Metrics Corner: Child & Adolescent Well-Care Visits November 20, 2024 Oregon Health Authority (OHA) incentive metrics are performance measures used to evaluate and incentivize health care providers and organizations. The purpose of the metrics is to measure the quality of healthcare services the members we serve receive including how it improves health outcomes and enhances patient care and experience. We want to help you understand these measures and why they are important so you can better navigate the various OHA metrics. In the edition, we’ll take a look at the metric for Child & Adolescent Well-Care Visits. These visits are critical to ensuring the physical, emotional and developmental health of young people. A well-care visit typically includes a routine health screening, immunizations as needed, preventive health counseling, and a mental health assessment. For 2024 and 2025, the metric measures the percentage of children ages 3 to 6 who have had one or more well-child visits during the measurement year. These visits are telehealth eligible. The provider does not have to be the child’s PCP, but the provider must be a PCP as defined by Oregon’s Primary Care Provider Types or an OB/GYN practitioner. Tips for meeting this metric include: Develop a practice workflow for well-child visits in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth years of life. Define this workflow for providers, care managers, nurses, medical assistants and front office staff. Consider multiple forms of communication to reach your patients. Monitor child utilization on an ongoing basis to identify children in need of well-child visits. Have your staff generate reports. Conduct outreach strategies with families. Develop and improve process for identification of patients to address gaps in care. Mail birthday cards and include reminders of annual assessments such as well-child visit. Reschedule missed appointments. Check your IHN-CCO Gap List often to see patients with open care opportunities. Identify and address the financial, cultural, transportation and social barriers to well-child visits. Visit our IHN-CCO metrics webpage to learn more. If you need additional assistance or support, contact Susan Esparza at [email protected].
