2021, compared to 75.6 percent in the “other payers” comparison group. Among children who turned two years old in 2021, only 41.0 percent who had MHCP MCO coverage were up to date on recommended immunizations, compared to 67.6 percent with coverage through other payers.

The report also examines variation in quality within the MHCP MCO population, by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin. Key findings related to variation within MHCP programs include significantly lower performance rates for Black and Indigenous/Native people, compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Of the 21 measures included in the report, rates were significantly lower for Black patients on 13 of the measures, and significantly lower for Indigenous/Native patients on 7 of the measures.

“Being able to measure and report on health care quality in this way really shines a light on where we are making progress and where additional strategies may be needed to improve outcomes for people who have health coverage through state programs,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “While it’s encouraging to see progress in some areas, there is a long way to go to improve outcomes for people covered by these programs. For nearly all measures, tackling the gaps in outcomes will require innovative strategies and sustained focus to move the needle.”

Appendices to the report include quality results for patients enrolled in MHCP MCOs by medical group and clinic location , as well as details on the methodology for data collection and analysis.

About Minnesota Health Care Programs

Minnesota Health Care Programs include Medical Assistance, Minnesota’s Medicaid program, and MinnesotaCare. These public health care programs provide coverage to Minnesotans with low incomes who cannot afford private insurance. They currently collectively serve more than one million Minnesotans.

New Report Shows Bright Spots, Areas of Concern for Quality in Minnesota Public Health Insurance Programs

May 4, 2023

Posted in Press Release

Minnesota Health Care Costs Rebounded in 2021 After Decline During Pandemic

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 07:42:00 GMT

New report highlights variation in cost among Minnesota regions and medical groups

A new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM) finds a 12.5 percent increase in health care costs in 2021 for Minnesotans with private health insurance, and highlights trends and variation by region within the state and by medical group. MNCM is an independent non-profit that serves as an objective, trusted source of information on Minnesota health care quality, cost, and equity.

The report, Health Care Cost & Utilization in 2021 , is based on data for about 1.3 million people with private health insurance and nearly $10 billion in health care spending in 2021. Detailed information for 104 medical groups is available via updated medical group profile pages and MNCM’s interactive Dynamic Tables tool that allows filtering and sorting of data on total cost, relative prices, and utilization.

Key Report Findings

Statewide, the total cost of care (TCOC) for people with private insurance increased by 12.5 percent per person in 2021, after falling by 2.5 percent in 2020. Much of the rapid cost growth in 2021 represents a return to pre-pandemic trends, following significant disruptions to care in 2020. Over the two-year period that includes 2020 and 2021, total cost of care grew at an annualized rate of 4.7 percent per year, which is slightly lower than the pre-pandemic trend of 4.9 percent per year from 2014 to 2019.

Costs grew fastest in 2021 for professional services (16.2 percent per person) and outpatient services (15.9 percent). Costs for inpatient care and prescription drugs grew more slowly (6.4 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively).

All regions of the state showed an increase in total cost of care, but the amount varied by region. Costs grew fastest for patients who live in the Rochester area (14.3 percent per person), and slowest in the Duluth area (8.1 percent). Four regions continue to have per patient costs that are lower than the statewide average: St. Cloud, St. Paul, Minnetonka, and Minneapolis.

Utilization increased for all types of health care services in 2021. Outpatient surgery had the largest increase at 18.7 percent. Also notable was the 15.5 percent increase for imaging and 14.7 percent increase in pathology and lab tests.

Despite rapid growth in some services in 2021, utilization of many services remained below pre-pandemic levels. Rates of inpatient admissions, emergency room visits, and outpatient surgery were below 2019 rates, while utilization of primary care visits, prescription drugs, and imaging was higher than 2019.

“This analysis is a unique source of transparent information about health care costs and the factors that influence cost,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “With this data, we’re able to understand not just how medical groups compare to each other in terms of total cost, but also how much of the variation is driven by prices vs. utilization of services.”

Health plans that contributed data for 2021 include Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners, Medica Health Plans, and Preferred One.

Importance of Measurement

About MN Community Measurement

Minnesota Health Care Costs Rebounded in 2021 After Decline During Pandemic

January 25, 2023

Posted in Press Release

Key Measures of Minnesota Health Care Quality Improve, But Are Below Pre-Pandemic Levels

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:27:00 GMT

Nine Minnesota medical groups recognized as “top performers” for 2021

Two new reports illustrate health care quality trends and variation in Minnesota and recognize nine Minnesota medical groups as top performers on health care quality. The reports were released by MN Community Measurement (MNCM), an independent non-profit that serves as an objective, trusted source of information on Minnesota health care quality, cost, and equity.

The first report, Minnesota Health Care Quality Report Part 2: Clinical Quality Measures Reported by Payers , provides information on statewide and medical group performance on quality measures that MNCM aggregates from health plans. The second new report, Minnesota Health Care Quality Report Part 3: Top Performing Medical Groups Across All Quality Measures , combines these data with clinical quality measures published by MNCM in fall 2022 to identify top performing medical groups, defined as those with statistically better than average performance on at least half of the measures that were applicable to them. The previously published report can be accessed here .

New Data on Health Care Quality

The first new report, Minnesota Health Care Quality Report Part 2: Clinical Quality Measures Reported by Payers, includes quality indicators for preventive care like cancer screening and immunizations, and also for care of acute and chronic conditions. While the statewide performance rates for most measures improved in 2021 compared to 2020, for nearly all measures performance remains below pre-pandemic levels.

One exception to this trend was immunizations for adolescents, which measures the percentage of adolescents who have had specific immunizations by their 13 ^th birthday. The statewide rate for this measure climbed to 36.4 percent in 2021, up from 31.2 percent in 2018.

The measure for childhood immunization status, which measures whether children are up to date on ten different childhood vaccines by their second birthday, declined from 56.8 percent in 2020 to 53.0 percent in 2021. It is possible that care delivery disruptions in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 may have contributed to the decrease in this rate.

Across all measures, there is significant variation across medical groups in performance. The two measures with the largest variation across medical groups were Chlamydia Screening in Women (10.8 percent to 85.2 percent) and Avoidance of Antibiotic Treatment in Acute Bronchitis/Bronchiolitis (11.5 percent to 75.5 percent).

The report includes performance data for 172 medical groups that operate in Minnesota and border communities in neighboring states. Medical group and clinic level performance is also publicly available, with profile pages for all measures and an interactive Dynamic Tables tool that allows filtering and sorting of the data.

Health plans that contributed data for this report include Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN, HealthPartners, Hennepin Health, Itasca Medical Care, Medica, Preferred One, PrimeWest Health, Sanford Health, South Country Health Alliance, and UCare.

Top Performing Medical Groups

The second new report, Minnesota Health Care Quality Report Part 3: Top Performing Medical Groups Across All Quality Measures , identifies nine medical groups in Minnesota as top performers based on their overall quality performance in 2021. The nine top performing groups include:

CentraCare Health;
Central Pediatrics;
Child and Teen Medical Center;
Entira Family Clinics;
Essentia Health;
HealthPartners Clinics;
Mankato Clinic, Ltd.;
Park Nicollet Health Services; and
Pediatric & Young Adult Medicine

“It’s no small feat to achieve consistently high quality across a wide range of measures,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “Recognition of these high performing medical groups is well deserved.”

Importance of Measurement

About MN Community Measurement

Key Measures of Minnesota Health Care Quality Improve, But Are Below Pre-Pandemic Levels

January 12, 2023

Posted in Press Release

Pandemic’s Impact on Health Care Quality by Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Country of Birth Is Still Evident, Despite Improved Performance in 2021

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 12:49:00 GMT

New report provides data to support health equity investment

Download Report

Health care quality improved in 2021 for a core set of measures across categories defined by race, Hispanic ethnicity, language, and country of birth, according to a new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM). The measures include care for chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and depression, along with preventive care screenings for cancer and depression.

“The good news is that we saw many improvements in quality by race, ethnicity, language, and country of birth,” said Julie Sonier, President and CEO of MNCM. “The bad news is that we still haven’t made up ground that was lost in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we still have persistent disparities in quality and outcomes between groups.”

Using one of the most comprehensive sources of data on health care disparities in the nation, MNCM’s new report provides an update on health care disparities by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin for Minnesota as a whole, with separate appendices detailing medical group-level results by race/ethnicity , language , and country of origin .

Key Findings

The report documents continued wide disparities in health care quality and outcomes by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin using data collected by MNCM in 2022 that reflects care provided in 2021. Key findings include the following:

Groups that are most likely to have quality performance rates that are lower than the statewide average include Black, Indigenous/Native, Hispanic/Latinx; speakers of Hmong, Somali, or Spanish; and patients born in Laos, Mexico, or Somalia.
For many of these groups, the measure with the largest disparities compared to the statewide average is colorectal cancer screening, with rates that are 15 to 40 percentage points below the statewide average. This has important health impacts, because colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of death from cancer in the U.S., and early detection and treatment is associated with higher survival and lower treatment cost.
Despite improved performance for several quality measures in 2021 compared to 2020, results for many groups remain statistically below their 2019 rates. This is true for the population as a whole and for Black, White, Not Hispanic/Latinx, English-speaking, and U.S.-born. Some smaller subpopulations such as Indigenous/Native and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander also have lower rates for many measures in 2021 compared to 2019, but the changes were not statistically significant due to smaller numbers of people included in the measures.
One bright spot with statewide improvement and improvement within many subpopulations is adolescent mental health screening. The statewide average performance for this measure in 2021 was 91.2 percent, compared to 88.7 percent in 2019. Rates for nearly all subpopulations improved between 2019 and 2021, with some of the lowest gaps between groups of any quality measure.

About MN Community Measurement MN Community Measurement is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2005, MNCM is a statewide resource for timely, comparable information on health care quality, cost, and equity. Learn more at www.mncm.org .

November 7, 2022

Pandemic’s Impact on Health Care Quality by Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Country of Birth Is Still Evident, Despite Improved Performance in 2021

Posted in Press Release

Minnesota Health Care Quality Regaining Ground Lost During Pandemic

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 13:11:00 GMT

New Report Highlights Statewide Trends, Variation by Region and Medical Group

Statewide performance on key measures of health care quality improved in 2021 but remains below pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report from MN Community Measurement. The Minnesota Health Care Quality Report Part 1: Clinical Quality Measures Reported by Medical Groups includes information about trends for measures of health care quality, including care for diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and mental health. In addition to providing statewide averages and data for specific medical groups and clinics, the report features a new level of analysis that shows variation in performance for 16 geographic regions within Minnesota.

The new results come from data reported to MNCM in 2022, covering services received by patients in 2021. Report highlights include:

For most quality measures, statewide performance improved in 2021 but remains below the pre-pandemic level. Two exceptions to this trend include adolescent mental health screening, which has increased each year for the past five years, and improved outcomes after one year for adults diagnosed with depression.
The data also show a return toward more typical patient volumes in 2021. During the first year of the pandemic fewer people were accessing care for preventive services and management of chronic conditions, raising concerns about potential long-term impacts on health from delayed or forgone care.
For the first time, the report analyzes variation across 16 regions within Minnesota to better understand regional differences in health care quality and outcomes. The Rochester and Minnetonka areas had above average outcomes for six of the eight measures included in this analysis, while several regions were below the state average on half or more of the measures.
Across all measures, there continues to be significant variation in performance among medical groups and clinics. For both adults and children, the largest variation was in Optimal Asthma Control.

“It is encouraging to see the partial recovery for most measures in 2021, but Minnesota still has some distance to go in getting back to where we were prior to the pandemic,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “Additionally, the high level of variation in quality that we see suggests that there is substantial room for improvement in most measures.”

The report includes performance data for approximately 125 medical groups that operate about 800 clinics in Minnesota and border communities in neighboring states. Medical group and clinic level performance is also publicly available, with profile pages for all measures and an interactive Dynamic Tables tool that allows filtering and sorting of the data.

Importance of Measurement

Minnesota Health Care Quality Regaining Ground Lost During Pandemic

September 13, 2022

Posted in Press Release

Recent Analysis Shows Racial Disparities in Depression Treatment

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 15:47:00 GMT

By Julie Sonier, MNCM President

I recently came across an interesting report on racial disparities in depression treatment by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Published in May 2022, I found this report noteworthy for several reasons.

First, it directly addresses two topics that have been much in the news and the focus of attention from health care stakeholders of all types in the last couple of years: mental health, and racial disparities in health and health care. Both topics have taken on increased urgency considering the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased attention to racial disparities and racial justice since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020.

Second, several of the findings are quite striking. The analysis suggests that major depression is likely significantly underdiagnosed in Black and Hispanic communities, especially in communities where there were fewer behavioral health care providers. Among those who do receive a diagnosis, the analysis showed disparities in treatment of depression, for both prescription drug treatment and counseling.

Third, there are substantial data limitations and hurdles that must be overcome to better understand and act on disparities. For this analysis, race/ethnicity was estimated based on the majority race/ethnicity among households by zip code. Given the data limitations and the urgent need for improved understanding of disparities, this approach represents a creative solution – but it is far from perfect and highlights the urgent need for better information if we are to make progress in improving health equity.

Though not directly comparable to the data analyzed in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association study, the data on depression outcomes collected by MNCM also show disparities by race and ethnicity, as well as language and country of origin (RELC). In May, we published our annual report on disparities in quality metrics by RELC using data collected in 2021 (largely reflecting 2020 dates of service). Among adults diagnosed with depression, rates of remission at six months for Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous Minnesotans were well below the statewide average (at 59 percent, 72 percent, and 73 percent of the statewide average, respectively).

MNCM is frequently sought out as a national leader in the collection of high-quality, comprehensive data on RELC that we use to understand disparities in care and health outcomes. We are proud of the collective work of our entire community to get to this point but know that there is so much more that needs to be done – related to improving the availability and reliability of data, but also in how data are leveraged to drive knowledge and action.

Given MNCM’s focus on data to drive improvement, we are interested in hearing your stories about using the data for improvement in health and health equity. We also seek to partner with researchers, health care stakeholders, government agencies, and others on leveraging data in ways that generate insights and action. Please email us at support@mncm.org to find out more about potential ways to partner with MNCM on leveraging data or to share your stories of data-driven strategies for improvement in health care quality and health equity.

Posted in Blog

July 11, 2022

Recent Analysis Shows Racial Disparities in Depression Treatment

In Minnesota, Large Disparities in Health Care Persist by Race, Language, and Country of Birth

Tue, 31 May 2022 14:56:00 GMT

New report provides data to support improvement efforts

Minnesotans who are Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic/Latinx are far more likely than others to experience gaps in health care quality and less than optimal health outcomes, according to a new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM). The report documents continued wide disparities in health care quality and outcomes by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin using data collected by MNCM in 2021 that reflects care provided in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic and increased attention to equity and social justice in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd have combined to highlight the urgency of health equity as a priority for most health care stakeholders in Minnesota and nationally. As a result, comprehensive and reliable data about disparities are more important than ever – to identify problems, prioritize actions, and evaluate progress toward goals.

