Follow-Up After Hospitalization for Mental Illness (FUH)
The percentage of discharges for patients 6 years of age and older who were hospitalized for treatment of selected mental illness diagnoses and who had a follow-up visit with a mental health practitioner. Two rates are submitted:
• The percentage of discharges for which the patient received follow-up within 30 days after discharge.
• The percentage of discharges for which the patient received follow-up within 7 days after discharge.
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Group/Practice
Individual Clinician
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Health Plan
Measure Info
The PMC does not support this measure at either the clinician or group levels, finding the measure not valid. The PMC supports this measure at the health plan level, finding the measure valid. While the PMC agrees with the importance of the measure, there is concern with access to ambulatory mental health in the community, particularly rural communities, and therefore do not support it at the clinician or group levels. Additionally, this measure has not been tested at the level of the clinician or group and therefore more data are needed to apply it to any clinician or group, regardless of the specialty. It would be appropriate to apply it at the level of the health plan and may incentivize health plans to support efforts to increase the supply of mental health providers in communities. This is a measure that would be applicable to mental health practitioners but not internists and the PMC recommend advocating for its removal from the internal medicine specialty set for MIPS.