Under proposed requirements issued last week, all health plans seeking accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance will be required to report on the quality of care delivered to patients. NCQA said it will now evaluate preferred provider organizations on the same set of standards, clinical measures, and patient experience ratings (Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set and Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) that it uses to evaluate health maintenance organizations and point-of-service plans so that consumers and purchasers can make objective comparisons among different types of health plans. NCQA also proposes to increase the weight of HEDIS and CAHPS scores from the current one-third of the score a health plan needs to become accredited to 50% beginning in 2008. NCQA’s public comment period will last through March 30. Final standards will be released in July of this year and take effect on July 1, 2008. Read the news release.