Key Findings

Using one of the most comprehensive sources of data on health care disparities in the nation, MNCM’s new report provides an update on disparities by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin for Minnesota as a whole and by medical group.

Key findings of the analysis include the following:

Black and Indigenous Native patients fared worse than average on nearly all of the 18 measures included in the report, and Hispanic/Latinx patients fared worse than average on 12 of the measures. For all three of these groups, some of the largest gaps are in screening for colorectal cancer — with rates that are 15 to 17 percentage points below the statewide average of 71 percent.
Hmong, Spanish, and Somali are among the most common languages in Minnesota for patients with a preferred language other than English. Patients who speak these languages often have significantly lower rates of optimal care compared to the statewide average. As with race, the gaps are largest for colorectal cancer screening, where patients who speak Hmong, Spanish and Somali have screening rates that are 35, 25, and 42 percentage points below the statewide average, respectively.
Mexico, Somalia, and Laos are among the most common countries of birth outside of the U.S., and quality measures for patients born in these countries are often lower than for U.S.-born patients. Some of the largest gaps for these patients are for colorectal cancer screening (ranging from 23 to 40 percentage points below the statewide average) and follow-up care for depression (ranging from 9 to 15 percentage points below the statewide average for follow-up with adults after 12 months).

In addition to statewide results, appendices to the report also include results of quality measures by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin at the medical group level. This analysis is useful for understanding variation in outcomes both within and across medical groups.

“As an organization that brings together data from across the state to drive improvement in health care, MNCM has an important part to play in these efforts,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “But action is needed on many fronts – building trust among patients, delivering the right care at the right time, making sure that the way we pay for health care includes incentives for reducing disparities, and making sure that the right public policies are in place to support and sustain progress over time.”

The report’s analysis includes measures of statewide disparities for colorectal cancer screening, optimal diabetes care, optimal vascular care, optimal asthma control, mental health screening for adolescents, and outcomes of depression care for both adults and adolescents. Only patients who meet certain criteria (for example, having a medical office visit during the year) are counted in these measures. This is an important factor to consider in drawing general conclusions about population health from this data – for example, the measures in this report do not include people who received no health care or only received care at a hospital emergency room.

About MN Community Measurement

MN Community Measurement is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2005, MNCM is a statewide resource for timely, comparable information on health care quality, cost, and equity. Learn more at www.mncm.org .

Posted in Press Release

May 31, 2022

In Minnesota, Large Disparities in Health Care Persist by Race, Language, and Country of Birth

New Report Shows 2020 Decline in Quality Measures for Minnesota Public Health Insurance Programs

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 08:01:00 GMT

Disparities with other payers shrinking in several places, however

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, there were some bright spots in health care for people who received health care through state programs in 2020, according to a new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM). The report was prepared for the Minnesota Department of Human Services and compares health care quality and health outcomes for people who received coverage through Minnesota Health Care Programs managed care organizations (MHCP MCO) to the same measures for people with private health insurance coverage or Medicare Advantage plans. The report includes 21 measures of health care quality for preventive care, chronic disease management, and mental health.

Though performance on most quality measures declined for the entire Minnesota population and for people with coverage through MHCP MCOs in 2020 due to the pandemic, the performance gap between MHCP MCOs and other purchasers has narrowed over time for seven out of ten measures where comparisons can be made. Childhood immunization rates for the MHCP MCO population increased from 42.7 percent in 2018 to 46.6 percent in 2020 (data for 2019 are unavailable due to disruptions in data collection caused by the pandemic). For breast cancer screening rates, however, the gap has widened over time.

The report also examines variation in quality within the MHCP MCO population, by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin. Key findings related to variation within MHCP programs include significantly lower quality performance rates for Black and Indigenous/Native people, compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Of the 21 measures included in the report, rates were significantly lower for Black patients on 13 of the measures, and significantly lower for Indigenous/Native patients on 7 of the measures.

“These indefensible racial health disparities cannot continue,” said DHS Commissioner Jodi Harpstead. “Our new report, ‘Building Racial Equity into the Walls of Minnesota Medicaid: A Focus on U.S.-born Black Minnesotans,’ lays out concrete actions we can take to build equity into Minnesota’s public health care programs. While continuing our engagement with the Black community on these policies, we also will be engaging with other communities that experience health disparities to develop real and actionable steps to rebuild trust and ensure that Minnesota lives up to its commitment to equity.”

“We know that people who are served by Minnesota Health Care Programs are more likely to experience barriers or challenges to receiving optimal health care and were also disproportionately likely to be impacted by the pandemic,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “Understanding how results differ between MHCP and other payers, and how they vary for different groups of people within MHCP, is critical to making progress to eliminate these gaps. Minnesota policy makers and others can then take this information and turn it into action.”

An appendix to the report includes results by medical group.

Importance of Measurement

Measuring and reporting health care quality helps consumers understand how care varies across providers, allows providers to identify improvement opportunities and how their measures compare to others, and helps health plans and other purchasers better understand and improve value for money that is spent on health care.

“Minnesota is quite unique in the capabilities that we’ve built to measure and report on health care outcomes,” said Sonier. “Having a common set of priorities and common set of data have been huge assets to our state in focusing efforts to drive improvement.”

About MN Community Measurement

About Minnesota Health Care Programs Minnesota Health Care Programs include Medical Assistance, Minnesota’s Medicaid program, and MinnesotaCare. These public health care programs provide coverage to Minnesotans with low incomes who cannot afford private insurance. They currently collectively serve more than one million Minnesotans.

New Report Shows 2020 Decline in Quality Measures for Minnesota Public Health Insurance Programs

April 14, 2022

Posted in Press Release

Minnesota Health Care Performance in 2020 Reflects Pandemic Challenges

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 15:00:00 GMT

New Online Tool Allows Easier Comparisons Across Medical Groups

Statewide performance on many measures of health care quality declined in 2020, according to a new report from MN Community Measurement. The Minnesota Health Care Quality Report: Results for Care Delivered in 2020 is a comprehensive summary that includes statewide and medical group performance on measures for preventive care, care for chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease, depression care, and other measures.

The most recent results come from data reported to MNCM in 2021, covering services received by patients in 2020. Report highlights include:

There continues to be significant variation in performance across medical groups. For many measures, the gap between scores of the lowest and highest performing medical groups is more than 50 percentage points.
Statewide performance fell for most measures in 2020, likely a reflection of significant disruptions in care due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Measures showing the largest declines in statewide performance were Controlling High Blood Pressure (-12.2 percentage points), Osteoporosis Management in Women Who Had a Fracture (-11.4 percentage points) and PHQ-9/PHQ-9M Utilization for Adults (-8.8 percentage points).
Recovery from the impacts of the pandemic will require outreach to patients who missed important preventive care or chronic disease care, along with concerted efforts to fill gaps in data that are needed for ongoing follow-up and management of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and depression.

“The declines in most measures that we saw for 2020 were not surprising, given the challenges faced during the pandemic,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “It remains to be seen how fast Minnesota’s health care system will recover, but we know that some of the impacts of the pandemic such as workforce challenges are likely to be felt for years to come.”

The report includes performance data for approximately 150 medical groups that operate about 1,000 clinics in Minnesota and border communities in neighboring states. A new online Dynamic Tables reporting tool makes it easier to compare, filter, and sort data included in the report by medical group. Because of pandemic-related disruptions to care delivery and operations in 2020, MNCM chose not to publish results for individual clinics this year. Clinic-level public reporting will resume with 2021 performance data. The Dynamic Tables reporting tool includes data for 2019 and 2020 and can be accessed at https://www.mncm.org/dynamictables/ .

This year, MNCM’s Health Care Quality Report highlights ten medical groups that achieved above-average performance on at least 50 percent of the measures that were applicable for them. These groups are:

Child and Teen Medical Center
Entira Family Clinics
Essentia Health
HealthPartners Clinics
Lakewood Health System
Mankato Clinic, Ltd.
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic Health System
Park Nicollet Health Services
Westfields Hospital and Clinic

Importance of Measurement

Minnesota Health Care Performance in 2020 Reflects Pandemic Challenges

March 29, 2022

Posted in Press Release

New Report Shows Decline in Cancer Screenings, Other Health Care Quality Measures

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 20:20:00 GMT

Results Illustrate Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Care Services in 2020

MN Community Measurement (MNCM), an independent nonprofit organization that empowers health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement, has released a new spotlight report that sheds light on key health care quality indicators for 2020.

The report includes results for eleven health care quality measures based on data that MN Community Measurement collects from ten participating health plans. The indicators include measures for cancer screening, immunizations, and management of acute and chronic health conditions. The report compares statewide results for these indicators for 2020 to 2018. Due to data collection interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, data are not available for 2019.

Key findings in the report include the following:

Seven of the eleven measures included in the report showed statistically significant declines in performance between 2018 and 2020, with the largest declines for controlling high blood pressure (11.4 percentage points), osteoporosis management for women who have had a fracture (11.4 percentage point decline), and eye exams for patients with diabetes (8.0 percentage points).
Of the measures in this report that apply to children, all were statistically stable. This includes immunizations for children before their second birthday, immunizations for adolescents, and follow-up care for children prescribed ADHD medication.

“We expected to see declines in most of these measures, given how we know the pandemic has affected health care,” said Julie Sonier, President and CEO of MN Community Measurement. “Making sure that people catch up on preventive care like cancer screenings and that we’re managing chronic conditions to get the best outcomes is something that will require extra attention after the worst of the pandemic subsides.”

Importance of Measurement

Measuring and reporting on health care cost and quality is important because it helps consumers know how cost and care vary across providers, and it helps providers to understand how their results compare to others and where their biggest improvement opportunities are. Measuring and reporting also help health plans and other purchasers better understand and improve value for money that is spent on health care. “Minnesota is really unique in the nation in the capabilities we’ve built to measure and report on health care cost, quality, and equity,” said Sonier. “Because we work with all stakeholders and do our work using objective, transparent methods, we’re able to serve as a trusted source of information on health care cost and quality.”

About MN Community Measurement

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2005, MNCM works with doctors, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and state agencies to collect, analyze, and report health care data related to health care quality and cost. Learn more at www.mncm.org .

New Report Shows Decline in Cancer Screenings, Other Health Care Quality Measures

December 14, 2021

Posted in Press Release

Minnesota Privately Insured Health Care Costs Fell 2.5 Percent in 2020

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 08:00:00 GMT

MN Community Measurement’s annual health care cost report illustrates pandemic’s impact on cost, utilization of services

MN Community Measurement (MNCM), an independent nonprofit organization that empowers health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement, has released its annual report comparing health care costs, utilization, and prices across medical groups in Minnesota.

The Health Care Cost & Utilization in 2020 report highlights overall cost trends in 2020 for Minnesotans with private health insurance coverage. Using data for over 1.3 million people with a total of $9.1 billion in health care spending, the report compares results for 108 medical groups. An appendix to the report includes detailed information on cost and utilization by medical group. Key findings in the report include the following:

Statewide, the total cost of care (TCOC) for people with private insurance fell by 2.5 percent per person in 2020, after increasing by an average of 5.0 percent per year for the previous five years.
Costs per person for outpatient hospital services fell the most (8.4 percent), followed by inpatient hospital services (5.2 percent), and professional services (3.7 percent). Pharmacy costs, however, increased by 11.1 percent per person, which was the fastest rate of increase since MNCM began publishing this report in 2014.
Although costs fell in all regions of the state, the amount varied by region. The largest decline was for people living in the Mankato area, whose total costs fell by 7.4 percent. The smallest decline was for people living in the Brainerd area, whose costs fell by 0.2 percent.
As shown in the chart to the right, utilization of services among people with private health insurance fell in 2020, with double digit declines in utilization of outpatient surgery (18.7 percent), emergency room visits (14.0 percent), pathology and lab tests (12.8 percent), imaging (12.3 percent), and inpatient hospital admissions (10.3 percent). Pharmacy was the only service category where utilization increased, by 1.5 percent compared to 2019.
Paradoxically, there was a slight increase in the percentage of commercial health plan members who had any use of health care services in 2020 compared to 2019. Overall, the percentage of people with any health care service use increased from 87.5 percent to 88.2 percent, with the largest increase among younger adults. Children were the only age group that showed a decline in the percentage of people with any health care service use (from 91.0 percent to 88.8 percent).

“Given the many disruptions to health care in 2020, it’s not surprising to see that costs fell,” said Julie Sonier, President and CEO of MN Community Measurement. “However, we don’t yet know about the implications of the care that was forgone in 2020 for future health outcomes and health care costs. This story is still unfolding, and it will take at least a few years to understand the long-term implications.”

“This information is valuable because it helps health care providers know where they stand relative to their peers on health care cost and utilization,” said Mark Matthias MD, Physician Vice President of Acute Care at CentraCare and chair of MN Community Measurement’s Board of Directors. “Lower utilization and cost in 2020, most likely the result of delaying care, is evident in trends that we’re seeing this year with patients who are presenting with more advanced illness than in the past. This is a challenge that all health care providers are experiencing.”

“The pandemic has complicated our ability to draw conclusions about cost trends, but MNCM’s annual report provides transparency and helps reveal areas of opportunity,” said Dr. Patrick Courneya, chief health plan medical officer at HealthPartners and member of the MNCM Board of Directors. “The 2020 report, along with previous and future reports, gives us trusted and actionable insights into how medical groups can achieve our shared goal of more affordable health care.”

Health plans that participated in MNCM’s TCOC analysis for 2020 include Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners, Medica Health Plans, and PreferredOne.

Importance of Measurement

“Minnesota is really unique in the nation in the capabilities we’ve built to measure and report on health care cost, quality, and equity,” said Sonier. “Because we work with all stakeholders and do our work using objective, transparent methods, we’re able to serve as a trusted source of information on health care cost and quality.”

About MN Community Measurement

Minnesota Privately Insured Health Care Costs Fell 2.5 Percent in 2020

November 16, 2021

Posted in Press Release

President’s Blog | A Vision for Data to Drive Improvement in Health Equity

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 13:28:00 GMT

In my last blog post in June, I wrote about MN Community Measurement’s new strategic plan for 2021 to 2025 and how improvement in health equity is a priority that is embedded in all areas of our work. I’d like to take the opportunity to share information about our past work in this area, what we envision for the future, and how to stay informed and become part of this effort.

To tackle big problems like health equity, the world needs reliable, unbiased data to know what the most important priorities are, what actions to take, and what strategies are working. In Minnesota, MNCM’s role of convening stakeholders to decide on common priorities and our reputation as an expert, objective source of information position us well to support progress on improving health equity.

