Building blocks for measuring care coordination with claims data

Tools to measure care coordination are needed to evaluate federal, state, and private sector efforts encouraging coordination to improve health outcomes and contain costs. Administrative data are a rich source of data for studying the use of medical services, thus allowing for measurement of patient level, provider level, and system measures of care coordination. Based on a review the literature and input from an expert panel, this article describes 4 key components - building blocks - of care coordination and corresponding measures. These building blocks should have utility across clinical conditions. They may be used to test hypotheses about the impact of coordinated care on medication utilization, adherence to medications, and clinical outcomes.