The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is pleased to announce the release of Screening and Follow-Up for Unhealthy Alcohol Use: Quality Improvement Change Package for Health Plans, a toolkit to help health plans address unhealthy alcohol use among their members and improve reporting of the HEDIS alcohol measure using electronic clinical data. This Change Package was developed with funding from SAMHSA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in collaboration with the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
This Change Package is rich with evidence-based practices, successful strategies, and resources from a three-year Learning Collaborative involving five health plans. This toolkit specifically includes guidance for reporting the HEDIS alcohol measure using Electronic Clinical Data Systems (ECDS), examples of effective quality improvement tools, and strategies for improving measure performance from health plan innovators in ECDS reporting.