A Strong Foundation to Build On

MNCM’s foundational work related to health equity has three main components, and each of them has become part of our annual cycle of data collection and reporting:

Collection and reporting of data on race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin (RELC): Our efforts to understand variation in quality measures and health outcomes began in 2008, when our work to establish best practices and standardize the collection of data by RELC was launched. Currently, we publish an annual report on RELC disparities for quality measures that are based on MNCM collection of clinical data directly from medical groups. Our work in this area has recently been recognized as one of the nation’s best existing efforts to measure health equity.
Collection and reporting of data on disparities by insurance type: We have been collecting, analyzing, and publicly reporting data on disparities in quality measures by insurance type since 2007 in support of the Minnesota Department of Human Services efforts to improve outcomes for people enrolled in Medicaid and MinnesotaCare.
Risk adjustment by socioeconomic status: When appropriate and feasible, we risk adjust quality measures to ensure that comparisons of measure results across providers adequately account for differences in the patient populations that providers see. This is because not all patients have the same likelihood of achieving optimal outcomes, and the barriers to optimal outcomes include factors that are outside of the control or direct influence of health care providers. Beginning in 2018, we added an index of socioeconomic factors for the zip code where a patient lives to its risk adjustment methodology. The purpose of this adjustment is to make comparisons across providers as fair as possible, and to do so in a way that is practical and does not add data collection burden for providers. Importantly, our risk adjustment process does not include race as a factor, since that would contribute to perpetuating inequities by adjusting away differences in outcomes by race.

In addition, occasional MNCM “Spotlight” reports and infographics on specific topics highlight disparities by RELC, such as a series of infographics in the summer of 2020 on mental health outcomes by race and ethnicity.

How MNCM is Building on this Foundation

At MNCM, we know that data has the power to create common ground and drive important decisions, and that we have a responsibility to continue to push, climb higher, and lead the way in work that accelerates improvement in health equity. Our vision for the future includes expanding on how MNCM data contribute to understanding disparities and informing action to advance health equity in several ways:

Enhanced analysis using existing data: We are supporting state agencies, health plans, health care providers, and others with new data and analysis to better understand disparities in health care quality and the underlying factors that contribute to disparities in ways that are actionable.
New measurement on priority topics for improving equity: We know that the current set of quality measures that MNCM collects and reports is highly relevant to improving health equity, given the high prevalence of conditions like diabetes, vascular disease, asthma, and depression and the large disparities seen in results for these measures. However, there are many more topics where data is urgently needed to inform action–for example, disparities in birth outcomes. We look forward to future collaboration with stakeholders about priority topics for new measurement. As our data contributors complete their transition to the new PIPE data system over the next two years, it will become feasible to develop, test, and implement new measures in ways that provide actionable information without creating new data reporting burdens for providers.
Ensuring that measures do not contribute to or perpetuate bias: We plan to develop and implement a framework for assessing all current and future measures to identify and address any ways that the measures themselves may perpetuate or contribute to bias and inequity. This is nation-leading work, and we plan to disseminate our framework widely to help lead the way for change.
Deepening understanding of upstream factors that contribute to disparities: There is currently high interest in initiatives to identify and act on health-related social risk factors, such as food insecurity, housing, and transportation, and a strong need for data to understand where opportunities lie and what strategies work. Building on our past success in creating common standards for collection and reporting of race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin, we are well positioned to lead in Minnesota on data about health-related social risks. We have begun this work by gathering information from medical groups about their current practices regarding data collection on health-related social risk factors, and we look forward to sharing the results of this landscape assessment with the community later this year.

Ways to Get Involved

There are several ways of getting involved in this work and helping to expand its impact. These include:

Raising awareness of the data that are currently available, by spreading the word about existing reports and data
For medical groups and health plans, telling us your stories about how you have used the data and the difference it has made. We would love to help share successful strategies for leveraging data to reduce disparities
For community organizations, letting us know what we can do to make MNCM data easier to access and use–for example, to help support you in gaining funding, implementing an initiative, or evaluating intervention strategies. In the coming months, MNCM will host a webinar for community organizations to provide an overview of existing data and gather input on ways to increase awareness and use of the data–stay tuned for details on timing and how to participate!
Providing input to help us understand the perspectives and priorities of different stakeholder groups–either through participation on committees and workgroups, or by responding to community surveys
And lastly, please make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow MNCM on social media to stay up to date on what MNCM is doing on this important topic

Thank you for your partnership on this urgent priority–this is truly an example of how we can go farther and faster by working together. MNCM is committed to doing our part to achieve more equitable health outcomes throughout Minnesota.

Julie Sonier is President and CEO of MN Community Measurement.

President’s Blog | A Vision for Data to Drive Improvement in Health Equity

October 14, 2021

Posted in Blog

New Report Reveals Performance on Health Care Quality Measures Declined in 2020

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 13:52:00 GMT

Analysis sheds light on key strategies needed to address COVID-19 impact on preventive and chronic care.

Minneapolis, MN (August 5, 2021) – A new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM) documents how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the quality of care for other health conditions in 2020. The report is believed to be the first comprehensive source of information available to show how key metrics of health care quality and outcomes changed in 2020 compared to 2019. A series of issue briefs accompanying the summary report provides a deeper analysis of individual quality measures, including changes in the number of patients and outcomes by demographic characteristics such as age, race/ethnicity, geography, and socioeconomic characteristics in the communities where patients live.

Performance on key measures for chronic disease management and preventive care declined statewide in 2020. In addition, the number of patients included in most quality measures declined, which was likely a result of pandemic-related barriers affecting both patients and health care providers. For example, many patients chose to defer care due to safety concerns or barriers to accessing care via telehealth; on the provider side, factors like staff furloughs and reduced capacity during portions of the year contributed to the reduced availability of some services.

“We were not surprised to see declines in performance on quality measures and declines in the number of patients who received care in 2020,” said Julie Sonier, president and CEO of MNCM. “Nonetheless, the results are concerning because in many cases this means that health care providers are missing information that is normally used to manage patients’ health conditions to get the best long-term outcomes. As the health care system returns to more normal operations, concerted efforts will be needed to close these gaps.”

Key Findings

The report highlights three key findings from the analysis:

There were large declines in the number of children included in quality measures for asthma and adolescent mental health screenings. Among those who did receive care and thus are included in the quality measures, results were more stable between 2019 and 2020 than they were for adults.
The share of adults who were up to date on colon cancer screenings declined, as did the shares of adults whose diabetes, vascular disease, or asthma were optimally controlled. In many cases, declines in these quality measures were driven by the lack of lab tests, blood pressure readings, and patient questionnaires that are typically part of a health care visit.
Monitoring of patients who have been diagnosed with depression is an issue that warrants particular focus, especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on mental health. For both adults and adolescents previously diagnosed with depression, the data showed a substantial decline in the percentage who had their condition reassessed during a subsequent visit. While it is likely that difficulties in collecting this information for telehealth visits were a contributing factor, this issue calls for continued attention to ensure that expectations for care quality and patient outcomes are similar for care delivered via telehealth compared to in-person visits.

“More than half of Minnesota adults have a chronic condition that could put them at greater risk for severe illness and hospitalization from COVID-19,” said Minnesota Department of Health Assistant Commissioner Mary Manning. “The consequences of delayed care and undiagnosed chronic conditions may result in increased deaths and disability in the coming years. We need to track new forms of care that emerged during the pandemic, like telehealth, and their effectiveness in delivering high-quality care. Removing barriers to care and working with local partners to reach communities already experiencing health disparities are crucial to limiting further consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The scope of the data used in this analysis includes all patients that meet eligibility criteria for inclusion in a measure and nearly all health care providers in Minnesota. The data collected also includes information on patients’ race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin to better understand health disparities and to support the development of initiatives to improve health equity.

MN Community Measurement is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering health care decision-makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2005, MNCM works with doctors, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and state agencies to collect, analyze, and report health care data related to quality, cost, and health equity.

New Report Reveals Performance on Health Care Quality Measures Declined in 2020

August 5, 2021

Posted in Press Release

President’s Blog | Improving Minnesota Health Care Quality, Affordability, and Equity: Strategic Priorities for 2021-2025

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 10:52:00 GMT

In the past few years, MN Community Measurement’s work has been evolving and changing. Many people know MNCM as an organization that collects and publishes data on health care quality, cost, and equity. Others know us as an organization that has led the nation in developing and using measures of health care quality that hold the health care system to a high standard of measuring outcomes of care. These things are true and will continue to be true. However, we also understand that to bring the most value as an organization – and to drive improvement farther and faster – we need to partner with and actively support the success of organizations that are doing the hard work of putting data into action and need the right data to make decisions.

I am pleased to share MN Community Measurement’s new strategic plan for 2021 to 2025, approved by the MNCM Board of Directors in May 2021. The plan reflects this important balance between maintaining MNCM’s strong foundation and working in new ways to drive success. The key elements of the plan include:

Maintaining and enhancing MNCM’s core strengths, reputation, and influence related to meaningful measures and high quality, objective data and reporting;
Meeting evolving stakeholder needs by modernizing and transforming approaches to data collection, management, sharing, and use;
Developing and expanding relationships with public and nonprofit entities to achieve broader impact and accelerate improvement; and
Making improvement in health equity a priority that is embedded in all areas of our work.

The first pillar of the strategic plan emphasizes the importance of the foundational work that has made MNCM successful over time – most notably, serving as a multi-stakeholder convener and an objective source of reliable data. Another part of this work is ensuring the relevance of the quality and cost measures MNCM uses, which includes both adapting measures as evidence and needs evolve and adding or removing measures to remain aligned with community priorities.

The second pillar is a continuation and enhancement of work that has been steadily progressing since 2017 to modernize MNCM’s data infrastructure and the ways we do our work to better support stakeholders – health care providers, health plans, and others – in their efforts to improve health care quality and value. By reducing data collection burden and streamlining flows of data, MNCM can deliver more timely and actionable information and resources will be freed up to focus on improvement. Among other things, this pillar includes MNCM’s PIPE data submission method and the CHIRP (Common Health Information Reporting Partnership) initiative.

The third pillar represents a commitment to engaging with others to proactively drive improvement toward priority goals, and to broaden MNCM’s impact by expanding the use of our data to support policy decisions and to generate research evidence about what works to improve health care quality and affordability. As an example, MNCM is partnering with HealthPartners Institute and the Minnesota Department of Health on the MNCARES study of how different care coordination models affect patient outcomes.

And finally, the fourth pillar is not really a separate pillar but a commitment to ensuring that health equity is a priority that is embedded throughout all areas of MNCM’s work. Health equity is an urgent priority, including but not limited to equity in outcomes by race and ethnicity. We must be intentional and hold ourselves accountable for how MNCM’s work supports progress toward equity. In the near term, our work in this area includes supporting our stakeholders’ needs for data to improve equity, enhancing the value and actionability of our existing data, and incorporating equity into measure selection and design. We will also assess the current landscape regarding collection of data elements related to health-related social risks like food and housing, to understand and plan for how best to meet stakeholders’ needs in this area.

We are excited by the commitment and energy that we see around this work in Minnesota, and grateful for the partnership and support from so many people and organizations that enables our success. If you’re not already involved in our work, please check out some of our data and reports , look at past and upcoming events, subscribe to our quarterly newsletter , or contact us with questions.

Thank you!

Julie Sonier is President and CEO of MN Community Measurement.

President’s Blog | Improving Minnesota Health Care Quality, Affordability, and Equity: Strategic Priorities for 2021-2025

June 21, 2021

Posted in Blog

New Report Highlights Minnesota Health Care Disparities

Thu, 06 May 2021 13:08:00 GMT

Minnesota sees significant variation in health care quality and outcomes by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin.

A new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM) documents continued wide disparities in health care quality and outcomes by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin. The report analyzes data collected by MNCM in 2020 reflecting care provided in 2019 and will serve as a baseline for understanding how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected pre-existing disparities in care.

As an independent nonprofit dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data, MNCM is a statewide resource for timely, comparable information on health care costs and quality.

While Minnesota consistently ranks as one of the healthiest states in the nation, there continues to be significant variation in health care outcomes across and within certain communities. MNCM’s collection of comprehensive, reliable data on health care quality by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin is unique and among the most robust in the nation. While data are a first step in understanding and addressing disparities, data alone are not sufficient – as a society we must take action to address inequities, and MNCM works with its partners to make data actionable for driving improvement.

Key Findings:

In general, Indigenous/Native, Black, and Hispanic/Latinx patients have significantly lower rates of optimal care compared to the statewide average in most of the reported measures.
There is also variation in outcomes by preferred language and country of origin: for most measures, groups with a preferred language other than English have lower rates of optimal care than the statewide average. Similarly, it is often the case that patients born outside of the U.S. have lower rates of optimal care.
Within race categories, there is variation by language and country of origin. For example:
- Black patients whose preferred language is English have lower rates of optimal diabetes care, optimal vascular care, and depression remission at six months compared to Black patients whose primary language is not English.
- Asian patients whose preferred language is English have higher rates of colorectal cancer screening, optimal diabetes care, optimal asthma control for adults, and adolescent mental health screening compared to their counterparts whose preferred language is not English.
Similarly, there are differences within race categories by county of origin. For example, Black patients who were born in the United States have significantly lower rates of optimal care on most measures compared to Black patients born outside the U.S.

“On top of what we know to be large disparities in health outcomes, we know that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit communities of color particularly hard,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “That makes it more urgent than ever to take action to address health disparities, using data to identify problems, craft solutions, and monitor progress over time.”

The report includes measures of statewide disparities for colorectal cancer screening, optimal diabetes care, optimal vascular care, optimal asthma control, mental health screening for adolescents, and outcomes of depression care for both adults and adolescents.

An appendix to the report presents results by medical group.

About MN Community Measurement

New Report Highlights Minnesota Health Care Disparities

May 6, 2021

Posted in Press Release

MN Community Measurement Report Highlights Health Care Disparities by Insurance Type

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 12:41:00 GMT

Data collected in 2020 for care provided in 2019 reveals disparities by insurance type and other factors such as race/ethnicity.

Minnesota health care providers improved on several key indicators of health care quality for people covered by Minnesota Health Care Programs through managed care organizations (MCOs) in 2019, according to a new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM).

Compared to the previous year, the percentage of adults who received optimal diabetes care and those who were up to date on breast cancer screening and colorectal cancer screening improved. The percentage of adolescents who received mental health screening also increased. In addition, despite ongoing gaps in quality metrics for those served by Minnesota Health Care Programs MCOs compared to other health care payers in Minnesota, the gaps in quality narrowed for all measures in the report where comparison over time is available.

The report was prepared for the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) and examines differences in quality indicators between patients covered by Minnesota Health Care Programs MCOs and other types of health insurance. The data for the report was collected by MNCM in 2020, and reflect care provided in 2019.

“While it is encouraging that care was improving prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many reasons to be concerned about disparate impacts of the pandemic on health care quality,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “We know the pandemic has hit low-income communities particularly hard from both a health and an economic standpoint. This could result in worsening what were already significant differences in quality outcomes for people with coverage through state programs vs. other type of health insurance.”

For the first time, the report includes data on differences in outcomes by preferred language and country of origin within Minnesota Health Care Programs; it also includes analysis by race and ethnicity, as in prior years. Indigenous/Native and Black Minnesotans had outcomes significantly below the average for Minnesota Health Care Programs MCOs on most of the measures included in the report.

