Moving Toward Equity in Asthma Care

Moving Toward Equity in Asthma Care

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is committed to achieving health equity in asthma outcomes with diverse populations. As part of this commitment, we offer an online training course, Moving Toward Equity in Asthma Care. This course is accessible from any mobile device or computer and provides one continuing medical education credit at no cost to you. Visit mydiversepatients.com to access the course. 

Asthma Medication Ratio (AMR) HEDIS measure 

HEDIS^® is a widely used set of performance measures developed and maintained by National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). These are used to drive improvement efforts surrounding best practices. 

NCQA is also working to identify and reduce disparities in care. As part of this effort, race and ethnicity stratifications were added to the AMR HEDIS metric this year. The AMR metric measures the percentage of members 5 to 64 years of age who were identified as having persistent asthma and had a ratio of controller medications to total asthma medications of 0.5 or greater during the measurement year.

Did you know: 

• Hispanics and African Americans with asthma are less likely to take daily controllers and are more likely to visit the ER and be hospitalized for asthma-related conditions than non-Hispanic whites? ¹
• Asian Americans are more likely to die from asthma than non-Hispanic whites?² 
• Appropriate medication management for patients with asthma could reduce the need for rescue medication — as well as the costs associated with ER visits, inpatient admissions, and missed days of work or school?³

Helpful tips:  

• Ensure at least half of the medications dispensed to treat asthma are controller medications throughout the measurement period. 
• Ensure the patients understand the importance of controller medications and not using rescue medications on a regular basis unless part of the asthma action plan.  
• Make sure patients have access to their medications and inquire if their scripts are not being filled to ensure proper use of medications.
• Create a written asthma action plan in language the patient understands, and schedule follow-up appointments to assess asthma control, adherence to the action plan, and identify triggers. 
• Utilize evidence-based asthma assessment tools to assess asthma control, adherence to the action plan, and identify triggers. 
• Take the Moving Toward Equity in Asthma Care CME course at no cost for more helpful tips.

Additional resources 

The Asthma & Me training is also available. Do your patients have asthma? Show them the pathophysiology of asthma in their preferred language.

References:

1. Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America & National Pharmaceutical Council. (2005). Ethnic Disparities in the Burden and Treatment of Asthma. Retrieved from http://www.aafa.org/media/Ethnic-Disparities-Burden-Treatment-Asthma-Report.pdf
2. U.S. Department of Health & Human Service, Office of Minority Health. (2016, May 9). Asthma and Asian Americans. Retrieved August 8, 2016, from https://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/
3. Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. (2020). Asthma Disparities in America: A Roadmap to Reducing Burden on Racial and Ethnic Minorities. Retrieved from: https://aafa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/asthma-disparities-in-america-burden-on-racial-ethnic-minorities.pdf