The UDS Test Cooperative (UTC) is a voluntary group of representatives from health centers, Primary Care Associations (PCAs), Health Center Control Networks (HCCNs), National Training and Technical Assistance Partners (NTTAPs), and Health Information Technology (HIT) vendors.
The UTC tests proposed innovations to the UDS and helps BPHC better understand how these changes might affect health centers. The results and recommendations from these tests inform decisions on implementing and scaling innovations across the Health Center Program as part of the UDS Modernization Initiative.
The benefits of supporting the UTC include:
- Finding ways to reduce reporting burden.
- More clearly defining services and diagnoses.
- Making data collection and submission more automated.
- Improving ability to show Health Center Program impacts.
Goals
The UDS Test Cooperative aims to:
- Pilot innovations before scaling innovations to assess their implementation feasibility.
- Engage a range of UDS stakeholders to ensure that input on UDS modernization efforts are being considered from diverse perspectives (e.g., health centers representing different geographic locations, sizes, and EHR systems).
- Ensure that UDS stakeholders are actively involved in identifying and testing new UDS innovations.
Current activities
The primary UTC test participants are the health centers, who may partner with PCAs and HCCNs to conduct testing. Health centers work with vendors to set up testing infrastructure, as needed.
HRSA continues to seek UTC volunteers to engage in UDS+ proof of concept and testing activities, including receiving endpoints that support Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®), using the most recent version of the FHIR® Implementation Guide (IG). The IG will provide architectural details and technical reporting specifications for UDS+.
Health centers will also test the servers’ functionality and ability to receive comprehensible UDS+ data files. Additionally, these tests will be used to ensure the accuracy and validity of UDS+ data elements.
If your organization or HIT vendor is interested in volunteering to be a UDS+ tester, please communicate you interest to HRSA using the BPHC Contact Form. Select Uniform Data System (UDS), UDS Modernization, How To Join the UDS Test Cooperative.
Past activities
The UDS Test Cooperative has:
- Tested the feasibility and impact of aligning the UDS with electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs).
- Determined whether reported UDS CQM performance is meaningfully influenced by including non-routine patients and visits in CQM data.
- Explored the feasibility and impact of leveraging health data standards to define countable visits
- Tested the feasibility and impact of leveraging heath data standards to define diagnosis and service codes in Table 6A.
Operations
Steering Committee: The UTC has been led by a Steering Committee of representatives from each of the ten U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regions. The UTC Steering Committee is a subset of UTC participants and represents entities that have formal relationships with the Health Resources and Services Administration.
UTC Steering Committee membership is based on the following criteria:
- Organization type: Health Center Program grantees and look-alikes, Primary Care Associations, and Health Center Controlled Networks
- Organizational characteristics: geographic location, size, patient populations served, and health information technology capacity
Health Center Program Community (HCPC): Stakeholder engagement with health centers, PCAs, HCCNs, and NTTAPs is also facilitated through the HCPC on BPHC’s Salesforce platform, which includes a UDS+ page with:
- UDS+ updates and announcements
- Calendar of UDS+ events and links to scheduled UTC meetings
- Archived UTC meeting presentations and recordings
- Training and technical assistance resources and opportunities
Learn more
- Contact us through the BPHC Contact Form if your organization or HIT vendor is interested in joining the UTC or volunteering to be a UDS+ tester. Select Uniform Data System (UDS), UDS Modernization, How To Join the UDS Test Cooperative.
- If your organization is a health center, PCA, HCCN, or NTTAP, access to the HCPC may be requested by submitting a ticket through the BPHC Contact Form. Select Uniform Data System (UDS), UDS Modernization, How To Join the UDS Test Cooperative.
- Subscribe to the Primary Care Digest for updates about UDS modernization efforts.