“Unfortunately, any positive gains in more equitable health care quality for Minnesotans on public health care programs in 2019 will be overshadowed by the disparate impacts of COVID-19 in 2020,” said DHS Commissioner Jodi Harpstead. “The Department of Human Services has devoted more attention, including adding financial incentives, to eliminate these indefensible disparities and systemic disadvantages for the people we serve, and we call upon all of our partners to join us in this work to end structural racism in health care.”

New to the report this year is reporting on outcomes of depression care for adolescents, and aggregate reporting on components of diabetes, vascular care, and asthma control measures.

MN Community Measurement produces comprehensive, trusted data that helps to monitor and drive improvement in health care quality and health outcomes. MNCM will be a key source of information about how the pandemic has impacted health care and health outcomes in Minnesota, including how it may have differentially affected people enrolled in MHCP.

An appendix to the report includes results by medical group and clinic location, where applicable.

About MN Community Measurement

About Minnesota Health Care Programs

MN Community Measurement Report Highlights Health Care Disparities by Insurance Type

March 25, 2021

Posted in Press Release

Quality of Care in Minnesota Shows Improvement Pre-COVID

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 13:46:00 GMT

MN Community Measurement releases Minnesota Health Care Quality Report: Results for Care Delivered in 2019

Minnesota health care providers made encouraging improvements in quality of care in the year leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM). The percentage of adults who received optimal diabetes care and those who were up to date on colorectal cancer screenings both increased in 2019. In addition, the share of adolescents who received mental health and/or depression screening at well care visits also increased.

The pandemic has had impacts throughout the health care system, including on chronic disease management and preventive care, and has added to previous concerns about mental health. People with certain chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease are known to be at higher risk for severe cases of COVID-19. In addition, missing out on preventive care like cancer screenings can lead to more serious problems if a disease is not detected until it is more advanced.

MNCM produces comprehensive, trusted data that helps to monitor health care quality and outcomes in Minnesota. MNCM will be a key source of information going forward regarding how the pandemic has impacted health care and health outcomes in Minnesota, and how health care providers adapt to deliver high-quality care both during the pandemic and after it subsides. Data from MNCM are used by health care providers, health plans, state agencies, employers, and consumers to better understand variation in quality and cost of health care in Minnesota and to drive improvement over time.

The most recent results come from data reported to MNCM in 2020, covering services received by patients in 2019. Report highlights include:

Statewide, the percentage of adults who were up to date on colorectal cancer screening increased from 71.1 percent to 73.2 percent.
The percentage of people with diabetes who received optimal care to manage their disease increased from 44.9 percent to 45.4 percent.
The percentage of adolescents receiving mental health and/or depression screening at a well care check-up increased from 86.1 percent to 88.7 percent.

This year’s report includes information on outcomes of depression care for adolescents for the first time. Less than half (43.4 percent) of adolescents with depression received a follow-up assessment after six months, and only 8 percent were in remission after six months.

Despite improvement in key areas, the report also documents performance declines for two key measures: optimal asthma control for children (fell from 59.9 percent to 58.3 percent), and optimal vascular care (fell from 61.1 percent to 60.3 percent).

“While there continue to be large opportunities for improvement, it’s encouraging to see progress in some key areas,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “It’s not easy to move the needle on many of these important indicators that reflect quality of health care in Minnesota, so we want to celebrate progress, highlight successes, and learn what works to improve care.”

Nine medical groups achieved above-average performance on at least half of the measures included in this year’s report for which they were eligible. Those groups are:

CentraCare Health.
Entira Family Clinics.
Essentia Health.
Fairview Health Services.
HealthPartners Central Minnesota Clinics.
HealthPartners Clinics.
Mankato Clinic, Ltd.
Park Nicollet Health Services.
Westfields Hospital and Clinic.

The Minnesota Health Care Quality Report: Results for Care Delivered in 2019 includes data on measures for preventive care, care for chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease, depression care, and other measures. An appendix to the report includes detailed quality information for 159 medical groups and 891 clinics in Minnesota and neighboring states, and consumers can also search the data using an interactive tool at www.mnhealthscores.org .

Importance of Measurement

About MN Community Measurement

Quality of Care in Minnesota Shows Improvement Pre-COVID

March 9, 2021

Posted in Press Release

Minnesota Pharmacists Successfully Intervene to Close Care Gaps for Patients with Diabetes

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 14:26:00 GMT

MN Community Measurement today announced results from a 12-month study on the impact of pharmacy-based engagement to close gaps in care for patients with diabetes. The study is part of the organization’s broader efforts to empower health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement and details the pharmacy program’s success eliminating 80 percent of open clinical opportunities.

The study , done in collaboration with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Thrifty White Drug, and Pfizer, leveraged Thrifty White locations and independent pharmacies throughout Minnesota, to help ensure that Blue Cross patients with diabetes received all recommended care, including screenings, immunizations and support programming to help them stay as healthy as possible.

The data in the report reflects care delivered between August 7, 2019 and July 31, 2020, during which time the program tracked nearly 2,000 patients whose claims history suggested they may need one or more care interventions. One-on-one engagement with pharmacists included one or more of the following:

Medication synchronization, to ensure that prescriptions share a common refill date whenever possible
Completing or providing referral for Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) tests
Recommending and/or providing immunizations recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)
Educating patients on the importance of using statin medications and collaborating with providers to initiate therapy
Screening for tobacco use and initiating tobacco cessation therapy as appropriate

During the 12-month project, pharmacists completed 5,053 sessions with the targeted Blue Cross patient population. This resulted in 1,400 patients being enrolled in medication synchronization, more than 1,800 patients being screened for immunizations (with 1,097 missing vaccinations identified and administered), and 1,200 patients screened for tobacco usage. In addition, 402 statin medication gaps were addressed, and 75 missing hemoglobin A1c tests were completed.

“MNCM was excited for the opportunity to partner with community stakeholders to measure the impact of pharmacy-based interventions and add to the body of evidence available on pharmacist-provided care,” said MNCM chief operating officer, Liz Cinqueonce. “The results from the study are very encouraging and offer new insights that can be used to inform future care delivery and value-based payment models.”

“This program was particularly effective in getting our members needed care, especially immunizations like flu shots,” said Victoria Losinski, PharmD, Phd, MBA, Director, Strategy, Quality and Implementation. “Additionally, it demonstrates the value of engaging pharmacists as trusted medication experts in improving patient care.”

“Thrifty White was thrilled to engage in this project along with other independent community pharmacies across MN”, said Justin Heiser, PharmD, executive vice president of pharmacy, Thrifty White Pharmacy. “We were confident our pharmacists would demonstrate that the trusting relationship they have with their patients would enable them to have a meaningful impact on gaps in care and that is exactly what they did – and did so during a time when the whole world was wrestling with the Covid-19 Pandemic. The trusting relationship pharmacists have with their patients going forward are going to be even more critical as we understand and navigate the impact the pandemic has had on members’ social determinants of health.”

“We are pleased to have collaborated on this initiative. Partnering with Thrifty White and a strong network of independent pharmacies resulted in a significant improvement in care for patients with diabetes,” said Dr. Dara Richardson-Heron, Chief Patient Officer at Pfizer, “ Pharmacist provided services have shown to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.”

About MN Community Measurement
MN Community Measurement is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2005, MNCM works with doctors, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and state agencies to collect, analyze, and report health care data related to quality, cost, and patient experience. Learn more at www.mncm.org.

About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, with headquarters in the St. Paul suburb of Eagan, was chartered in 1933 as Minnesota’s first health plan and continues to carry out its charter mission today: to promote a wider, more economical and timely availability of health services for the people of Minnesota. A nonprofit, taxable organization, Blue Cross is the largest health plan based in Minnesota, covering 2.9 million members in Minnesota and nationally through its health plans or plans administered by its affiliated companies. Blue Cross® and Blue Shield® of Minnesota and Blue Plus® are nonprofit independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, headquartered in Chicago.

About Thrifty White Drug
Headquartered in Plymouth, MN, Thrifty White Pharmacy is a technology enabled healthcare services company focused on utilizing patient engagement to improve outcomes and reduce the cost of care. By leveraging the unique capabilities of pharmacists, combined with focused technology and clinical care plans, Thrifty White Pharmacy creates better patient experiences and improved patient outcomes. The Thrifty White Pharmacy suite of offerings includes proprietary dispensing, clinical, and operations technology. In addition, Thrifty White Pharmacy is licensed in all 50 states and offers retail, alternate care, and URAC and ACHC accredited specialty pharmacy services across a network of 100 owned community pharmacy locations and 82 independently owned pharmacies throughout the Midwest. Thrifty White Pharmacy has been recognized by multiple organizations as a leading “Pharmacy Innovator” for the company’s efforts to continually move the practice of pharmacy forward.

About Pfizer Inc.: Breakthroughs that change patients’ lives®
At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products, including innovative medicines and vaccines. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world’s premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, we have worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. We routinely post information that may be important to investors on our website at www.pfizer.com . In addition, to learn more, please visit us on www.pfizer.com and follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer and @Pfizer News, LinkedIn, YouTube and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Pfizer.

Minnesota Pharmacists Successfully Intervene to Close Care Gaps for Patients with Diabetes

December 9, 2020

Posted in Press Release

Health Care Cost & Utilization in 2019 Report Released

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 17:42:00 GMT

The Health Care Cost & Utilization in 2019 report highlights overall cost trends in 2019 for Minnesotans with private health insurance coverage. Using data for over 1.4 million people with a total of $10.3 billion in health care spending, the report compares results for 114 medical groups. An appendix to the report includes detailed information on cost and utilization by medical group.

Key findings in the report include the following:

Statewide, the total cost of care (TCOC) for people with private insurance increased by 5.2 percent in 2019, to an average of $627 per person per month ($7,524 per year). All of the major categories of health care services – inpatient hospital, outpatient hospital, prescription drugs, and professional services – grew more slowly in 2019 than in 2018.
Even after adjusting for differences in patient complexity, there is substantial variation in TCOC across health care providers and across regions of the state. TCOC in the St. Cloud area was 8.3 percent below the statewide average, while the Rochester area saw TCOC that was 45.0 percent above average. Prices are a stronger driver of variation in TCOC than utilization of health care services.
Prices paid by private insurance are much higher than prices for the same services paid by Medicare, and the gap is growing. For the set of services that MNCM has tracked since 2014, prices are now nearly twice as high as the rates paid by Medicare.

In addition to reporting on TCOC, MNCM also publishes information about prices of individual health care services, to help consumers shop for care. This information, along with TCOC by medical group, is available at MNCM’s consumer-facing website www.mnhealthscores.org . Both types of information are important for different reasons. Individual consumers are increasingly responsible for significant out of pocket costs, and so having information to help with price comparisons and shopping is helpful. But the total cost of care measure is important for capturing variation in overall cost-effectiveness across medical groups since it takes into account not just prices but how much and what kinds of services are provided.

“Minnesota is one of only a few states in the nation where this type of information is publicly available,” said Julie Sonier, President and CEO of MN Community Measurement. “Because we work with all stakeholders and do our work using objective, transparent methods, we’re able to serve as a trusted source of information on health care cost and quality.”

“A diverse group of Minnesota’s health care leaders worked collaboratively to support this report from Minnesota Community Measurement,” said Lucas Nesse, President and CEO of the Minnesota Council of Health Plans. “This commitment to measure cost and quality not only gives consumers a transparent look at the quality and cost of care, but it helps providers assess their performance to ensure improved outcomes.” Health plans that participated in MNCM’s TCOC analysis for 2019 include Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners, Medica Health Plans, and PreferredOne.

Importance of Measurement

Measuring and reporting on health care cost and quality is important because it helps consumers know how care varies across providers, and it helps providers to understand how their results compare to others and where their biggest improvement opportunities are. Measuring and reporting also help health plans and other purchasers better understand and improve value for money that is spent on health care.

About MN Community Measurement

Health Care Cost & Utilization in 2019 Report Released

November 10, 2020

Posted in Press Release

Rates of Follow-up After a Diagnosis of Depression Show Substantial Room for Improvement

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 16:39:00 GMT

MNCM releases its Depression Care in Minnesota: Adults and Adolescents report

MN Community Measurement, an independent nonprofit organization that empowers health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement, has released a new report on outcomes for treatment of depression in Minnesota.

The Depression Care in Minnesota: Adults and Adolescents report includes new measures of depression outcomes for adolescents, as well as updated data for adults. An appendix to the report includes detailed quality information for 112 medical groups and 734 clinics in Minnesota and neighboring states.

The data in the report were collected in early 2020, and reflect care received in 2019. Measures of depression care include how often patients who are diagnosed with depression receive follow-up care, the percentage of patients who show improvement (response to treatment), and the percentage of patients whose depression is in remission. Because of technical changes to the measure, the depression outcomes measures included in this report are not comparable to prior years.

Depression is a very common condition that has historically been underdiagnosed and undertreated. Nationally, about 15.7 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 and 7.8 percent of adults had a major depressive episode in 2019.

“Because depression has such a big impact on people’s lives, it’s important to understand how well our health care system is doing at helping people get better,” said Julie Sonier, MN Community Measurement President and CEO. “We still see wide variation in outcomes, and substantial room for overall improvement. That’s particularly important now, as we know many more people are experiencing symptoms of depression in today’s extraordinary circumstances.”

Recent federal survey data suggest that as many as 25 percent of American adults were experiencing symptoms of depression in mid-2020, compared to about 7 percent in 2019.

Here are some report highlights:

• For both adolescents and adults, rates of follow-up after a diagnosis of depression show substantial room for improvement. For example, only 48.5 percent of adults and 43.4 percent of adolescents were re-assessed after six months.

• Average rates of depression response and remission are low but some health care providers achieve results that are well above expected rates after accounting for differences in the characteristics of their patient populations. As an example, 19.4 percent of adults and 15.5 percent of adolescents showed improvement (response) after six months. Medical groups with the highest risk-adjusted performance on this measure achieved rates that were 1.78 times expected results for adults (Westfields Hospital and Clinic) and 1.84 times the expected rate for adolescents (Mankato Clinic, Ltd.).

• Use of screening tools and standardized tools for diagnosing depression is high. Nearly 90 percent of adolescents who had well-child visits in 2019 were screened for mental health and/or depression, and nearly 80 percent of adults and adolescents who were diagnosed with depression completed a standardized tool as part of their diagnosis.

Importance of Measurement

Measuring and reporting on health care quality is important because it helps consumers know how care varies across providers, and it helps providers to understand how their results compare to others and where their biggest improvement opportunities are. Measuring and reporting also help health plans and other purchasers better understand and improve value for money that is spent on health care.

“Minnesota is really unique in the nation in the capabilities we’ve built to measure and report on health care outcomes,” said Sonier. “The measures we track are important tools for getting better health outcomes. There continues to be wide variation in outcomes for depression care, which shows that there is still a lot of opportunity for improvement.”

Depression Care Resources

The National Alliance on Mental Illness in Minnesota has various resources for mental health support. Visit https://namimn.org/support/resources/ to learn more.

For suicide prevention, awareness and support, visit https://namimn.org/education-public-awareness/suicide-prevention/ or call 1-800-273-8255.

