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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is looking to improve its data in ways that contribute to a fairer healthcare system, including continuing the development of equity scores and refining the Health Equity Summary Score, as well as addressing bias in various tools and methods.
The CMS Framework for Health Equity outlines this approach, and the agency said it recognizes that “increasing the collection of standardized sociodemographic and social determinants of health (SDOH) data across the healthcare industry is an important first step towards improving population health.”
To strengthen and improve the accuracy of enrollee health equity data, CMS has enhanced the collection of data elements across its programs, including limited collection of SDOH data or Health-Related Social Needs (HRSN) data.
For example, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Model included a mandatory HRSN screener, which includes items such as housing instability, food insecurity and transportation needs, and CMS has mandated the future collection of new health equity-related data elements in post-acute care (PAC) settings, such as skilled nursing facilities, with information including race, ethnicity, transportation, social isolation, health literacy and preferred language.