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"Patient Characteristic, Payer"

Performance/Reporting Period
2028
QDM Datatype (QDM Version 5.6):

Data elements that meet criteria using this datatype should document that the patient has one or more of the payers indicated by the QDM category and its corresponding value set.

Timing:

The relevantPeriod addresses:

  • startTime – the first day of insurance coverage with the referenced payer.
  • stopTime – the last day of insurance coverage with the referenced payer.
QDM Datatype and Definition

Individual Characteristic

Individual Characteristic represents specific factors about a patient, clinician, provider, or facility. Included are demographics, behavioral factors, social or cultural factors, available resources, and preferences. Behaviors reference responses or actions that affect (either positively or negatively) health or healthcare. Included in this category are mental health issues, adherence issues unrelated to other factors or resources often referenced as social determinants of health. Social/cultural factors are characteristics of an individual related to family/caregiver support, education, and literacy (including health literacy), primary language, cultural beliefs (including health beliefs), persistent life stressors, spiritual and religious beliefs, immigration status, and history of abuse or neglect. Resources are means available to a patient to meet health and healthcare needs, which might include caregiver support, insurance coverage, financial resources, and community resources to which the patient is already connected and from which the patient is receiving benefit. Preferences are choices made by patients and their caregivers relative to options for care or treatment (including scheduling, care experience, and meeting of personal health goals) and the sharing and disclosure of their health information.
Data Elements defined by this QDM Datatype:
["Patient Characteristic, Payer": "Payer Type"]
QDM Attributes

code

The single code or a member of the value set used to represent the quality data element. The code attribute explicitly specifies the value set (or DRC) filter such that the query will retrieve only values defined by the QDM data element value or value set. Previous versions of QDM datatypes implicitly refer to attributes about a set of items that are included in a value set.

  • All QDM data elements require a QDM datatype with either a value set or DRC to specify the data element and a code is required.
  • If the QDM data element’s attribute specifies a value set or DRC, the code attribute is required.
  • If the QDM data element’s attribute does not specify a value set or DRC, the code attribute is not required.

Earlier versions did not explicitly state that the datatype attributes only refer to a specific item that is a member of the defined value set. The code is applied in the CQL Model Info16 used to translate the CQL into the Expression Logical Model (ELM) to enhance computer readability. Measure developers do not need to specify any additional code.

iD

The identifier of a specific instance of any QDM data element. CQL logic uses the id reference to specify that a query expects a specific instance of an element to be retrieved.

See Section 5.8 for examples for using id to indicate specific instances of QDM data elements in CQL statements with the relatedTo attribute.

relevantPeriod

relevantPeriod addresses the time between the start of an action to the end of an action. Each QDM datatype using relevantPeriod defines specific definitions for the start and stop time for the action listed.

Note: negation rationale indicates a one-time documentation of a reason an activity is not performed. Negation of QDM datatype-related actions for a reason always use the author dateTime attribute to reference timing and must not use relevantPeriod

Last Updated: Jul 28, 2026

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