Rates of Follow-up After a Diagnosis of Depression Show Substantial Room for Improvement

September 22, 2020

Posted in Press Release

President’s Blog | Together, we can make progress in reducing health disparities.

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 21:26:00 GMT

In recent months, we’ve all experienced a lot of things we likely didn’t expect we’d see this year: the emergence of a pandemic that has had devastating effects worldwide, the need for rapid adaptation to new and previously unthinkable ways of doing things (including how health care is delivered), and the shining of a harsh spotlight on the many ways that we live in a society that tolerates and perpetuates pervasive racial inequities.

It’s not news that Minnesota has large health inequities by race and ethnicity, despite its overall high performance on a variety of state-to-state comparisons on indicators of health. For example, since 2015 MNCM has published annual reports that show persistent large disparities in health outcomes for Minnesotans by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin (our most recent report from May 2020 is here ). MNCM’s comprehensive, statewide data on health care disparities is unique in the nation, which also provides our state with a unique opportunity for progress.

Making these data transparent helps draw attention to the problem, helps highlight where there are “bright spots” and where improvement is most needed, and helps assess whether we’re making progress overall – but it doesn’t directly tackle the problem. For that, MNCM needs partners – people and organizations who are positioned to take this information and use it to motivate, inform, and evaluate improvement initiatives. We know there are many who already do, and it is our hope that many more will do so in the months and years to come. We are committed to working with you in whatever ways we can to drive progress. In particular, we welcome suggestions, comments, or other input on ways to improve or enhance the usefulness of the data we report and/or how we can better support your organization’s efforts.

This is not a short-term problem or short-term effort – though we are especially concerned right now about disparate impacts of COVID-19 and how the pandemic is likely widening existing disparities in preventive care, mental health, and chronic disease management. Instead, a long and sustained effort across many sectors will be required to make progress. If there is one thing that makes me hopeful, it is that 2020 has already shown us that it’s possible to make big, system-wide changes that previously seemed too difficult. It is time for Minnesota to lead the way in showing how we can make progress on health and other disparities.

Julie Sonier is President and CEO of MN Community Measurement.

President’s Blog | Together, we can make progress in reducing health disparities.

June 23, 2020

Posted in Blog

Measurement Blog | Simplifying & Refining Quality Measures to Reduce Burden

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 15:37:00 GMT

In this current day and age of electronic health records (EHRs) it is hard to remember a time when all health records were maintained on paper. Clinical data was collected as a part of a time limited study or a sample, and full population data was almost unheard of. Some of the earliest population-based quality measures were built with administrative claims data. These types of process measures were useful for screening or medication adherence measures based on billable information, however there was limited clinical data for understanding health outcomes. Data collection was and continues to be very labor intensive.

Transition to EHRs Brings New Opportunity to Reduce Burden

A little over a decade ago, MNCM was in its beginning stages of developing new measures and its new direct data submission (DDS) process. At that time, about 40% of Minnesota clinics were still on paper records. It was not uncommon to turn to the progress note for a piece of information that could not be obtained any other way. Fast forward ten years and about 99% of Minnesota clinics are now on EHRs. Clinics have gained proficiency in extraction and query capabilities, and along with that have come more requests for timely clinical data. There has been an increasing emphasis on clinical data and outcome measures that have the most potential to improve population health. It is no longer practical to manually abstract even a few pieces of information from the EHR as a part of ongoing quality measurement.

Guiding Principles for a New Approach

For this reason, we need guiding principles to reduce burden for medical groups, support automation of quality measurement, and enable more timely feedback to inform quality improvement efforts. These principles will be used in implementing MNCM’s new PIPE system of data collection, and will also inform MNCM’s future measure development decisions.

For existing measures, elements will be considered for retention when identified by a standardized set of codes, i.e. codable. Currently, most elements that are not codable are contained in exclusions or exceptions. A few of the exceptions, after guideline or medication evolution, no longer made sense and needed a little bit of tuning up.

Future measures developed and stewarded by MNCM must include:

Reliable (and consistently used) codes for all components of the measure construct.
A consideration for a more inclusive measure with no exclusions.
Exclusions and exceptions need to be present in a significant percentage of the population (i.e., 5%).
If an exclusion or exception is rare (and codable), there needs to be a strong justification for including it.
PRO-based measures should rely on a validated PRO tool with strong psychometrics, validated cut-points and scoring for desired outcomes, and the tool should be free for clinical use & multiple modes of administration.

With these principles in mind, MNCM has refined the specifications for several existing measures.

Learn More

For upcoming measure changes for 2021 dates of service, please refer to each infographic included in this June 12, 2020 Knowledge Base post .
For more information on MNCM’s PIPE system of data collection, please visit the Collaboration & Innovation section of our Services page.

by Collette Cole, Clinical Measure Developer, MN Community Measurement

Measurement Blog | Simplifying & Refining Quality Measures to Reduce Burden

June 15, 2020

Posted in Blog

New Reports Show Continued Disparities in Minnesota Health Care

Tue, 19 May 2020 06:00:00 GMT

MN Community Measurement releases data on Minnesota health care disparities

MINNEAPOLIS – May 19, 2020 – MN Community Measurement (MNCM), an independent nonprofit organization that empowers health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement, has released two new reports highlighting disparities in health care quality in Minnesota.

The reports use a unique data source to examine disparities in quality measures for preventive care and care for chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and depression. “Through its statewide data collection, MNCM has an ability to measure health care disparities that is unique in the nation,” said MNCM President and CEO Julie Sonier. “Tragically, we are currently seeing the ways that health disparities can affect outcomes during the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, we’re concerned about how disruptions to health care services and access will affect future health for groups that are already at risk for worse outcomes.” The new reports use data collected by MNCM in 2019 to describe disparities by type of health insurance and by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin.

Disparities by Type of Health Insurance

The first report, “ 2019 Minnesota Health Care Disparities by Insurance Type ,” was prepared for the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) and examines differences in nine quality indicators between patients covered by Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) managed care plans and other types of health insurance. Although large gaps exist between quality measures for MHCP enrollees and other types of insurance, performance improved in 2019 for six of the nine measures included in the analysis. In addition, the gap between MCHP and other insurance types has narrowed over time for seven of the nine measures.

“In a few areas, the needle is moving in the right direction for our families and neighbors who get health coverage through public programs, but the needle is not moving far or fast enough,” DHS Commissioner Jodi Harpstead said. “We need to do better as a state. DHS appreciates the community-wide work being done to eliminate disparities and encourages our partners to use this report as an urgent call to take more aggressive actions to address the structural aspects of our health care system that continue producing indefensible disparities in health outcomes for Minnesotans.”

The report documents wide disparities by race and ethnicity within MHCP, especially for American Indian/Alaska Natives and for Black/African American MHCP enrollees.

As with health care quality overall, there is significant variation across health care providers in quality measures for MHCP enrollees. The report recognizes eight medical groups that achieved performance above the MHCP average on at least five of the nine measures included in the report:

Allina Health
Essentia Health
Fairview Health Services
HealthEast Clinics
HealthPartners Clinics
Lakewood Health System
Mankato Clinic
Park Nicollet Health Services

An appendix to the report includes results by medical group and clinic location, where applicable.

Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Country of Origin

The second report, “ Minnesota Health Care Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, Language and Country of Origin: 2019 Report ,” is an in-depth analysis of disparities in quality measures for colorectal cancer screening, diabetes, vascular care, asthma, and depression. New to the report this year, are summary information on separate components of the diabetes and vascular care measures, and more in-depth analysis within race/ethnicity/language/country of origin categories (for example, combinations of race and language or race and sex). This information has been added to provide new insights on potential strategies for reducing disparities.

Across all measures included in the report, American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, and Hispanic Minnesotans experienced the largest disparities. Results by language and country of origin are more mixed, with non-English speaking patients and patients born outside of the U.S. sometimes experiencing better outcomes.

“Minnesota exists in a disturbing paradox in being one of the healthiest states in the nation, yet at the same time being home to some of the worst health inequities,” said Dr. Mark Steffen, MD, MPH, vice president and chief medical officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. “These disparities are ingrained in our communities often driven by race, ethnicity, as well as language and country of origin which continue to be the ultimate force multipliers of health inequities. The comprehensive tracking and analysis that this report brings us will give detailed insights that can empower health care decision makers with meaningful data to create an equitable Minnesota.”

An appendix to the report presents results by medical group.

About MN Community Measurement

Contact: Raya Zimmerman

zimmerman@neuger.com

612-664-0716

New Reports Show Continued Disparities in Minnesota Health Care

May 19, 2020

Posted in Press Release

President’s Blog | What does the COVID-19 pandemic mean for health care measurement and reporting?

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 09:20:00 GMT

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to upend business as usual in health care, many people are wondering what it will mean for health care quality and cost measurement and reporting. In the near term, there are questions about data collection to measure 2019 health care provider and health plan performance. In the longer term, there are many other questions to consider, such as how future measurement and public reporting will account for disruptions in health care delivery during the pandemic and how it will evolve to reflect changes in health care delivery that are likely to be permanent – such as increased use of virtual health care visits.

MN Community Measurement has created a new page on our website to serve as a resource for monitoring changes that are happening to health care measurement efforts in Minnesota and nationally. The page includes current information on how MNCM measurement activities are changing, and it is also intended to serve as a go-to resource for up to date information and links to what the federal government, the state of Minnesota, and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) have announced in terms of their requirements and data collection. The situation continues to evolve, so we encourage you to check this page for updates and let us know if there are additional resources that would be helpful for us to include.

We don’t have the answers yet to many of these questions, but I want to assure you that MN Community Measurement will take a collaborative approach to answering them. We are interested in gathering and understanding the perspectives of health care providers, health plans and government payers, employers, consumers, and others. We are planning to engage MNCM’s Measurement and Reporting Committee (MARC) closely in the work, and we will gather stakeholder perspectives through other mechanisms as well.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that in the midst ofall of this change, MNCM is also continuing to implement its new datacollection platform called PIPE .Conceived nearly three years ago, the goal of PIPE is to make it much easierfor health care providers to submit data for quality measures and to providetimely feedback to providers that supports their performance improvementefforts. One additional advantage of PIPE is that it will allow for muchgreater flexibility in measurement – for example, to adjust measurementparameters and definitions in a much nimbler way that can support gooddecisions about how quality measures should evolve in the future. To learn moreabout PIPE, please contact MNCM .

Thank you for your partnership. Stay safe and stay healthy!

Julie Sonier is President and CEO of MN Community Measurement.

Posted in Blog

President’s Blog | What does the COVID-19 pandemic mean for health care measurement and reporting?

April 13, 2020

Collaboration Blog | Depression Care in Minnesota: We can’t let another year go by.

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 16:00:00 GMT

by: Deb Krause, Vice President for Minnesota Health Action Group; and Liz Cinqueonce, Chief Operating Officer for MN Community Measurement

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) recently released the 2019 Health Care Quality Report . We want to highlight the good news, the troubling news, and the opportunity — with a special focus on mental health and health care in Minnesota.

First, the good news.

We have a level of transparency about health care quality in Minnesota that other states only aspire to have. The Quality Report is published annually, illuminating trends overall and providing valuable access to quality data at a clinic level . This transparency helps care systems, clinics and health plans understand and improve performance. It also helps individuals (patients and family members seeking care) to make informed choices and seek care from top-performing providers.
The most recent report highlights one very positive trend for mental health care: Adolescent mental health and/or depression screening has increased from 39.9% of patients in 2015 to 86.1% of patients in 2019. In this time of escalating concern about the mental health of our youth, this is tremendous news. We applaud the clinics that have updated their workflows to improve patient care. Screening to identify those in need of mental health care is an important first step to getting them the care they deserve.

But, the troubling news.

MNCM Infographic:

2019 Depression Care
in Minnesota

Depression remission at 6 months remains “stuck” at a particularly low level — just 8.2% in 2019, compared to 8.0% in 2016. This measures the percentage of patients diagnosed with depression by their primary care providers, who received follow-up and were reassessed at 6 months, and have improved sufficiently to be considered in remission. Mental health conditions are treatable and there are examples of providers in our communities achieving outcomes far above the average. This is what we want for all patients — that they receive good, timely care and get better. But it isn’t happening for most Minnesotans with depression.
For some other depression measures there was a statistically significant rate increase in the 2019 report, but it falls far short of the outcomes our community expects to achieve. For example, depression remission at 12 months was 7.5% in 2019, up from 6.9% in 2018. Despite the higher rates, the results remain troubling and there is a large opportunity for improvement.
Finally, there continues to be a considerable gap in performance for mental health outcome measures relative to physical health outcome measures for conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular or asthma care.

And now, the opportunity.

Given the plateau in depression remission, we offer these words of wisdom from Henry Ford:

Here are examples of constructive action:

MNCM’s Board of Directors recently identified improving depression remission as one of its priorities for partnering with others to drive improvement. This will prioritize actions to enhance data reporting, support research to understand barriers, and work with the community to advance solutions.
The Action Group is conducting important research during 2020 to identify best practices of high-performing clinics with respect to depression remission as part of a prestigious Eugene B. Washington Community Engagement Award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The research will identify best clinical practices and other significant factors associated with clinic performance scores on the depression remission measure. Disseminating the research findings will help providers and their patients in Minnesota and beyond.
The Path Forward is uniting employers, leading nonprofits, and other stakeholders in Minnesota and across the nation to execute a disciplined, private sector approach to systematically and measurably improve five established best practices of mental health and substance use care.

Measurement is the starting place. Improvement is necessary. Results are the goal.

All stakeholders have a role to play — health plans, care systems and clinics, providers, nonprofits, coalitions, and employers. Let’s hold ourselves accountable for aligning efforts to drive meaningful improvement in depression remission. We can’t let another year go by.

Liz and Deb

Collaboration Blog | Depression Care in Minnesota: We can’t let another year go by.

April 1, 2020

Liz Cinqueonce
Chief Operating Officer
MN Community Measurement

Deb Krause
Vice President
Minnesota Health Action Group

Posted in Blog

President’s Blog | MN Community Measurement: Past, Present, and Future

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 00:01:00 GMT

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) has been going through a lot of changes in the last couple of years. Some of the changes are obvious – like new leadership, a new mission statement, new logo, and now a new website. But we’ve also embarked on some ambitious efforts to engage differently with all our stakeholders and, in doing so, bring more value to the community. I’m pleased to introduce MNCM’s new blog, which we plan to use as one of many new ways to better communicate about our work and to deepen engagement with our stakeholders.

MNCM’s foundation is strong, but we need to do more

MNCM empowers health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement (bonus points if you recognize this as our new mission statement!). The mission statement encompasses the foundational activities we’re known for in Minnesota and nationally – developing quality measures, collecting data, and making the data transparent – but also envisions building on this foundation and evolving to meet the changing needs of the community.

In the last 2 years, MNCM’s Board has decided that we are – and need to be – more than an organization that collects and publishes data on health care quality and cost. Who uses the data, and how? What are the barriers to using information more effectively – things like timeliness, accuracy, and consistency of data? How can we get to a place where we’re able to measure more important concepts with less effort than is required today? And most importantly, what are the big problems that can only be addressed through collaboration, and how can MNCM play a role in solving them?

