Mount Carmel Health Partners HEDIS Tip Sheets | Page 7

HEDIS Tip Sheet   

Annual Monitoring for Patients on Persistent Medications:
Diuretics  

Definition: Percentage of members 18 years of age and older who received at least 180 treatment days of
ambulatory medication therapy for a diuretic during the measurement period and at least one therapeutic
monitoring event within the measurement period.
Service Needed: At least one serum potassium and serum creatinine during the measurement period. Either a lab
panel test (Chem7, Chem14, CMP, BMP) or serum creatinine and serum potassium meet the guideline.
Exclusions: Hospice care in measurement year.
Chart Review Tips:
• Diuretics can be found in the “Medications” section of the chart or noted in the recent office visit/progress note.
• Serum creatinine and serum potassium levels can be found in the “Lab” section of the chart.
Member Outreach Tips:
• Ask patients if they are taking (or have been prescribed) a diuretic (some patients will call these “water pills”), the
name of the medication, and how long they have been taking it before asking if they have had any lab tests.
• If patients have not had their potassium and creatinine levels checked within the last year, ask them to schedule
an appointment with their PCP to have this scheduled. More than likely, this would be their annual preventive
visit.
Supplemental Data Tips
• There should be little need for supplemental data for this measure because the potassium and creatinine values
are not needed to meet the measure; in other words, a simple claim that the tests were done is sufficient.
• The serum creatinine and serum potassium tests do not need to be on the same day, only within the
measurement period.
• It is very common for diuretics to be found in combination with hypertension medications.
• A patient may switch with any medication on the Diuretics list during the measurement year
Loop diuretics:
Bumex (bemetanide)
Lasix (furosemide) Demadex (torsemide) Edecrin (ethacrynic acid)
Dyrenium (triamterene) Inspra (eplerenone) Midamor (amiloride)
Aquatensen, Enduron (methychlothiazide) Diuril (chlorothiazide) Microzide (hydrochlorothiazide [HCTZ} Thalitone (chlorthalidone)
Mykrox, Zaroxolyn (metolazone) Lozol (indapamide)
Potassium-sparing diuretics:
Aldactone (spironolactone)
Thiazide diuretics:
7