As we head into Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month this March, we want to highlight some of the quality gaps in care tools aimed at informing equitable care for our members that were introduced in 2023.

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are among the most widely recognized factors that influence disparities in cancer prevention, detection, and treatment. Because equitable care delivery to all Rhode Islanders is so central to our values, BCBSRI has added several SDOH identifiers to the monthly quality gap in care (GIC) reporting to provide valuable insight into some of our most at-risk members.

Health equity data has been added to the far-right columns of the GIC reports (columns AX through BB) for each member. Please note that Medicare members will show in Disability, Dual_CMS_Eligible, RI_DSNP_Eligible, LIS_Eligible, and Combination.

• Race: The race assigned to a member.
• Ethnicity: The ethnicity assigned to a member.
• Disability:Member is identified to have a disability. 
• Dual_CMS_Eligible:Members eligible to be in Dual CMS population.
• RI_DSNP_Eligible:Subset of Dual CMS population; in Rhode Island DSNP population.
• LIS_Eligible:Members who are eligible low income status.
• Combo:Members who are eligible for LIS_Eligible and Disability.

The addition of these health equity indicators is aimed at supporting providers in the effort to improve equitable care delivery across our network.

For any questions related to these new data elements, please contact the BCBSRI Quality Concierge Team at QualityHEDIS@bcbsri.org