As an organization, we are fundamentally all about data and transformation of data into meaningful information to support improvements in health care outcomes and affordability. However, it would be difficult to overstate the importance of our role as a convener and facilitator of multi-stakeholder collaboration. MNCM has established processes that help our community decide what aspects of clinical health care and health care costs are most important to measure, how to address concerns raised by different stakeholders, and how to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of different choices and come to consensus on what to do.

MNCM grew out of the idea that we could drive improvement in health care farther and faster by collaborating to do 3 things:

Agree on common priorities for measurement, and get rid of fragmented, conflicting, and duplicative efforts;
Combine data across payers and providers to get more statistically reliable and comparable measures; and
Create transparency of data to empower decision makers of all types – consumers, employers, providers, and payers/purchasers.

All these things together have resulted in MNCM becoming an organization that provides meaningful, trusted information to support and drive quality improvement efforts aimed at improving health outcomes, improving affordability of health care, and reducing disparities . We accomplish more together than any one entity or stakeholder group could on its own.

Measurement is an important ingredient in improving health care affordability and quality

One of the most pressing issues in health care today is affordability of care, such as rising costs that are an increasing burden for employers, consumers, and taxpayers. At the same time, the Institute of Medicine estimates that as much as 30 percent of total U.S. health care spending is wasted – due to factors including missed opportunities for prevention and management of chronic disease, preventable complications, care fragmentation, overuse of certain services, high administrative costs, and others. Many strategies will be needed to solve this problem. If there’s one thing that everyone agrees on, it’s that making sure our health care dollars are paying for value must be part of the solution. This means that we have to have good, evidence-based, and objective measurement of value that is specific to how health care is delivered – how well our system is doing in terms of providing preventive care, managing chronic disease, and getting good outcomes for patients.

We know that measuring and reporting on health care quality makes a difference. Health care providers in Minnesota tell us they use our data extensively to understand how they compare to others and where they have the biggest opportunities for improvement. As I engage with providers, many bring up what they call the “dot chart”, which is a chart that we include in our annual quality report that provides a good visual at-a-glance representation of which medical groups have high performance across a large number of measures. They tell me that this chart in particular motivates a lot of discussion within their organizations about where they should focus their improvement efforts. One of the main reasons why it’s so powerful is that providers care a lot about quality and how they compare to others, and MNCM’s data gives them an ability to benchmark themselves against their peers and against statewide averages they wouldn’t otherwise have.

Evolving to increase the value of core MNCM activities

We’re proud of our past accomplishments, and we’re looking forward to leveraging these successes and the trust we’ve been able to build among stakeholders to support improvements in health care quality and affordability in new ways. Specifically, MNCM is modernizing the way we collect data, using a new data collection system we call PIPE (Process Intelligence Performance Improvement). We all know that outcome measures deliver high value and are essential for driving improved affordability through value-based payment arrangements, but they have historically been pretty time and resource-intensive for providers to extract and submit the data needed to calculate the measures. We also know that there’s a need for more timely and actionable data to really drive improvement – especially in a world of value-based payment. The goal of PIPE is to improve the timeliness, actionability and usability of data for measures that MNCM collects today, while also reducing the burden and cost associated with measurement. Minnesota health care providers will be able to start using PIPE in 2020. PIPE is an example of how MNCM is transforming the work that has always been a part of what we do to better meet the needs of our community stakeholders.

Innovating to support value-based care and payment

We are also working on initiatives that take us in new directions – building on our historical foundation. In 2019, MNCM launched the Common Health Information Reporting Partnership ( CHIRP ). This program is aimed at relieving “pain points” created by multiple, inconsistent data requests and performance reports shared between payers and providers, that have proliferated in recent years with the growth of value-based contract arrangements. Currently, there’s a lot of work going into performance reporting and data sharing to support value-based payment but also a lot of fragmentation and duplication of effort that are barriers to using data more effectively to drive improvement in outcomes and cost. The goal of CHIRP is to increase impact by creating a common standard that payers and providers will use for exchanging person-level claims and clinical data. Establishing greater uniformity will free everyone up to focus more on what to DO with the data instead of how to extract it or integrate it into their systems. CHIRP is a great example of how collaboration can drive improvement farther and faster than efforts by any one stakeholder.

An invitation

The critical ingredient in all this work is shared goals and trust. These relationships take a long time to build, but it’s an investment that’s incredibly valuable and that we would all do well to prioritize in our efforts to drive improvements in health care affordability and outcomes.

MN Community Measurement firmly believes we can make health care more affordable by making it better. However, better health care information is a critically important ingredient to getting there, and we’re proud to be both a regional and national leader in making this a reality. We welcome all those who wish to join us in support of this work!

Julie Sonier is President and CEO of MN Community Measurement.

President’s Blog | MN Community Measurement: Past, Present, and Future

March 26, 2020

Posted in Blog

Innovation Blog | MNCM Launches New PIPE User Group

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 20:16:00 GMT

By William Muenchow, Director of Information Systems and Technology

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) has officially launched its first PIPE User Group (PUG) Community Forum within the MNCM Online Academy! The online forum will allow registered and interested PIPE participants to share ideas and get involved with other organizations that are either in the process of adopting PIPE or have already integrated the new application. The forum is also a great tool to submit any PIPE related questions you may have and to get your questions answered by MNCM staff or other registered PIPE users.

MNCM will be posting to the forum regularly but will also be using the following schedule to post monthly updates:

First Friday of the Month: Process Intelligence Updates. These updates will include the latest softbots that MNCM is developing and ideas for the community on how they could adopt the softbots into their workflows.

Third Friday of the Month: Performance Engine Updates. Updates are focused on the PIPE Data Standard, clinical quality submission and validation under the PE, and all other tools that are embedded in the new PE system.

To begin the process of accessing the MNCM PUG Forum, please do the following:

To access the PUG Community, you will need to request a one-time enrollment key. Please e-mail support@mncm.org with the topic of PUG Enrollment Key Request. In the body of the e-mail, please include your name and the organization that you represent. You will need to e-mail MNCM from your organizational e-mail address for verification. After MNCM receives your request, an enrollment key will be e-mailed to you to access the course.

After you register and you have received your enrollment key, you can self-enroll in the PUG Forum by pointing your browser to: https://mncmacademy.org/course/view.php?id=18

You will be asked for the one-time enrollment key. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to MNCM at support@mncm.org .

Innovation Blog | MNCM Launches New PIPE User Group

March 19, 2020

Posted in Blog

Collaboration Blog | March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 16:00:00 GMT

By Matt Flory (American Cancer Society) and Jessica Donovan (MN Community Measurement)

In Minnesota, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death. Routine screening can detect cancer earlier, even before symptoms occur, which makes it easier to treat. In some cases, precancerous polyps detected during screening can be removed and most patients do not go on to develop colorectal cancer.

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) collects and reports colorectal cancer screening data for over 700 clinics across Minnesota. The following screening tests are captured in the Colorectal Cancer Screening measure: colonoscopies, sigmoidoscopies, CT colonographies and stool blood tests. In the 2019 report year (2018 dates of service), the majority of the screening tests used in Minnesota were colonoscopies (89.7%), while stool blood tests were the second most common (9.8%). Of the stool blood tests used, the Fecal Immunochemical Test, or FIT, was the most common. With the variety of screening tests available, including some that can be used at home, providers can work with patients to select the test that is most appropriate for the patient.

For over a decade, Minnesota stakeholders have beenpartnering to increase state and local screening rates with a goal of reaching 80% in every community . InMNCM’s most recent HealthCare Quality Report , there are over 50 clinics that have already met orsurpassed this goal. An analysis of population screening data by county, showsthat 21 counties across Minnesota surpass the overall average of 71% among the87 counties. However, there remains significant variation across the state,indicating opportunities for improvement. Data for county level colorectalcancer incidence and mortality is available on the MinnesotaDepartment of Health’s website .

Additionally, there remains opportunities for improvement within certain demographics:

Both men and women between the ages of 50 – 54 have significantly lower rates of screening compared to older age groups.
Men between the ages of 50 – 64 have significantly lower rates of screening compared to women of the same age range. However, men between the ages of 70 – 75 have significantly higher rates of screening compared to women of the same age range.
Non-English-speaking patients have significantly lower rates of screening compared to English-speaking patients.
Populations of color have significantly lower rates of screening compared to White patients.

The National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable has published a number of materials for providers interested in increasing their colorectal cancer screening rates, including a Clinician’s Reference and a Messaging Guidebook . For additional questions about available resources, please contact Matt Flory ( matt.flory@cancer.org ) at the American Cancer Society.

At the American Cancer Society, we’re on a mission to free the world from cancer. Until we do, we’ll be funding and conducting research, sharing expert information, supporting patients, and spreading the word about prevention. All so you can live longer — and better.

MN Community Measurement (MNCM) is a nonprofit, multi-stakeholder collaborative organization that empowers the community with data and information to drive improvement in health care cost and quality. Collaborators include physicians, hospitals and health systems, health plans, employers, consumers, and state government. MNCM specializes in developing, collecting, analyzing, and publicly reporting information on health care quality, cost, and patient experience. Additional reports published by MNCM can be found on mncm.org .

Collaboration Blog | March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

March 11, 2020

MNCM Infographic:
2019 Colorectal Cancer Screening
in Minnesota

Posted in Blog

Encouraging Signs Observed in Depression Care Follow Up and Avoiding Overuse of Antibiotics

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 20:23:00 GMT

MN Community Measurement releases 2019 Minnesota Health Care Quality Report

MINNEAPOLIS – February 12, 2020 – MN Community Measurement, an independent nonprofit organization that empowers health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement, has released its annual report highlighting health care quality measures for medical groups and clinics in Minnesota.

The “2019 Minnesota Health Care Quality Report” includes data on measures for preventive care, care for chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease, depression care, and other measures. An appendix to the report includes detailed quality information for 213 medical groups and 948 clinics in Minnesota and neighboring states, and consumers can also search the data using an interactive tool at www.mnhealthscores.org.

Here are some report highlights:

Encouraging Signs for Depression Care

Rates of depression follow-up care, improvement of symptoms, and remission measured at twelve months all increased significantly compared to last year’s report. While there continues to be large opportunity for improvement, it is encouraging that the needle is starting to move on this important issue. The statewide average for the depression follow-up measure improved to nearly 30 percent, although four medical groups (HealthPartners Central Minnesota Clinics, Essentia Health, Park Nicollet Health Services, and Entira Family Clinics) achieved rates above 50 percent for this measure.

Two medical groups (HealthPartners Clinics and Park Nicollet Health Services) achieved rates above the statewide average for all eight depression measures included in the report, and an additional four medical groups (Entira Family Clinics, Essentia Health, HealthPartners Central Minnesota Clinics, and Mankato Clinic) achieved above average rates on seven of the eight measures.

“The MN Community Measurement report is a powerful illustration of how mental health outcomes are significantly lagging behind physical health,” said Deb Krause, Vice President of the Minnesota Health Action Group. “The Mental Health Guiding Coalition formed by The Action Group is one example of

how these data will be used to drive collaboration that will identify gaps, disseminate best practices, and drive shared accountability to accelerate improvements in depression care and increase the number of people who are getting better.”

Avoiding Overuse of Antibiotics

When someone takes antibiotics that are not medically necessary, it can cause negative side effects and lead to antibiotic resistance, one of the most urgent threats to the public’s health. Fortunately, avoiding antibiotic treatment in adults with acute bronchitis, which is a measure aimed at avoiding overuse of antibiotics, improved from 35.8 percent to 45.5 percent, with gains occurring broadly across many medical groups.

Medical groups’ performance on this measure ranged from 9.0 percent to 91.6 percent, indicating that there is substantial room for improvement. The highest performing medical groups for this measure were MinuteClinic, Hutchinson Health, Winona Health Services, Park Nicollet Health Services, and HealthPartners Clinics. The largest gains in this measure were recorded by Mankato Clinic, CentraCare Health, and Apple Valley Medical Clinic.

New in 2020

New to this year’s public reporting by medical group is a measure of osteoporosis management in women who have had a fracture. MN Community Measurement (MNCM) decided to add this measure in 2018 in response to evidence that Minnesota’s performance on this measure was lagging the nation. The statewide average for this measure is 31.5 percent.

High Performing Medical Groups

The report recognizes nine medical groups that achieved high performance on at least 50 percent of the measures for which they were eligible. These medical groups are:

• Central Pediatrics

• Entira Family Clinics

• Essentia Health

• HealthPartners Central Minnesota Clinics

• HealthPartners Clinics

• Mankato Clinic

• Park Nicollet Health Services

• South Lake Pediatrics

• Wayzata Children’s Clinic

“Our patients expect and deserve top quality care,” said Andrea Walsh, president and CEO, HealthPartners. “These results reflect the hard work of many clinicians and care teams, and a strong culture of respect, collaboration and systematic, evidence-based support for our patients and families. We are proud of our HealthPartners and Park Nicollet results and the physicians and care teams that earned them. And, we are constantly looking for ways to better serve our patients and we use MNCM’s independent review to help guide our improvements.”

Importance of Measurement

Measuring and reporting on health care quality is important because it helps consumers know how care varies across providers, helps providers to understand how their measures compare to others and where

their biggest improvement opportunities are, and helps health plans and other purchasers better understand and improve value for money that is spent on health care.

“Minnesota is really unique in the nation in the capabilities that we’ve built to measure and report on health care outcomes,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President. “The measures that we’re using are really important in terms of preventing and managing disease to get the best possible health outcomes. There continues to be wide variation on most measures, which shows that there is still a lot of opportunity for improvement.”

About MN Community Measurement

Contact: Raya Zimmerman

zimmerman@neuger.com

612-664-0716

Encouraging Signs Observed in Depression Care Follow Up and Avoiding Overuse of Antibiotics

February 12, 2020

Posted in Press Release

Cost of Health Care Accelerated in 2018 for Minnesotans with Private Health Insurance

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 15:50:00 GMT

MN Community Measurement’s annual health care cost report highlights cost in Minnesota

Contact: Raya Zimmerman zimmerman@neuger.com 612-664-0716

MINNEAPOLIS – November 7, 2019 – MN Community Measurement (MNCM) has released its annual report on health care cost and utilization to better inform the public about Minnesota’s health care landscape. The report highlights health care cost trends and drivers of cost growth throughout the state of Minnesota and includes data that consumers, employers, and others can use to compare costs of different providers.

In 2018, the total cost of care for commercially insured patients in Minnesota increased by 5.9 percent to $596 per patient per month. After slowing to 2.0 percent growth in 2017, cost growth in 2018 returned to previous levels driven by higher growth in professional services, hospital outpatient services, and prescription drug costs.

There continues to be a large difference in the total cost of care across medical groups. Medical group costs ranged from $429 to $1,096 per patient per month, after accounting for patient complexity. Reasons for the difference across medical groups include prices and the amount and type of care provided, with price being a stronger factor.

