Do you have time for a Quality Minute?

This is another article in our ongoing series of quick tips designed to be read in 60 seconds or less and provide your practice with information about performance in key areas.

Kidney health evaluation for patients with diabetes

To help close the diabetes care HEDIS^® measure, follow these tips for a kidney health evaluation:

• For patients 18 to 85 years of age with diabetes, complete both an eGFR (blood) and uACR (urine) test.
• The uACR component can be satisfied by ordering a quantitative urine albumin test (*82043) and a urine creatinine test (*82570) less than four days apart or a urine albumin creatine ratio (uACR) lab test. There isn’t a CPT code for uACR. This test is reported through LOINC codes.
• If your practice performs in-office testing, determine what kind of analyzer you use and the type of urine albumin test being performed. Some analyzers only measure semi-quantitative urine albumin, which are reported using different codes and will not close gaps.
• Chronic kidney disease is classified using both the eGFR and uACR to appropriately assign a stage. CKD can be diagnosed if there is evidence of decreased kidney function (eGFR), kidney damage (elevated uACR) or both for at least three months. It is important to use the appropriate ICD-10 code to classify CKD severity and avoid using CKD unspecified codes, when possible.

For more information, refer to the Kidney Health Evaluation for Patients with Diabetes tip sheet or 2024 Kidney Health Evaluation for Patients with Diabetes Network Performance Improvement presentation. Here’s how to find them.

1. Log in to our provider portal (availity.com).**
2. Click on Payer Spaces on the menu bar and then click on the BCBSM and BCN logo.
3. Click on the Resources tab.
4. Click on Secure Provider Resources (Blue Cross and BCN).
5. Click on Member Care on the menu bar and then click on Clinical Quality and Tip Sheets for the tip sheet or Clinical Quality Overview for the presentation.

**Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan doesn’t own or control this website.

HEDIS^®, which stands for Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set, is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance, or NCQA.