Psychological interventions for chronic headache

Measure Purpose: Promote psychological or bio-behavioral interventions for the multi-disciplinary management of chronic headache

The numerator: Patients > 8 years of age who have been counseled to seek a behavioral health evaluation or are referred for psychological or bio-behavioral interventions* to manage chronic headache*

*See full specifications for additional details

is divided by

The denominator: Patients > 8 years of age diagnosed with chronic headache without severe or profound intellectual disability who are not currently under the care of a psychologist

Exceptions are removed from the denominator for:

• Patient/caregiver refuse

Key Phrases

Key phrases you should use to meet this measure include:

• Patient counseled about psychological interventions 
• Patient counseled about bio-behavioral interventions
• Patient counseled to seek a behavioral health evaluation

Measure Calculation Example

Dr. Gutierrez saw 75 patients over the age of eight for chronic headache care from January 1 to December 31 of the measurement year. This is the denominator. 12 patients refused counseling on psychological interventions. These patients are removed from the denominator.

Of the remaining 63 patients, 15 were counseled to seek a behavioral health evaluation. This is the numerator.

Quality of care = 15/(75-12). Dr. Gutierrez has a score of 23% for this measure.