For the first time this year, MNCM was able to analyze variation in total cost of care by region of the state. The region is defined by where the patient lives, not where they received care. The total cost of care varies across regions from $505 to $797 per patient per month on a risk-adjusted basis.

Julie Sonier, President of MNCM, said the organization’s goal in collecting and sharing this information is twofold. “First, we aim to shed light on health care cost variation and the factors driving overall cost. We want to draw public attention to these issues that affect health care affordability in Minnesota,” said Sonier. “Second, we share the information with the public to support more informed choices in our very complicated health care system.”

In addition to the report, medical group level data on total cost of care and prices for individual services are published on MNCM’s consumer website, www.mnhealthscores.org .

Employers and consumers have a big stake in better understanding variation in health care costs and how data can be used to improve affordability. According to the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker, total health spending on behalf of a family of four with health insurance from a large employer exceeded $22,000 in 2018. Of this amount, employers paid over $15,000 (66 percent), while families paid over $4,700 in premiums and an additional $3,000 for out-of-pocket costs.

Bentley Graves, Director of Health Care and Transportation Policy for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, said MNCM continues to provide vital information about health care costs in Minnesota.

“Employers and their employees know that health care costs are high and moving continually higher,” said Graves. “This report identifies where employers, consumers, policymakers, and other stakeholders need to focus their collective attention to tackle this trend: the price of services, the significant variations in costs, and the growing divergence between commercial and government reimbursements. Once again, MN Community Measurement has done its job in bringing this important data forward. Now it’s up to all of us to act on it.”

The report includes data from an analysis of health care costs for Minnesotans who have private health insurance. The analysis in this report is based on claims data for 2018 from the four health plans with the largest commercially insured patient populations in Minnesota: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners, Medica Health Plans, and PreferredOne. The analysis includes the actual costs of 1.6 million patients and total spending of more than $10 billion in calendar year 2018.

Deb Krause, Vice President of the Minnesota Health Action Group, also commented on MNCM’s report.

“Data transparency is a key component of a high-functioning health care marketplace,” said Krause. “But ongoing collaboration by health plans and other health care stakeholders is needed to make that data actionable so together, we can begin to influence the cost of care for those who write the checks for care across the state.”

To view the report, click here: https://mncm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2019-cost-and-utilization-chartbook.pdf . MN Community Measurement is an independent nonprofit dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. MNCM works with doctors, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, employers, and state agencies to collect, analyze, and share health care data to drive ongoing improvements in quality and cost. Learn more at www.mncm.org

Cost of Health Care Accelerated in 2018 for Minnesotans with Private Health Insurance

November 7, 2019

Posted in Press Release

Minnesota Disparities Reports Highlight Gaps in Quality Measures by Insurance Type and by Race, Ethnicity, Language and Country of Origin

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 15:48:00 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS – APRIL 17, 2019 – MN Community Measurement (MNCM), an independent nonprofit organization that empowers health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement, has released two reports that present information on disparities by insurance type and by race, ethnicity, language, and country of origin data for measures collected by MNCM in 2018, including online appendices with comparisons by medical group and clinic.

Disparities by Insurance Type

The report “2018 Minnesota Health Care Disparities by Insurance Type” summarizes quality measures for patients enrolled in Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) and makes comparisons by insurance type. It also highlights high performing medical groups for the MHCP patient population. This report focuses on the managed care components of Minnesota’s Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare programs. As enrollment in these programs continues to increase, the “2018 Minnesota Health Care Disparities by Insurance Type” helps the state and health care providers identify opportunities to improve health care and health outcomes for people served by state programs. The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) contracts with MNCM to produce the report.

Key Findings

Statewide MHCP rates for the quality measures included in the report are consistently and significantly lower than other insurance types. The gap between MHCP and other insurance types has significantly narrowed over time for four measures but widened for two measures. One notable trend is that colorectal cancer screening for MHCP patients has increased by over eight percentage points since 2011.

“The annual disparities report helps highlight the need to continue efforts to advance equity in our state and achieve the goals of One Minnesota,” says DHS Commissioner Tony Lourey. “DHS embraces the role that we can play and is committed to building on the work with our partners and communities to reduce disparities and help ensure equitable health outcomes for all Minnesotans.”

Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, Language and Country of Origin

The report “2018 Minnesota Health Care Disparities by Race, Hispanic Ethnicity, Language and Country of Origin” features statewide and medical group performance rates stratified by race, Hispanic ethnicity, preferred language, and country of origin. In Minnesota, communities of color experience significantly higher rates of chronic and infectious diseases, illnesses, and premature death. According to the Minnesota State Demographic Center, populations of color are expected to continue to increase faster than the white non-Hispanic population, increasing to 25 percent of the total state population by 2035. As a result, the current challenge of addressing health disparities will become even more important over time.

Key Findings

This report illustrates that the range of quality measure results (lowest to highest) by preferred language has narrowed over time for colorectal cancer screening and for adolescent mental health and/or depression screening (see pages 19 and 21 of the report). In general, quality measures for American Indian, African American, and Hispanic Minnesotans are significantly below the statewide rate on most measures. For most measures, people who speak Hmong, Karen, Somali, and Spanish have rates that are significantly below the statewide average.

“Minnesota is unique in having this data that help us to identify disparities in health care quality measures,” says MN Community Measurement President Julie Sonier. “Understanding disparities is a necessary first step toward addressing them effectively. Monitoring disparities over time also gives us the ability to celebrate progress like the significant increases in colorectal cancer screening for African American patients.”

About MN Community Measurement

Minnesota Disparities Reports Highlight Gaps in Quality Measures by Insurance Type and by Race, Ethnicity, Language and Country of Origin

April 17, 2019

Posted in Press Release

Minnesota Health Care Quality Report Highlights High Performing Medical Groups, Statewide Room for Improvement

Thu, 28 Feb 2019 15:40:00 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS – February 28, 2019 – MN Community Measurement (MNCM), an independent nonprofit organization that empowers health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement, has released a report highlighting quality measures for health care provided by medical groups across Minnesota. The “2018 Minnesota Health Care Quality Report,” presents data collected by MNCM, including an online appendix with comparisons by medical group and clinic. Several medical groups are recognized for achieving high performance on at least 50 percent of the measures for which they were eligible.

Addition of New Statewide Analysis

MNCM added a new statewide analysis showing that substantial gains could be achieved if performance on quality measures was raised to a benchmark level defined by current high performers. An example of this is illustrated with the average rate for colorectal cancer screening. The current statewide average rate for colorectal cancer screening is 71 percent; however, the benchmark is at 75 percent. Another example is outlined in optimal asthma control for children. The statewide average is 58 percent, with the benchmark at 71 percent. For these examples, if all medical groups achieved the benchmark levels, over 54,000 more patients would be screened for colorectal cancer and over 9,000 more children would have their asthma under control. (See report, page 8.)

“The benchmark analysis illustrates the potential impact of raising statewide performance to the current level of groups with highest performance,” says MN Community Measurement President Julie Sonier. “However, for some measures – such as the measures for depression care – the current benchmarks are low, which calls attention to the need for improvement across the board to get better health outcomes for Minnesotans.”

High Performing Medical Groups

The report recognizes eight primary care or multi-specialty medical groups that have achieved high performance on at least 50 percent of the measures for which they were eligible. These medical groups are:

Allina Health
Entira Family Clinics
Essentia Health
HealthPartners Clinics
Mankato Clinic
Mayo Clinic
Park Nicollet Health Services
Stillwater Medical Group

High Performing Pediatric Groups

The report also recognizes four pediatric groups that achieved high performance on at least 50 percent of the pediatric measures for which they were eligible. These pediatric groups are:

Central Pediatrics
Fridley Children’s and Teenagers’ Medical Center
South Lake Pediatrics
Wayzata Children’s Clinic

South Lake Pediatrics Chief Medical Director Michael Garvis, M.D., says, “We have seen steady and consistent improvement and have continued to make small changes along the way, as new suggestions or best practices have surfaced. This has resulted in excellent vaccination rates, as well as low emergency room and hospitalization rates for asthma and mental health patients. We have also been able to intervene with our chronic patients with the consistency of our care coordinators who focus on our mental health, chronic asthma, developmentally challenged, and medically complex patients.”

Showing Consistent Improvement

Ten medical groups demonstrated consistent improvement on multiple measures over time. Consistent improvement is defined as having at least a two-percentage point increase each year since 2016. Medical groups showing consistent improvement include:

Cuyuna Regional Medical Center
Entira Family Clinics
Fairview Mesaba Clinics
HealthEast Clinics
Hutchinson Health
Lakewood Health System
Mayo Clinic
Park Nicollet Health Services
Ridgeview Sibley Medical Center
Sanford Health – Sioux Falls Region

Lakewood Health System, located in central Minnesota, and Park Nicollet Health Services, achieved consistent improvement on five measures since 2016.

“At Lakewood, we use all available resources including our internal data, state, county, and even our local schools to help improve the health of the communities we serve,” says Lakewood Chief Medical Officer John Halfen. “Having this information is crucial and allows us to put strategies in place through our care teams, education, and systems changes, which can directly impact those areas needing improvement. In doing this, we have seen an immediate benefit to our population health which the long-term viability of our system is dependent on.”

About MN Community Measurement

Minnesota Health Care Quality Report Highlights High Performing Medical Groups, Statewide Room for Improvement

February 28, 2019

Posted in Press Release

MN Community Measurement Releases Report on Quality of Care for Chronic Conditions

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 15:36:00 GMT

New report highlights opportunities to improve care statewide

MINNEAPOLIS – December 19, 2018 – MN Community Measurement (MNCM) has released a new report highlighting quality of care for chronic conditions. The report, “Quality of Care for Chronic Conditions,” presents data collected by MNCM in 2018 on quality measures for chronic disease care, including comparisons by medical group and clinic.

Key Findings of the Report While Minnesota has some of the best health indicators in the country, measurement results show a pattern of wide variation in health care quality overall and significantly different outcomes among some patient populations. Key findings of the report include:

Statewide results for all chronic condition measures have been relatively stable over the last three years but show continued room for improvement. See page 8 of the report.
Rates are, on average, significantly better for patients with chronic conditions who live in metro areas. For example, patients with asthma who live in small town or rural areas have the lowest rates. See page 10 of the report.
In general, measures of how well chronic conditions are managed mostly improve with age. For example, the highest rates occur among people age 60 and older with ischemic vascular disease. See page 11 of the report
Outcome rates vary by race and Hispanic ethnicity. In general, rates for diabetes vascular and asthma are lower for American Indians, African Americans, and Hispanics. See page 13 of the report.

The report also presents results by gender and language.

The measures were developed or selected for their potential to reduce the modifiable risks and complications associated with these conditions. National and state statistics illustrate the need for improvement in care.

Roughly 151 million adults in the United States are physically, emotionally, and financially affected by chronic disease.
60 percent of adults in the United States have a chronic disease and 40 percent of adults have two or more. This number is predicted to increase rapidly in future years.
Chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, or cancer are leading causes of death and disability in the United States.
In Minnesota, those diagnosed with chronic conditions accounted for 83 percent of all medical spending in the state in 2012, with an average of $12,800 in health care spending per person.

Although statewide rates have been relatively stable, the report also illustrates substantial variation across health care providers (page 9 of the report). MN Community Measurement President Julie Sonier says, “The reason we do this work is to provide health care decision makers with information that can be used to improve health outcomes. Many health care providers in Minnesota have been very successful in this effort, and we should look to spread these stories of success.”

Measurement Matters

Andrea Walsh, president and chief executive officer of HealthPartners, one of the highest performing medical groups across most measures in Minnesota, says that data drives progress. “High quality care doesn’t just happen. It’s a continual process that’s guided by data to drive improvement and innovation across our system so that we can better serve patients,” she explains. “This report recognizes the work we’ve done to improve treatment of chronic conditions and pushes us to do better, especially our focus in reducing health disparities among diverse racial and ethnic communities.”

About MN Community Measurement

MN Community Measurement is a nonprofit organization that empowers health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2003, MNCM works with doctors, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and state agencies to collect, analyze, and report health care data related to quality, cost, and patient experience. Learn more at www.mncm.org .

MN Community Measurement Releases Report on Quality of Care for Chronic Conditions

December 19, 2018

Posted in Press Release

New Report Highlights Progress in Depression Care

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 15:26:00 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS – October 29, 2018 – MN Community Measurement (MNCM), an independent nonprofit organization that empowers health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement, has released a report titled “Depression Care in Minnesota.” The report marks the first in MNCM’s new topical report series and highlights progress that has been made in identifying and caring for depression among adults and adolescents in Minnesota. MNCM has been collecting and publishing data on depression outcomes since 2009.

Depression affects millions of individuals across the United States, regardless of geography, age, gender, or race. The outcome measures in this report reflect over 110,000 adult patients in Minnesota whose depression screening indicated the need for treatment. “Depression Care in Minnesota” helps to shine a light on the work that is being done to identify and treat depression and also illustrates the need for improvement in care. The full report can be viewed at www.mncm.org/depressionreport2018 .

Main Findings

Key findings of MNCM’s “Depression Care in Minnesota” report reveal that depression remission and response rates remain relatively low, and improvement has been slow. Analysts point out that one reason for this is that many patients with depression aren’t receiving the necessary follow-up assessment, and missed follow-up affects the rates for all outcome measures.

Despite low statewide average rates of depression remission and response, there are noteworthy bright spots with several medical groups and clinics achieving significantly better outcomes. In using data to help improve their efforts and taking innovative approaches to make improvements in follow-up communication, a handful of medical groups received a top rating on the Depression Remission at 12 Months outcome measure. These medical groups are Entira Family Clinics, Essentia Health, Park Nicollet Health Services, HealthPartners Clinics, and Grand Itasca.

For adolescents, mental health and/or depression screening rates have significantly improved since 2015 and have shown considerable improvement every year. Most medical groups in Minnesota are now administering a depression screening tool to their adolescent patients at well- child visits. Because screening for depression and other mental health issues was not consistently occurring in the adolescent population previously, it was selected as a focus for measurement in Minnesota. Beginning in 2020, MNCM’s data collection for depression outcomes will be extended to include adolescents.

President of MN Community Measurement, Julie Sonier, says, “There’s absolutely no question that the mental health of our community deserves our attention. We’ve collaborated with a range of stakeholders to develop measures that matter most to improve patient outcomes in depression care. Our outcome measures purposefully focus on the need for follow-up because depression is an isolating condition and our community strongly felt that it was through that follow-up that providers could have

the most impact. While we’ve seen slow progress, the data is showing us what’s possible and will inform us and motivate us to move forward and improve our systems of care.”

Common Condition Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States. According to a study conducted by MNCM in 2015, nearly 10 percent of Minnesota adolescents who were screened for depression or other mental health conditions, screened positively. The National Institute of Mental Health reported in 2016 that over 16 million adults in the US (seven percent), experienced at least one episode of major depression in the past year. The large number of adult patients with this chronic episodic condition has a widespread effect on the workplace. A survey conducted by Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index reports that annually, U.S. workers diagnosed with depression miss an additional 68 million days, or an additional 4.6 days per individual diagnosed with depression as compared to workers who have never been diagnosed with depression. This loss of productivity is estimated at more than $23 billion per year.

