August 19, 2026. Now in UAT for Blues: Hospital Quality Measures (HQM) & HCAHPS in Quality Measures
For Blues customers, we've expanded the Quality Measures section to include Hospital Quality Measures (HQM) and HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) Patient Experience data, giving members a fuller picture of hospital quality right on the profile page.
What's New:
Hospital Quality Measures (HQM): Members can see how a hospital performs on national clinical safety and quality benchmarks, including infection rates and outcomes for specific conditions, shown as a simple comparison to the national benchmark (Meets Expectations, Below Expectations, Above Expectations). Measures included:
Cesarean Birth
Risk Adjusted Severe Obstetric Complications (All)
Risk Adjusted Severe Obstetric Complications (excluding blood-transfusion-only cases)
HCAHPS Patient Experience: Members can now see real patient feedback on communication, cleanliness, and overall hospital experience, shown as an easy-to-read star rating. Measures included:
Overall Patient Rating
Total Value Based Performance for the HCAHPS Domain
Nurses always communicated well
Doctors always communicated well
Patients always received help as soon as they wanted
Staff always explained
Patients who "Agree" they understood their care when they left the hospital
Always quiet at night
Room was always clean
One combined view: HQM and HCAHPS both display within the Quality Measures section at the bottom of a profile page, so members see clinical quality data and real patient feedback together in one place.
Profile page showing the Quality Measures section with HQM and HCAHPS displayed together:
Before this update, members had limited visibility into hospital quality and no access to real patient experience data. With HQM and HCAHPS now included, members get trusted, nationally-benchmarked information alongside authentic patient feedback, helping them choose care with more confidence.
Not every hospital will display every measure listed above. HQM and HCAHPS measures only display when we receive data for that specific measure at that hospital, so the measures shown will vary by hospital.
Impacted Customers: This update applies to all Blues customers and will be auto-on in UAT starting August 19, 2026. This update is targeted to be auto-on in Production for all Blues customers on August 27, 2026.
/ Compliance
August 17, 2026. Now in Production: MRF Service Code Consolidation We've released Service Code Consolidation for Machine-Readable Files (MRF), reducing file size and improving processing speed without changing any underlying pricing data.
What's Changed:
Consolidated duplicate records: Records that previously appeared separately due to differing service settings, but shared identical pricing and provider attributes, are now merged into a single record.
Preserved data integrity: All pricing, provider, and billing code information is retained exactly as before. No negotiated rates, provider networks, or billing codes are affected.
Smart consolidation logic: When records qualify for merging, we assign the appropriate consolidated service code representation (for example, "both" when applicable across settings). Records with any pricing differences remain separate.
Before this update, identical negotiated rates associated with different service code settings generated separate MRF records. This created redundant data and inflated file sizes, even though the underlying pricing hadn't changed. With consolidation logic in place, MRF files are now smaller, faster to download and process, and easier to consume, while maintaining full CMS compliance and alignment with April 2026 CMS guidance.
This update is auto-on and live in Production for all Health Plan afflilates who download MRFs.
/ Ask Conversational AI
August 19, 2026. Coming Soon! Ask Enhancements: Smarter Filtering, Location Handling, and Faster Responses
We've made several improvements to Ask, our conversational search experience, to help members find the right care faster and with fewer unexpected results.
What's New:
Smarter Filtering: Ask now more accurately recognizes when a member has clearly asked for a specific filter, like a PCP or quality designation, instead of adding it automatically based on assumptions. This means search results better reflect what members asked for.
Improved Location Handling: Ask better resolves ambiguous city names, like Portland, OR versus Portland, ME, using context from the conversation. When the ambiguity can't be confidently resolved, Ask will ask a quick follow-up question instead of guessing.
Expanded Keyword Recognition: Ask now recognizes a broader set of common terms, including telehealth and primary care related keywords, and routes members to the right results more reliably.
Faster Responses: Ask now begins displaying results and response text as they're generated, so members see progress sooner instead of waiting for the full response to load.
Filter Prioritization Fix: Resolved an issue where Ask's intended filter order wasn't being applied consistently, so results are now filtered in the correct sequence. This means members see more relevant results when a search could reasonably match more than one filter type.
Before these updates, Ask would sometimes apply filters members hadn't asked for, misinterpret ambiguous locations, and require members to wait for the entire response before seeing any results. These changes make Ask's search behavior more predictable, and responses feel more immediate.
These enhancements are part of our ongoing investment in Ask. We're continuing to refine areas like keyword recognition, location handling, and response speed, and members can expect Ask to keep getting better as we build on this foundation.
This update is coming soon. It will be available in UAT on August 27, 2026, and in Production for all customers with Ask on September 10, 2026.
/ Reminder: CMS Medicare Plan Finder Information Sessions
Join our upcoming information session on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, where we'll go deeper into the technical requirements and compliance steps your team needs before the Production cutover onFriday, September 18, 2026.
Next Session Details:
Date: Wednesday, September 9th
Time: 3:00 PM EST | 12:00 PM PST
Topic: Phase II CMS Medicare Plan Finder Info Session
Join our product and customer success experts on Wednesday, September 16th at 12:00 PM PST | 3:00 PM EST for our monthly Health Plan Roundtable to hear about upcoming enhancements, roadmap highlights, and opportunities.
