One-Time Screening for Hepatitis C Virus for Patients at Risk

Percentage of patients aged 18 years and older with one or more of the following: a history of injection drug use, receipt of a blood transfusion prior to 1992, receiving maintenance hemodialysis, OR birthdate in the years 1945-1965 who received one-time screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Date Reviewed: November 19, 2017
Support
    Group/Practice Individual Clinician

Measure Info

MIPS 400 NQF 3059e CMS 400 NQF Endorsed
Measure Type
Process
Measure Steward
Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement
Clinical Topic Area
Hepatitis C
Care Setting
Outpatient
Data Source
Registry

ACP supports QPP measure 400: "One-Time Screening for Hepatitis C Virus for Patients at Risk” because a performance gap exists, it is important to screen for HCV in patients at risk because it is a treatable disease, the measure aligns with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on screening for HCV in patients at risk, and the measure specifications include appropriate exclusion criteria. Additionally, the USPSTF found little evidence on the harms of screening for HCV. While the measure is clearly specified, clinicians may encounter interoperability barriers to patient information retrieval. Also, while we support this measure, we suggest the measure developers re-assess the benefit of screening all patients included in the denominator population during the measure update, particularly patients born in the years 1945-1965.