Moving Forward

In order to provide depression care beyond a screening, health clinics and medical groups will need to adjust their procedures. Entira has championed the use of MNCM’s measure data in its care and has seen measured results.

Entira Family Clinics Medical Doctor Tim Hernandez notes, “Of all the metrics that we are being measured on through MNCM, the depression remission measure has had the greatest impact on changing our care delivery. In order to be successful, one has to develop strategies to reach out to patients between visits. People who are struggling with mental health problems need between visit care perhaps more than people with other medical conditions. Finally, as we begin to manage adolescents who suffer with depression, we have had to use different strategies, such as texting, to reach different generations. The care coordination program that we developed for the depression remission measure became the foundation for our Health Care Home.”

Essentia has instilled new practices to ensure patients’ depression care doesn’t end with a screening, resulting in steadfast improvements to their follow-up care.

Essentia Health Medical Doctor Joe Bianco says, “We have worked hard at Essentia Health to promote best practices in the diagnosis of depression and its monitoring. Our principles of team- based care have allowed us to share the work of patient monitoring across the team. We engaged in a process improvement project to be proactive in outreaching to patients at six and 12 months. We have now centralized that process to serve the entire organization. Performance data is fully transparent to a provider and team level and is part of the Clinical Quality Dashboard which is updated weekly. By close monitoring we can follow-up with our patients in a more comprehensive and timely manner in order to address the complexity of treating depression.”

The dedication and innovation from medical groups like Entira Family Clinics and Essentia Health demonstrate the importance and impact of measurement and focused attention to improve patient outcomes.

About MN Community Measurement

MN Community Measurement is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2003, MNCM works with doctors, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and state agencies to collect, analyze, and report health care data related to quality, cost, and patient experience. Learn more at www.mncm.org .

New Report Highlights Progress in Depression Care

October 29, 2018

Posted in Press Release

MN Community Measurement and DHS Release Health Care Report Highlighting Disparities

Mon, 02 Apr 2018 15:17:00 GMT

Report compares care delivered to patients with public and private insurance.

Contact: Rachel Enerson, Neuger Communications Group enerson@neuger.com, 612-664-0700 (office) or 507-696-9207 (cell)

MINNEAPOLIS, MN [April 2, 2018] – MN Community Measurement (MNCM), an independent non-profit organization that collects and reports health care data to drive statewide system improvement, today released the 2017 Health Care Disparities Report with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS). The report shows significant room for improvement in closing health care gaps for patients enrolled in state health plans.

The Health Care Disparities Report provides health care performance rates for patients enrolled in the managed care component of Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP), including Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare. As enrollment in these programs continues to increase, the Health Care Disparities Report helps the state and health care providers identify opportunities to improve health care and health outcomes for people served by state programs. DHS contracts with MNCM to produce the report.

Overall, patients enrolled in MHCP managed care received cancer screenings and immunizations less frequently than Minnesotans who have private or employer-based health insurance. Performance rates and health outcomes for MHCP patients who have asthma, depression or diabetes are also worse than privately insured patients. MHCP patients, when compared with the overall population of the state, are of lower socioeconomic status, include a disproportionate number of persons of color, and often experience barriers to care.

“The latest Health Care Disparities Report calls for community-wide action to ensure everyone has the opportunity to be healthy and get the care they need,” said Acting Human Services Commissioner Chuck Johnson. “This is the eleventh year of the report and, over time, statewide gaps in the care delivered to low-income Minnesotans have continued to narrow. We are hopeful that initiatives like the Integrated Health Partnerships – which encourage providers to work with one another and community organizations to address barriers to health – will continue to reduce the disparities identified in this report.”

This annual report reveals considerable disparities, highlighting three measures with the largest gaps – Childhood Immunization Status, Breast Cancer Screening and Colorectal Cancer Screening. The report includes medical group and clinic level results for 11 measures, as well as analysis by race/ethnicity and region.

Childhood Immunizations

Childhood Immunization Status rates, an updated measure this year, had a gap of 23 percentage points between patients with MHCP and other purchasers. This was the largest gap for any measure in this year’s report.

“While we can’t yet see trends for this Childhood Immunization measure, this large gap in childhood immunization rates between MHCP patients and others points to a need for close attention,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President. “Immunizations by age two are vital to childhood health.”

Vaccination is safe, effective and can protect children from serious illness. Vaccine-preventable diseases are still a threat, resulting in hospitalizations and deaths every year. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, approximately 300 children in the United States die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Eight medical groups had above average Childhood Immunization Status rates for MHCP patients, with HealthEast Clinics having the highest rate at 59 percent.

Disparities in Cancer Screenings

Colorectal Cancer Screening and Breast Cancer Screening also had large gaps in this year’s Health Care Disparities Report . There was a 20-percentage point gap between MHCP adult patients and patients with other insurance for Breast Cancer Screening and a 19-percentage point gap for Colorectal Cancer Screening.

The American Cancer Society website has specific recommendations for cancer screenings and guidelines for early detection of cancer. These cancer measures have had consistent gaps for many years between MHCP patients and patients with other forms of insurance.

Despite the gaps, MHCP patients have seen improved health outcomes in many areas measured since the first Health Care Disparities Report was issued over 10 years ago. Since 2011, for example, nearly 9,700 more MHCP patients have been screened for colorectal cancer.

Medical Group Highlights

There were five medical groups with above average ratings for the MHCP population in all three measures (Childhood Immunization Status, Breast Cancer Screening and Colorectal Cancer Screening):

Allina Health
CentraCare Health
HealthPartners Clinics
Mankato Clinic, Ltd.
Mayo Clinic

“Progress is being made, but gaps in many of these areas still exist,” said Sonier. “It’s encouraging to see improvements over time. As a community, we all have a role to play in closing these gaps and making sure that disparities between MHCP patients and patients with other types of insurance are diminished.”

For the full list of medical groups and more information on these measures, view the report online at https://mncm.org/health-care-disparities-report/ .

MNCM Report Release, April 2, 2018 2017 Health Care Disparities Report , Page 3

About the Health Care Disparities Report

In 2016, more than 900,000 Minnesotans received health care coverage through Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare programs overseen by the Department of Human Services (DHS). MNCM has partnered with DHS to produce the Health Care Disparities Report since 2007. This report supplies objective, transparent data that can be used to evaluate performance and identify improvement opportunities. To view the full report, visit: https://mncm.org/health-care-disparities-report/ .

About MN Community Measurement

MN Community Measurement is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving health by publicly reporting health care information. A trusted source of health care data and public reporting on quality, cost and patient experience since 2003, MNCM works with medical groups, health plans, employers, consumers and state agencies to spur quality improvement, reduce health care costs and maximize value. Learn more at MNCM.org .

MN Community Measurement and DHS Release Health Care Report Highlighting Disparities

April 2, 2018

Posted in Press Release

Health Care Quality Report Highlights Improvements in Care

Thu, 15 Feb 2018 23:36:00 GMT

Contact: Rachel Enerson, Neuger Communications Group enerson@neuger.com , 612-664-0700 (office) or 507-696-9207 (cell)

[EMBARGOED UNTIL 12:01AM, 02.15.18: MNCM 2017 Health Care Quality Report Release]

[February 15, 2018] MN Community Measurement (MNCM), an independent non-profit organization that collects and reports health care data to drive statewide system improvement, today released its 2017 Health Care Quality Report. This 14th annual report provides data related to preventive and chronic care comparing statewide, regional, medical group and clinic performance.

A highlight of this year’s analysis is improvement in quality measures related to mental health. The rate of Adolescent Depression and/or Mental Health Screening increased by nine percentage points since last year’s report, from 64 to 73 percent. Since 2015, the rate for this measure has improved 33 percentage points resulting in over 45,000 more adolescents across Minnesota receiving screening for depression during this time period.

Improvements were also seen in measures for adult depression care follow-up and outcomes. Depression is a common and treatable mental disorder. According to a recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NCHS), it is estimated that over 8 percent of American adults had an episode of major depression in a given two week period. MNCM’s suite of depression measures was developed to increase follow-up and improve depression outcomes.

This year’s report shows improvement in three of the depression measures:

The depression follow-up rate at 12 months increased by nearly five percentage points, from 22.8 to 27.3 percent
The depression response rate at 12 months (fewer symptoms after starting treatment) improved by nearly two percentage points, from nine to 11 percent
The depression remission rate at 12 months (no symptoms or very few symptoms after starting treatment) improved by over one percentage point, from five to six percent. This represents over 5,800 patients with depression symptoms in remission.

Entira Family Clinics – West St. Paul had the top depression follow-up rate at 69 percent, the top response rate at 44 percent and the top remission rate at 39 percent.

These improvements reflect better follow-up with patients and improved communication between patients and their primary care providers, and between primary care providers and behavioral health providers. Most importantly, these numbers reflect overall better outcomes for patients with depression.

“We still have a long way to go, but it’s encouraging to see progress in screening, follow-up and outcomes for depression,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President. “While the statewide improvements may appear small, they reflect tangible improvements for real people with a very challenging chronic disease. The most important news is that the hard work of follow-up is showing progress, and patients are benefiting with improved depression outcomes. The fact that all of these measures are trending upward shows that Minnesota health care providers’ efforts in this area are paying off.”

Other notable improvements in quality measures and trends over time included:

In the Colorectal Cancer Screening measure, the rate has increased nine percentage points since 2011 from 64 percent to 73 percent representing over 116,000 more patients being screened for colorectal cancer. Three medical groups had colorectal cancer screening rates at 90 percent or higher: Obstetrics, Gynecology and Infertility – Maple Grove, CentraCare Health Plaza – Internal Medicine and Catalyst Medical Clinic in Watertown.
Since 2012, the rate for adolescent immunization increased 33 percentage points from 53 to 86 percent. This means that 9,400 more adolescents in Minnesota received recommended immunizations (one dose of meningococcal vaccine and one tetanus, diphtheria toxoids and acellular pertussis vaccine) before their thirteenth birthday. Wayzata Children’s Clinic and Southdale Pediatrics Associates had the top adolescent immunization rate at 98 percent.

The report also highlights fifteen medical groups with consistent high performance on three or more quality measures over three years and 17 medical groups with consistent improvement on three or more quality measures over the same time period.

To read the full report and explore other measures statewide, visit mncm.org/health-care-quality-report . The annual report is a compilation of all quality measures publicly reported by MNCM during the year. Individual clinic and medical group results are available at MNHealthScores.org and updated as new data become available.

MNCM’s goal with the Health Care Quality Report and other initiatives is to provide reliable information to support both quality improvement in the medical community and health care transparency with the public. According to the 2017 Price Transparency and Physician Quality Report Card from Altarum Institute and Catalyst for Payment Reform, Minnesota was one of only two states that earned an “A” for our outstanding work in physician quality websites through MNHealthScores.org . About MN Community Measurement MN Community Measurement is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving health by publicly reporting health care information. A trusted source of health care data and public reporting on quality, cost and patient experience since 2003, MNCM works with medical groups, health plans, employers, consumers and state agencies to spur quality improvement, reduce health care costs and maximize value. Learn more at MNCM.org and MNHealthScores.org .

Health Care Quality Report Highlights Improvements in Care

February 15, 2018

Posted in Press Release

Equity Report Highlights Continued Gaps in Health Care Outcomes in Minnesota

Thu, 11 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Contact: Brian Strub, MNCM Communications strub@mncm.org, 612-454-4827, 651-341-5692

[EMBARGOED UNTIL 12:01AM, 01.11.18: MNCM 2017 Health Equity of Care Report Release]

[January 11, 2018] A new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM) provides a unique source of information on disparities in health care outcomes by race, ethnicity, language and country of origin. The report includes data for 12 measures reported to MNCM in 2017 with analysis at the statewide, regional and medical group levels, and features interviews that highlight efforts to reduce the gaps in outcomes especially for populations of color in Minnesota.

“Our data show that outcomes for chronic disease and preventive care screening rates vary substantially by race, ethnicity, language and country of origin,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President. “It is important to highlight these differences so that we can raise awareness, focus resources on reducing these inequities and track progress.”

New in the 2017 Health Equity of Care Report is trending information on the Colorectal Cancer Screening measure. The statewide colorectal cancer screening rate was 70 percent in 2014 and 73 percent in 2017. Examined by race, ethnicity, preferred language and country of origin, colorectal cancer screening is trending up for most groups. The largest increase was among patients whose preferred language is Spanish; for this group, the screening rate increased from 44 percent in 2014 to 54 percent in 2017. This represents over 2,200 more Spanish- speaking people in Minnesota getting screened for colorectal cancer.

Much of this progress can be attributed in part to local and national coordinated efforts by primary care clinicians, community organizers, cancer coalitions and others – all focusing on a shared public health goal of reaching an ambitious 80 percent screening rate for colorectal cancer. The National Colorectal Cancer Screening Roundtable leads this effort with a strong emphasis on health equity. In fact, Hispanics are a priority audience due to their low screening rates and African Americans are a priority audience due to their high incidence of colorectal cancer. One of the key messages that resonates with these audiences is that there are several screening options available, including simple take-home options. They are also encouraged to talk with their doctor about getting screened.

“It is good news that we’re making gains in colorectal cancer screening rates for most groups,” said Sonier. “However, we still have large disparities between groups that indicate the need for sustained efforts to reduce the gaps.”

The 2017 report also includes survey data that show variations in patient experience across population groups. One finding is that African American patients rated their experiences above average in four out of five patient experience categories, yet had below average results for five out of seven clinical quality measures. In contrast, despite mostly higher than average clinical quality measure outcomes, Asian patients evaluated their experience of care below the statewide average in all five categories.

“These differences highlight the fact that health care quality is multidimensional,” said Sonier. “It’s hard to know exactly why patient experience and clinical quality diverge for some population groups, but it’s our goal that these data will be used by health care providers and others to better understand the gaps and identify opportunities for improvement.”

The report includes several stories highlighting ways that these data are being used for improvement.

MNCM’s data by race, ethnicity, language and country of origin are a valuable resource that resulted from years of collaborative work to define these elements and validate best practices for collecting them. The report features information on seven clinical quality measures:

Adolescent Mental Health and/or Depression Screening
Pediatric Preventive Care: Overweight Counseling
Optimal Diabetes Care
Optimal Vascular Care
Optimal Asthma Care for Adults
Optimal Asthma Care for Children
Colorectal Cancer

The patient experience ratings include the following five categories, in terms of whether patients:

Got care when needed (“Access to Care”)
Received understandable information and instructions (“Provider Communication”)
Received coordinated care defined by how often providers knew patient’s medical history, gave results of tests and asked about medications (“Care Coordination”)
Experienced courteous and helpful office staff (“Office Staff”)
Were satisfied with their provider (“Provider Rating”)

About Us

Equity Report Highlights Continued Gaps in Health Care Outcomes in Minnesota

January 11, 2018

Posted in Press Release