Annually, the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA), a division of Health and Human Services (HHS), releases Uniform Data Systems (UDS) results on health center performance for all Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Each federally funded health center must submit a comprehensive set of demographic and performance data to HRSA. Dr. Dan Otero, HMS CEO, completed a short comparative analysis of New Mexico FQHCs specific to access, cost of care, and quality of care. Hidalgo Medical Services (HMS) demonstrated strong performance.

This short study compared the five-year total unduplicated patients served from 2018 to 2022. The study's design, regarding patient access and the number of patients served, is to compare changes over the five-year period, and to compare the non-pandemic years against pandemic and post-pandemic years. There are 16 - 330 Grantee FQHCs in New Mexico, and the change from 2018 to 2022 for all health centers demonstrated a decrease in patients served from a high of -37.0% reduction to an increase of 15.3% with an average change of -9.6%, and a median change of -9.1%. Hidalgo Medical Services experienced a -8.0% decrease in unduplicated patients. The actual number of Hidalgo Medical Services patients served from 2018 to 2022 decreased from 16,385 to 15,067. Eight (8) N.M. health centers experienced a higher reduction of unduplicated patients served over the five years, three (3) health centers experienced a lower reduction, and four (4) experienced an increase in the number of patients served. HMS Ranked 8th out of 16 health centers on patient access with a reduction of unique patients of -8.0%.

The study analyzed the change in total cost of care per patient over the five years, 2018-2022. With the 16 New Mexico health centers, the high was an increase in the cost of care of 84.4%, with one health center decreasing its cost of care by -8.8%. For all New Mexico health centers, the average cost of care increase per patient was 34.0%, with a median increase of 25.4%. Hidalgo Medical Services experienced a 19.2% increase in the cost of care per patient. 11 N.M. health centers experienced a higher increase in the cost of care per patient, and four (4) experienced a lower increase when compared to Hidalgo Medical Services. HMS ranked 5th out of 16 health centers on the cost of care per patient, with an increase of 19.2%.

The next outcome assessed for New Mexico health centers was noted changes in Clinical Quality Measures (CQM) over the five-year period. The methodology utilized to assess CQM changes required a computation of composite scores. Average composite scores were calculated by averaging performance levels across all measures published by HRSA (data.HRSA.gov, 2023) for a health center for each year of the study. This methodology provided a year-to-year composite result based on the HRSA final published data, allowing for yearly comparisons (the number of UDS measures reported each year may vary by health center). As noted by HRSA's Health Center Program Uniform Data System (UDS) Footnotes, “’-‘Data cannot be calculated or has been suppressed for confidentiality purposes” (data.HRSA.gov, 2023). Additionally, within the published data, “Cells that are shaded blue cells represent data that was either not reported or null values” (data.HRSA.gov, 2023). One health center decreased its CQM composite by -39.42% and one health center improving its CQM results by 21.06%. The average decrease in UDS measures for all health centers was -17.70% and a median reduction of -16.91%. Hidalgo Medical Services experienced a decrease of -14.06%, which is better than nine (9) New Mexico health centers. Six (6) of the health centers performed better than Hidalgo Medical Services. HMS ranked 7th out of 16 health centers, with a decrease in the quality of care composite by -14.06%.

The final CQM composite score analysis performed was to rank performance by health center specific to results for the most recent year, 2022. The health center with the highest composite score performed at 66.97%, with the lowest score at 32.31%. The 2022 CQM composite score average was 52.23% and a median of 53.54%. Hidalgo Medical Services composite score for 2022 was 60.84%, outperforming 11 health centers and four (4) performing better than HMS. HMS ranked 5th out of 16 health centers on the quality of care composite at 60.8%.

U.S. citizens were negatively impacted due to the pandemic and its aftereffects. FQHCs along with non-community health center healthcare systems across the country, were also significantly negatively impacted over the last few years. This analysis clearly shows that HMS performed very well comparatively and continues to demonstrate improvement. We thank our HMS family for their work and ongoing commitment to serving our communities.

HMS is a Federally Qualified Health Center Grantee under 42 USC 245b and a deemed Public Health employee under 42 USC 233 (g)-(n). Visit HMS at http://hms-nm.org or call 575-800-1HMS.

References
data.HRSA.gov (2023). Health Center Program Uniform Data System (UDS) Data Overview. New Mexico Program Awardee Data. https://data.hrsa.gov/tools/data-reporting/program-
data?type=AWARDEE&state=NM